TECHNOLOGY

A Hearing Aid on Your Wrist?

Yup. I bought one for my wife.

The kink that killed the deal. Photo by author

My poor wife and I are suffering from damaged hearing. That is, she has the damaged hearing, but both of us suffer because of it.

She’s tried hearing aids. The first pair we bought from a local audiologist. They weren’t fancy ones, but still pretty pricey at around $1500 for the pair. They also didn’t help her hearing all that much. Worse, they hurt the inside of one ear and no amount of fiddling, tip changing or anything else helped. Eventually she just stopped wearing them.

We tried Apple Airpods Pro next.

Could Your Hearing Aids Be Airpods?

They didn’t help any more (nor any less) than the more expensive hearing aids, but do have a much more limited battery life. I would have happily bought three pairs to solve the battery issue, but these also hurt her ears.

Strike two.

Then we got a pair of Bose hearing aids. They were half the price of the ones from the audiologist and were lighter, but unfortunately the ear pain problem remained.