Hearing Aids Come of Age

Regular use of hearing aids can decrease feelings of social isolation and loneliness, which is especially important for older men and women, reports the San Diego Union Tribune . Still, the National Institute on Deafness reports that less than 30 percent of people over 70 who could benefit from hearing aids have actually used them. Senior San Diego resident Maureen Arrigo says even with the advances and increased comfort of modern hearing aid technology, "hearing aids can't bring you normalized hearing as well as eye glasses can bring you normalized vision." Affordability — or lack thereof — is another factor, with AARP estimating that the cost for prescription hearing aids is about $2,400 per ear on average. The Senate's passage of the Over-the-Counter Hearing Aid Act allowed the U.S. Food and Drug Administration to create an OTC class of hearing aids that could be purchased at pharmacies, online, and in stores. San Diego audiologist Linda Oliver has witnessed dramatic advances in the technology — she notes that whereas earlier models had to be manually adjusted by doctors for optimal sound, today's digitized models can be calibrated remotely with computers and an iPhone connection. Oliver adds that it is critical that a hearing aid is properly fitted and programmed to the wearer's ear. "I highly recommend having services that go along with the hearing aid," she says. "You can have a very expensive hearing aid that is not programmed properly, or you can have an inexpensive hearing aid that is programmed properly and function quite well."