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Best power aid for patients with severe / profound hearing loss?

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Time factor throws this survey off. Phonak Naida has been out what two (plus) years. Of course Naida (Marvel) came out early this year. Which model we talking? Oticon Xceed’s been out what - 16 months. Enzo has been out four, five months. Hard to do a accurate survey when one aid has been around a very long time and another just hit the market a few months ago.

The Resound Enzo family (it doesn’t specify a model) came out in 2014 per Google search (which was a pain). Oticon Xceed since at least Aug 2019. Phonak Naida started in 2008 per Phonak’s own history webpage.

Assume most recent models for each family. And yes, this will be skewed by market share, but still interesting.

What audiologist prefer to sell has absolutely nothing to do with the best aids for someone with a loss. But then again I don’t think there’s a best aid for someone with a loss either

The best aid is what works best for you. But really it is the hearing aids plus an Audi that can work miracles with that set of aids that really make them work. And it is also understanding the fact that the facts that the ones us that have hearing loss will never hear the way we want to again, and must be willing to accept that fact.

There are certainly going to be multiple things influencing which hearing aid an audiologist prefers to sell, but I think a significant one will be how easy it is to satisfy customers with them.

That is a huge factor. Especially because severe hearing loss is much harder to treat successfully, and there is a huge financial incentive to reduce returns and follow up clinical visits …

In reply to @hass5744

Some audiologist just sell one brand - so I doubt there are going to recommend another hearing aid brand? Then again some audiologist might get a higher commission on selling one aid, versus a completely different one. Again - do you think the audiologist is going to recommend the lower commission hearing aid? Its the audiologist or healthcare clinics that offer several hearing aid brands, that should really rank the performance of such and such hearing aids. But again its so subjective. Almost as important as user preference, is the longevity of the hearing aid and how its holds up over time. You can have a good hearing aid, but if it breaks down a lot or doesn’t stream well or doesn’t hold a charge long (etc.), how do you factor that in? And then there is cost - which should be thrown into the equation if there is say a $300 to $500 difference in between the price of one hearing aid versus another.

I actually think @mdb is on the money here … Trying to squeeze out a few extra bucks on the sale isn’t worth it for power aids … Going with the best product is the best financial decision a provider can make.

Only you can answer that. And the best way to do that is to try different brands and decide which aid works best for you. Someone telling you what works best for them means nothing

Exactly, thus one has to wonder how many hearing aids are returned for full refund (not because they didn’t function) but because the hearing aid did’n’t live up to its “hyped” advertised expectations. But at least with a hearing aid you can roll the dice and if things don’t work out you can try again with a different brand at a later date. On the other hand a is a “one shot” deal with no going back.

based on all the available literature do have a pretty high success rate. Rates of complications are on the order of 1% or less. If you have a progressive loss, like me, what’s there to lose? I’m rolling the dice on 10 July…

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