What Is an OTC Hearing Aid?
An over-the-counter (OTC) hearing aid is akin to a pair of “readers” glasses you can buy at the grocery store—it’s a ready-made device to address hearing loss at a fraction of the cost compared to prescription options.
However, like most one-size-fits-all (or more realistically one-size-fits-none) approaches, an OTC approach may not be the best option for your hearing needs.
Let’s start with a few facts that have widespread agreement throughout the industry and in every corner of the country:
- The adoption rate of hearing aids is very poor (adoption meaning the percentage of people who can benefit from hearing technology who are actually utilizing hearing technology). Studies put hearing aid adoption in America around 35 percent. That number has stayed rather consistent for the better part of 30 years.
- The #1 modifiable risk factor for cognitive decline happens to be untreated hearing loss. Treating hearing loss earlier is much better for the patient and much better for society as a whole—preventing problems upstream is a lot cheaper than fixing problems downstream.
The federal government correctly identified the problem and realized we can save huge amounts of societal costs if more people would simply wear hearing aids—and we’d have to agree!
However, the federal government totally missed the diagnosis of “why” hearing aid adoption rates are so low.
The federal government argued—and wanted the public to believe—that if hearing aids were only cheaper, then more people would adopt them. This placed the hearing aid industry firmly in the spot of the villain. Everyone likes a good villain, right?
However, the federal government was flawed in its thinking for several reasons:
1. Low-Cost Options
Low-cost hearing technology has been available since hearing aids became commercially available. Prior to the OTC category, there were already low-cost options available.
2. Price Elasticity of Demand
Every scientific article about the price of hearing aids comes to the same conclusion: Hearing aids have a very inelastic price. What that means is altering the price in one direction or another only marginally changes the demand for the product. Essentially, if you want hearing aids, you'll pay what you must; if you don't want hearing aids, you won't use them even if they're free.
3. Comparative Analysis
If the federal government looked at other countries where hearing aids are free, like England, it would have found the adoption rate of hearing aids is roughly 40 percent. Which is virtually identical to America, where you must pay out of pocket for them. So, again, even when hearing aids are FREE people don't want to wear them.
OTC – A Success Story?
Not exactly.
Since OTC devices became available in 2022, the adoption rate has remained identical to prior to launch of OTC hearing devices. As you can see, if the goal of OTC hearing aids was to save society money by increasing hearing aid adoption rates, offering a low-cost solution was doomed to failure from the start.
Over-the-counter hearing aids have their place in the market, and an accessible option is long overdue—but the reasoning that the government offered to push for their release was incorrect and unfair to the hearing aid industry.
FAQs
about OTC
Hearing Aids
Can’t find what you’re looking for?
Are OTC Hearing Aids a Good Option for Me?
OTC devices are a much-needed addition to the amplification lineup; just like how you can walk into any drug store and purchase OTC readers glasses, you should be able to acquire a low-cost alternative to prescriptive hearing aids.
OTC hearing aids are a great beginner option, as they get you primed before you’re ready for a prescriptive set. If you’re struggling in conversations but have borderline normal hearing or mild high-frequency hearing loss, an OTC device would be a great option. If you’re not ready to commit to full-time usage of prescriptive hearing aids or only want to wear devices in a certain environment (e.g., only for watching TV), an OTC device would be a great option for you as well.
However, we do want to be clear: Just like we’ve never encountered a person who said their OTC glasses are better than their prescriptive glasses (because they are not), OTC hearing aids are not as good as prescriptive hearing aids.
Yes, OTC devices will always be cheaper than a prescriptive option, but cheaper never means better.
Are There Risks in Using OTC Hearing Aids?
The greatest risk in using OTC hearing aids is the potential that an underlying health condition is going undiagnosed.
Undiagnosed medical issues like tinnitus, cognitive decline, balance disorders, and more can have a serious long-term and permanent impact on your hearing and your overall health.
The best way to avoid this would be to see a local Audiologist for a full work-up of your ears and hearing before purchasing an OTC hearing aid. Going straight to a solution without first understanding the problem is always a recipe for disaster.
Another concern is your money-back guarantee: Make sure you have one and it’s in writing somewhere.
Additionally, if you do not find success with an OTC hearing aid, that does not automatically mean you will be unsatisfied with a prescriptive device, too. In fact, the success rate with prescriptive hearing aids with our team is over 90 percent!
Does Visalia Hearing Center Offer OTC Hearing Aids?
Our philosophy is to focus our energies on patients who value professional services, interactions, and relationships. Therefore, Visalia Hearing Center has made the choice to focus our energies on prescriptive hearing aid options.
The entire goal of any OTC offering is to lower the cost of the product by removing the professional from the equation. OTC options are the epitome of the do-it-yourself approach.
OTC devices are priced much lower than prescriptive hearing aids because there is no professional component included; the devices are preprogrammed to address hearing challenges, but you do not receive professional guidance along the way.
You can rest assured that with Visalia Hearing Center, you won’t be on your hearing health journey alone. Our team of professionals is in your corner for every step of the way.
I Purchased an OTC Hearing Aid Online and It's Not Working Too Well. Can You Assess My Devices and Improve Their Functionality for Me?
I’d like to say we’ve never heard this question, but it’s something that we hear fairly often. If your experiences with OTC (or any internet-based) hearing aids is going so poorly that you’re looking for a local expert for a remedy, you probably have the wrong solution.
If you are still within the return window, we would highly recommend you get your money back—and then find a local hearing care expert whom you trust and follow their guidance and advice.
If you’re past the return window, we can work with you to a certain extent.
For example, we can educate you on proper use and care of your devices, review various insertion techniques, counsel on realistic expectations, and discuss communication repair strategies. If the coupling of your devices is wrong, we can correct that. If your ears are dirty, we can clean them. We can even analyze the effectiveness of the amplification—using real-ear verification we can quantify how much benefit you’re actually getting.
What we can’t do, which is what would typically lead to the results you’re looking for, is make any programming or processing adjustments. This is one of the key differences that make a prescriptive device prescriptive and an OTC device OTC: OTC devices are programmed to fit a specific hearing loss level and cannot be changed.
I Can Adjust My OTC Devices With the Accompanying Smartphone App. What Do You Mean You Can't Make Adjustments?
OTC hearing aids are locked devices that only the manufacturer of the device can, if possible, make adjustments.
Therefore, we cannot go “behind the scenes” and alter/improve/adjust the way the OTC hearing aid processes sound.
For those who are curious, when Audiologists talk about adjusting how prescriptive hearing aids process sound, we are talking about compression ratios, frequency lowering technology, expansion, attack and release times, MPO settings, microphone modes, polar plots, etc., in addition to frequency shaping the output based off your hearing test results.
Prescriptive hearing aids give us a lot of tools to play around with behind the scenes that are just not adjustable with OTC devices.
Put another way, we would not be able to make any changes that you could not make on your own.
You Keep Saying My OTC Devices Are Not Personalized to Me, but I Took a Hearing Test on My Smartphone and My OTC Hearing Aid App Told Me That My Devices Are Personalized to Me. What Are You Talking About?
Yes, you take a pseudo-hearing test (a real assessment of your auditory system is so much more than an air conduction threshold measurement—but that’s a conversation for another day!) so the OTC device has a general idea of your hearing.
But what they don’t tell you is the OTC hearing aid only has four to six output configurations.
The OTC hearing aid looks at your results and asks, “Which one of these four to six settings do you most closely resemble?” They slot the programming into place and, boom, those are your settings.
There are some people (basically, only those who are selling those products) who call that personalized, but the vast and overwhelming majority of the audiology profession certainly doesn’t.
My OTC Experience Was a Failure. Does That Mean I Am Going to Fail With Prescriptive Hearing Aids, Too?
Absolutely not! Prescriptive hearing aids are higher-quality tools that can actually be personalized to your unique auditory system.
Additionally, prescriptive devices mean you’re working with a licensed professional, ideally a Doctor of Audiology, who will educate, support, and provide additional resources to you to help you on your journey to optimized hearing.
Does this mean prescriptive hearing aids are perfect? No. But the chances for success with prescriptive devices are far greater than with OTC devices.
What About Apple AirPods? Where Do They Fit in the Over-the-Counter Hearing Aid Sphere?
Apple AirPods are indeed a viable option for many when considering OTC hearing assistance. Apple’s earbuds-turned-hearing-devices are increasingly popular due to their multifunctional use and advanced technology capabilities, such as sound amplification and noise reduction.
But AirPods firmly reside within the OTC category and do not offer the same intricate hearing solutions that prescription hearing aids provide.
For those exploring options in hearing care, it’s crucial to evaluate personal needs and consider whether a readily available OTC device like Apple AirPods meets those needs or if a more sophisticated solution through a prescription hearing aid is warranted.
Why Are Prescriptive Hearing Aids So Much More Expensive Than OTC Hearing Aids?
When you go the prescriptive hearing aid route, you will be getting far more than you would with the OTC route; therefore, you will pay more for a prescriptive solution than an OTC version.
Specifically, there are two major points of differentiation where you get more from prescriptive:
1. Product Quality
While there is nothing “wrong” with an OTC device, prescriptive are better. Prescriptive hearing aids can be fully personalized to the individual, while OTCs cannot. Prescriptive hearing aids have higher R&D costs, higher manufacturing costs, and typically better warranties than OTC technology. All of those increase the price.
However, they also increase the quality, provide better and more consistent performance, and bring with them a much higher level of ongoing support,
2. Professional Support
This is absolutely huge. There is no doubt that the most important step in achieving your desired hearing outcomes is choosing the right professionals to partner with. From providing a more accurate diagnosis, teaching communication repair strategies, helping you choose the best amplification options, cleaning your ears, providing hearing aid loaners, answering your questions, offering troubleshooting when problems arise, etc., the value of the professionals you’re partnering with is enormous.
The biggest reason for the failure rate with OTC devices being over 50% is the lack of qualified and expert professional support. The biggest reason for over a 90% success rate at Visalia Hearing Center is the professionals you’re partnering with. And there are costs associated with the professional’s time and expertise.
Schedule an Appointment
Visalia Hearing Center offers an accurate, in-depth, and unparalleled approach to analyzing auditory systems, as well as a dedicated team of professionals to support patients on their journey to hearing optimization.
In addition to proper hearing aid fittings using real-ear verification, we provide ongoing support with pre-scheduled preventative maintenance tune-ups, as well as insightful professional advice, troubleshooting, and in-office repairs to help you get the most out of your hearing treatment package.
Before choosing any level of hearing aid technology, know the truth about your hearing by scheduling an auditory system analysis by using the adjacent form.
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