I have what’s audiologists seem to call moderate “cookie bite” loss. My hearing pattern is nearly identical in both ears but I am thinking about buying just one BTE aid that I can put in and take out for meetings at work. I’m quite young for hearing aids and really want something that looks as discrete as possible but if spotted (worst case) doesn’t look like my grandmother’s BTE aid.
I have had a Siemens digital CIC around for this purpose for years but it has been a total pain–unquestionably the worst bang-for-buck purchase I’ve made in my life. Wax screwed up the mic constantly even with constant at-home vacuumings and then it to be sent out for expensive services. At this point it’s cost prohibitive to even keep them working. Even when they weren’t that old every time I wanted to use them (I’m definitely going to be a part-time wearer and routinely go days if not weeks at a time without using them) they’d be DOA. I don’t know if major advances have been made in CIC in the last 5 years or so or not–but I understood problems like these were inherent and unavoidable with the CIC design and would never be totally solved. Please let me know if I’m mistaken–but that’s why I’ve been thinking about if I could make a BTE work if it was a really attractive device.
At my age and in my role at work image actually really matters. I simply can’t afford to look anything other than fully capable. Unfortunately I simply have to have something to get through these meetings–not having at least one working aid I can rely on for these things is really causing me a lot of problems.
Any suggestions appreciated–thanks!