Over the Counter (OTC) Hearing Aids Explained

Hi, I’m Anne Marie Egan from Now Hear This©, and today I’d like to talk to you about the recent FDA approval of over-the-counter hearing aids and what that even means.

On August 16th, 2022, the FDA established a new category of hearing aids—over-the-counter (OTC) hearing aids. These are to be sold as regulated devices to adults with perceived mild to moderate hearing loss. We recommend a diagnostic hearing test for those who think they have mild to moderate hearing loss before purchasing over-the-counter devices in case they are inappropriate for their hearing loss.

The Hearing Aid Fitting Process

Hi, I’m Dr. Egan at Now Hear This, and today I’m going to talk to you a little bit about the typical hearing aid fitting process and timeline. This is one of our most asked questions, so I thought it would be good to break this down for you today, as there are several different components that go into the successful fitting and adaptation to wearing and benefitting from hearing aids. The most important thing is how the hearing aids are programmed, and we will talk a little more about that later on.

Experiment and Review: Self-Fitting Over the Counter Hearing Devices

Follow Along as We Review the Effectiveness of Self-Fitting, Over-the-Counter Hearing Aids.

Hi, I’m Dr. Egan, and today we are going to do a little bit of an experiment with some over-the-counter sound amplifiers. Our Patient Care Coordinator, Nathalie, has agreed to be part of the experiment.

If you look at her recent hearing test, she actually has a mild to moderate low-frequency hearing loss in both of her ears, but more so in her right ear. Because she falls into that mild to moderate category—where over-the-counter hearing aids will hopefully be an option—we thought she would be the perfect person to test out these sound amplifiers. That’s what we’re going to walk through next.

BOSE Self-fitting hearing aids review by Dr. Egan

Dr. Egan Reviews BOSE Sound Control Hearing Aids

Hi, I’m Dr. Egan with Now Hear This. Today I want to talk to you a little bit about Bose Self-Fitting Hearing Aids.

We have had a lot of questions about this, so we conducted a thorough investigation. All the staff at our clinic tried a set of the Bose Sound Control hearing aids. These are the first FDA-cleared hearing aids that you can self-fit, meaning you can just buy them online, which is exciting. If someone is the right fit for these, it makes hearing aids much more accessible and affordable. However, these are only for people with mild to moderate hearing loss.

Understanding Different Hearing Aid Power Options

Hi, this is Dr. Egan from Now Hear This, and today I want to talk to you about different kinds of hearing aid chargers. Nowadays, pretty much every hearing aid company offers both battery-powered and rechargeable models.