If you see the logo of an advertising hearing aid store while driving in town, you may be delaying these specialized storefronts buying them is the only way to buy them. Not so. In 2022, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration paved the way for hearing aids sold over the counter, meaning consumers now have a wide variety of stores from which they can buy these devices.
If you do choose to visit a retail audiology center (whether it’s in a strip mall or a small storefront in a more official medical office), you’ll start the process with a medical test where audiology will physically examine your ears and then test your hearing in a professional room. This listening test takes about 15 minutes and involves listening to different frequencies and amounts of ping. Once done, the audiologist uses this diagram to create a hearing map called Audiogram, which in turn is used to program prescription hearing aids, which, on the surface, will then be sold to you. Audiologists can later adjust the hearing aid settings over time if you need additional support.
If you choose to abandon this process and buy high-end hearing aids from your retail channel, you will miss your physical examination, but you may still have access to hearing tests delivered online or through the app. With these tests, you first purchase the hearing aid of your choice. Once they are installed in the ears, they can be programmed with similar tests and pinged through the AIDS you just purchased. The resulting audiograms are usually very accurate compared to those created by audiologists. Like prescription aids, hearing aid companies often have audiologists on their employees, and over time, they can adjust settings remotely.
Many cheaper hearing aids (at the $300 price level) usually do not include such hearing testing techniques, or if so, they can exist in a more limited way. Users leave their devices to program them as their preferences.
