I find it interesting when a patient has tried and compared different hearing aids and given us a comparison report. I recently had a patient in our Zephyrhills office seeking hearing aids. He was new to prescription fitted hearing aids. He had used Eargo over the counter (OTC) hearing aids and then was fitted with a trial of Oticon Intent 1 hearing aids from another practice. His complaints circled around understanding speech in background noise and being able to hear the grandchildren riding in the backseat of the car.
I fit him with Starkey Omega AI 24 hearing aids. Upon follow up, he commented on several things. He reported the Starkey Omegas to be a more natural sounding hearing aid. He also stated that hearing in background noise was better with the Omegas. The final thing he noted was that he was able to understand his grandchildren in the backseat more clearly with the Starkey Omegas than either the Eargo or the Oticon Intent hearing aids. This was very important to him and one of the deciding factors to keep the Omega hearing aids. His satisfaction was likely due to the DNN 360 Directionality that is in the Omega hearing aids. Per Starkey, this feature allows the hearing aids to process audio from all directions to focus on voices while still being aware of the surrounding environment and sounds. Historically hearing aids would try to focus on what was in front of you while suppressing sound from the side and back. This was always a challenge in the car, when you wanted to be able to hear the person in the backseat.
The other thing of interest to me was his choice over the Eargo OTC hearing aids. While he has a mild to moderate hearing loss that OTC hearing aids are designed for, he saw the benefit of wearing hearing aids that were prescription fitted to his hearing loss. Although the prescription fitted hearing aids cost more than the OTC ones, they provided a significantly greater improvement in the quality of his life.
While there is no one brand of major hearing aid manufacturer that is better than the others, there may be features offered by one that are better suited to your lifestyle and needs. Gardner Audiology providers will test your hearing and consider your lifestyle and budget when recommending which hearing aid would likely be your best option.
