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So my mother has been losing hearing for quite a few years. She has never had hearing aids, although we did go to an audiologist who did some demos and made some recommendations. At the time, I was a little daunted by the cost of the ones he recommended, and I had my doubts about my mother's ability to use them. She has very poor fine motor control in her hands. I thought that even turning them on and off and changing the batteries would be challenging for her (if not impossible). Now she keeps seeing ads for these cheap non-prescription hearing aids and wants me to look them up online for reviews and issues reported for them. I'm not sure I can trust the online reviews, though. So I thought I'd ask here - does anybody have experience with any cheap ones that work? Right now she's looking at MDHearingAid products, if that rings a bell. A few years ago I bought her cordless headphones for watching TV and they really work for her, but she wants something for hearing conversations, especially in a group, like when she's playing bridge and there's background noise. Any experience or recommendations (or warnings) you can share. (And I apologize for the lack of paragraphs in this post - the website won't let me insert returns). TIA.

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It is the high tech ability to cancel background noise that makes modern HAs so expensive, anything I have read about the non prescription hearing aids says they will not work well in a noisy environment.
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My Mom was also hard of hearing and every year she would be looking for next newest and state-of-the art hearing aid. She had a wonderful hearing doctor who I really liked and who was so patient with Mom. But Mom stopped going to her when the doctor said there isn't anything more she could do. At 98, the ear just stopped working, plus Mom didn't like to have her ears cleaned with hot water.

My parents would find advertisements for this hearing aid or that hearing aid. Mom wanted to check on the one that is physically inserted into her ear.... I had to tell her her hearing doctor said those types are for people who were just starting to lose their hearing.

We went to another hearing aid company and the hearing aid worked quite well while at the office, no different than with the previous doctor. But two days later, it wouldn't work at all. It was all user error as Mom was afraid to put the ear piece too far into her ear.... [sigh].

Carla, I know what you are going through.

Oh, regarding the paragraphs, I think it might work [or not] if you double or triple space to make the paragraphs. I use a desk top computer and have never tired to use any other device for Aging Care.
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You might also check out hearing aids that come with a money back guarantee, that way you can try one out with no risk.
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The cheap ones just make everything louder and there is a time lag, a fraction of a second, that makes everything seem echoed. My husband threw his out.
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I think we need to bring back the "ear trumpet"... no batteries needed.... hard to flush down the toilet or wrap in a Kleenex only to be thrown away.... if you sat on it, you would know it. But hard to carry in a purse.
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Sometimes there's just no more to be done. Our cost-cutting solution was to get a single hearing aid, when the audiologist told us that one ear had become "unaidable." Her insurance covers $2,000 every three years for hearing aids. The audiologist suggested a single higher quality $2,000 aid for the better ear rather than two $1,000 aids, one of which would be useless. So far, this has been a reasonably good solution, although we all have to be sure we're directing our voices to her "good" ear. The next time around (about 18 months) we'll probably pony up whatever the extra cost is to get one even higher quality hearing aid.
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