Head of Customer Content Experience
Audiology Expert & Founder
A long time ago making house calls was a normal occurrence for doctors, but nowadays this practice has virtually ceased to exist. Likewise, the hearing aid dispensing profession was founded as a home delivery and bespoke service.
But most audiologists now take patients to their audiology offices. Even when people with hearing loss are often the most vulnerable and require a home visit hearing test or an in-home hearing aid service.
How amazing would it be to get the same level of service you would in a high street audiology clinic, but in the privacy of your own home or office? All 200 audiologists in our network are delighted to serve you at a suitable time, in your own home. Whether you're too busy to miss work, have transportation difficulties, or need a little more discretion, our expert network of audiologists will come to you!
For those who are still of working age, it can be difficult to take the time off or to fit medical appointments around a strict 9 to 5, Monday to Friday schedule. You likely only have a limited number of paid holidays and would prefer to spend those actually on holiday!
For others, getting to hearing practice locations might be too tricky. Maybe you have mobility issues and find it a hassle to leave the house. This is even more understandable if you are one of the 13.9 million disabled people in the UK.
We believe and think that being housebound should not restrict the opportunity to hear all the fantastic sounds around you in everyday life. Whether mobility is a problem or your doctor has advised you to recover at home, we can help you improve your hearing health.
The answer is, almost anything you would expect from an office visit! Here are some of the common services offered by our audiologists, and how they work in your home.
Some individuals believe that only in some kind of soundproof booth can a hearing test be performed correctly. This is a popular misconception. High street shops and busy audiology clinics are noisy places so they do require soundproof booths.
However, our audiologists use specialized devices, including headphones that can test your hearing to a high standard, in any quiet room in your home. This is performed with special noise-cancelling headphones or special ‘insert’ headphones. In the end, the quality of the evaluation is the same high standard as you would receive at the audiologist's office.
Our audiologists can also fit your new hearing aid on the same day as your exam. Their mobile testing and service equipment provides the same amount of care you'd find in any of their offices.
Our audiologists will programme your hearing aids every time your hearing changes. They will also perform routine maintenance to keep your hearing aids in optimal condition.
If you have previously worn hearing aids and made changes in a store or clinic, you might find that the adjustments made are not quite right for home use. Worse still, you will not realise this until you get home. This means you'll have to take the time to make another trip to the audiologist in order to get things right.
Fitting a hearing aid in a setting where it will be used most, however, enables the most precise programming possible. A demonstration of hearing aids in your home will offer you the best idea of how the hearing aids would work. The home experience offered by our audiologists enables you to use your hearing aids with the people and the appliances you interact with daily.
There are several wireless accessories in your home that your hearing aids can connect to, such as your TV, smartphone, or tablet. The audiologist can show you how to connect to these on a home visit so you can immediately start taking advantage of your hearing aid's wireless capabilities.
For instance, they can show you how to connect your Bluetooth hearing aids to the TV to watch your favourite shows.
Home visits are more tailored than the care most patients receive in an audiology department or hospital. Also, treating your hearing loss makes you confront a problem that you have likely ignored for years. It’s an often stressful experience, but our patients have found that being in the comfort of their own homes makes it a little easier to deal with.
Home visits can be more practical for people who have busy schedules or who are unable to take time off work to travel to a clinic.
Our audiologists take their office to the patient. This means fewer people will have to miss work as they offer the flexibility to fit into almost any work schedule. Maybe you prefer them to pop around in the evening or on weekends to adjust your hearing aids. Their schedule is based completely on your needs.
For others who don’t drive, it means more independence because they don't need to depend on friends and family or rely on public transport. There is less worry for everyone and more time saved. You would also not have to waste time sitting in waiting rooms.
Home visits allow people to receive healthcare in the comfort of their own homes, which can be more convenient than traveling to a clinic or hospital.
It is projected that the number of people aged 65 or older will double over the next 15 years. And within this age group, 45% are disabled. In offering home visits, our audiologists understand how tiring it is for elderly patients to juggle physician appointments for multiple ailments, and want to make health appointments as seamless as possible.
For people who have mobility issues or live in remote areas, home visits can be a more accessible option for receiving healthcare.
We also find that some people may feel more comfortable receiving healthcare in their own homes, as they are in a familiar environment. All our hearing aid audiologists' home visits are included in the cost of the hearing aid. So you are effectively getting all of the benefits described above at no extra cost to you!
Overall, home visits can be a convenient and accessible way for people to receive hearing healthcare, particularly for those who may have difficulty traveling or who prefer the comfort of their own homes.
Hearing Aid UK has a vast network of local and fully qualified audiologists who cover the whole of the UK. If you wish to arrange a home hearing test, then please call our freephone number on 0800 567 7621. All hearing tests are free and without obligation.
Do not spend hundreds of pounds without getting a second opinion from us.
If you are looking at this page then it is likely that an audiologist has suggested that you purchase this particular hearing aid, so is this the best model for you?
In general, any audiologist will always be recommending to you the model that best suits your needs. Here is a useful check list to make sure that is the case.
If in doubt, feel free to give us a call. That's what we're here for.
If you have a significant hearing loss in both ears, you should be wearing two hearing aids. Here are the audiological reasons why:
Localisation. The brain decodes information from both ears and compares and contrasts them. By analysing the miniscule time delays as well as the difference in loudness of each sound reaching the ears, the person is able to accurately locate a sound source. Simply put, if you have better hearing on one side than the other, you can't accurately tell what direction sounds are coming from.
Less amplification required. A phenomena known as “binaural summation” means that the hearing aids can be set at a lower and more natural volume setting than than if you wore only one hearing aid.
Head shadow effect. High frequencies, the part of your hearing that gives clarity and meaning to speech sounds, cannot bend around your head. Only low frequencies can. Therefore if someone is talking on your unaided side you are likely to hear that they are speaking, but be unable to tell what they have said.
Noise reduction. The brain has it’s own built in noise reduction which is only really effective when it is receiving information from both ears. If only one ear is aided, even with the best hearing aid in the world, it will be difficult for you to hear in background noise as your brain is trying to retain all of the sounds (including background noise) rather than filtering it out.
Sound quality. We are designed to hear in stereo. Only hearing from one side sounds a lot less natural to us.
For most people, the main benefit of a rechargeable hearing aid is simple convenience. We are used to plugging in our phones and other devices overnight for them to charge up.
For anybody with poor dexterity or issues with their fingers, having a rechargeable aid makes a huge difference as normal hearing aid batteries are quite small and some people find them fiddly to change.
One downside is that if you forget to charge your hearing aid, then it is a problem that can't be instantly fixed. For most a 30 minute charge will get you at least two or three hours of hearing, but if you are the type of person who is likely to forget to plug them in regularly then you're probably better off with standard batteries.
Rechargeable aids are also a little bit bigger and are only available in behind the ear models.
Finally, just like with a mobile phone, the amount of charge you get on day one is not going to be the same as you get a few years down the line. Be sure to ask what the policy is with the manufacturer warranty when it comes to replacing the battery.
For most people, the answer is yes. But it's never that simple.
The majority of hearing problems affect the high frequencies a lot more than the low ones. Therefore open fitting hearing aids sound a lot more natural and ones that block your ears up can make your own voice sound like you are talking with your head in a bucket. Therefore in-ear aids tend to be less natural.
However the true answer is we can't tell until we have had a look in your ears to assess the size of your ear canal, and until we have tested your hearing to see which frequencies are being affected.
People with wider ear canals tend to have more flexibility, also there are open fitting modular CIC hearing aids now that do not block your ears.
There is also the age old rule to consider, that a hearing aid will not help you if it's sat in the drawer gathering dust. If the only hearing aid you would be happy wearing is one that people can't see, then that's what you should get.
Most people can adapt to any type of hearing aid, as long as they know what to expect. Have an honest conversation with your audiologist as to what your needs are.
Generally speaking, six or more. Unless it's none at all.
The number of channels a hearing aid has is often a simplistic way an audiologist will use to explain why one hearing aid is better than another, but channels are complex and it is really not that straightforward.
Hearing aids amplify sounds of different frequencies by different amounts. Most people have lost more high frequencies than low and therefore need more amplification in the high frequencies. The range of sounds you hear are split into frequency bands or channels and the hearing aids are set to provide the right amount of hearing at each frequency level.
Less than six channels and this cannot be done with much accuracy, so six is the magic number. However, a six channel aid is typically very basic with few other features and is suitable only for hearing a single speaker in a quiet room. The number of channels is not what you should be looking at, it's more the rest of the technology that comes with them.
As a final note, different manufacturers have different approaches. One method is not necessarily better than any other. For example some manufacturers have as many as 64 channels in their top aids. Most tend to have between 17 and 20. One manufacturer has no channels at all.
Hearing aids are easily lost, misplaced or damaged and typically are one of the most expensive personal possessions an individual can own. We offer hearing aid warranty cover for £80 per year per aid. Find out more here
All our audiologists use the very latest technology and provide the full range of tests to accurately measure your hearing for free. Find out about what we offer all our customers here
Hearing Aid UK offers all their customers free home visiting services and home visits for hearing aids - Including hearing tests, fittings, maintenance, check-ups and much more in the comfort of your own home and at your convenience. Find out more information here
Here, at Hearing Aid UK, we are dedicated to offering low hearing aid prices. We achieve this by having no head office and low marketing costs. Our hearing aid prices are amongst the lowest you will find anywhere in the world.
When we refer to a product as 'Latest Launch', we mean it is the latest to be released on the market.
When we refer to a product as 'New', we mean that the product is the newest hearing aid model on the market.
When we refer to a product as 'Superseded', we mean that there is a newer range available which replaces and improves on this product.
When we refer to a product as an 'Older Model', we mean that it is has been superseded by at least two more recent hearing aid ranges.