Is it because of what they look like? Is it because of the colour? Is it because of what they feel like when worn? Or is it because of what they suggest?
Is it because of what they look like?
Hearing aids look like hearing aids because they ARE hearing aids. Unfortunately, despite some very novel designs – some have even won design awards – they still don’t have the cachet of “designer” glasses. I know. One venue I visit – an optical outlet – was ram-raided and the thieves took all the designer sunglasses but completely ignored the digital hearing aids on view, which were actually worth a lot more than the specs.
In fact, many hearing aids today DON’T look like hearing aids [at least not the traditional NHS behind the ear type] but still don’t make people want to whip them out of their ear and say “Take a butchers’* at that!” Yet they are technologically far more advanced than many consumer items (generally considered prized possessions to be paraded) and frequently more costly.
Is it because of the colour?
As in “we don’t like flesh colour”? Well, I say flesh colour but if you encountered anyone looking the same colour you’d either flee screaming or summon an emergency paramedic from the tropical disease hospitals. And that is also making a mighty big presumption that everyone in the world has identical flesh colour, which the last time I looked ….
Mind, there are still some who manufacture hearing aids who aren’t too sure of what flesh colour does mean. A few years ago I was trying to find a custom-fit tiny aid for a lady who had quite a big loss in quite a small ear – she also had very dark skin. They came back from the chosen supplier [no names I’m afraid] with a beautifully snug fit in a wonderfully tiny aid enabling her to hear really well and a really superb matching “plain chocolate” faceplate [the bit you can see in the ear]. So what was the problem with this high-tech digital hearing aid? It still had a conventional “flesh” colour body. This meant that when viewed in the ear it had a kind of halo effect around it and, “angelic” though that woman might have been, she did not want it attracting the attention of her toddler – the whole reason for getting them in the first place. There is another, humourous, aspect to this particular experience, which I might recount at a later date.
Is it because of what they feel like?
Well, naturally, some people don’t like the feel of “plastic” things and a few unfortunate souls actually suffer extreme sensitivity in their ear canals. Then there are those whose ears are “too close to their head” and really don’t have room for a traditional hearing aid fitting, especially if they also need to wear specs. And there will always be some who just don’t like having anything in their ear at all – not even “sweet nothings”. But for the vast majority they are no worse than a pair of glasses perched on the bridge of the nose – and for those who would prefer the little luxury of paying for custom made items to fit discreetly into the ear canal, it is really no different from the contact lens wearer sticking their fingers in their eyes once a day.
Or is it because of what they suggest?
This is, in my humble[?] opinion, the clincher. Hearing aids = deaf. And deaf = daft … and old! This, I hasten to add, is not my opinion but that of many people conveniently unaffected by hearing loss and unfortunately thus, by osmosis, the [often] sub-conscious opinion of many who do need to wear hearing aids.
But, hold on there, have they got a point? Well, in reverse order, let’s have a quick peek at the argument: OLD? Well, although it is a fact that as we age the incidence of some measurable hearing loss does indeed increase, it also remains that 50% of people with hearing loss in the UK are actually under the age of 55. DAFT? Well, most certainly not, if one encounters some of the wonderful people who have varying degrees of hearing loss [and use a variety of methods to combat their particular malfunction] that I have had the pleasure and honour of meeting. But, could this particular soubriquet be awarded to the millions [estimated by many, including the RNID,] out there. In the UK alone, it is thought there are up to 6,000,000 [yep SIX MILLION] who are thought to have a measurable hearing loss y e t d o n o t h I n g a b o u t i t.
Please, if you know [or indeed are] one of these people, all that anyone in my field [NHS or Private audiologists; ENT consultants & charities] would request – please ask us the following:
“Tell, show & demonstrate the options available to me” and then, maybe, some of the 5-6 million UK residents currently with hearing loss but without hearing help would benefit.
- Butchers = butchers’ hook = look =Rhyming slang from England for our overseas visitors.
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