I agree, I don’t really care how ‘pretty’ my hearing aid is. I am young so I could very easily get away with crazy colours and other things when it comes to my aids but I have boring beige ones mostly because it isn’t always practical to have red, purple, blue etc aids.
I do decorate mine to go with my outfit that day or to be colour corrdinated with a sports team, or holiday or something. There are some pictures of this on my blog.
Today I have blue and green beads on the tubing, and blue and green rhinestones on the BTE. Same shades blue and green as my shirt. I have short hair so my ears are always exposed, can’t hide my aids at all. I figure I might as well make them fun and ‘pretty’! I find other peoples attitudes are different when I have the decorated too. They aren’t as worried about talking to me and seem to feel more at ease with conversing or being with a Deaf person, whether I am using an interpreter and siging or if I am speaking/speech reading. If you try to hide it, others will too. If you are proud and make them stand out others will be less shy and awkard. Just my experiences.
Take it all off, and then redecorate. The ones that have the rhinestones are just sticky backed rinestones that I stick on. The ones that look solid coloured are stickers that I printed off my computer. I take full sheet sticker paper, print out a pattern, trace my aid onto the paper, cut it out, and stick it on. The beads are just pony beads tread onto the tubing.
When I was younger I used to do that sort of stuff everyday. My mom would match it to my outfits and stuff. Now I only do it if I am working with kids or going out with friends or something.
I was at a formal awards dinner, black-tie event, and I put “diamonds” on them. I got a lot of compliments for it!
Jenny et al.
I must apologize when I said who could see BTE’s anyway in my original post!
After seeing your pics, I realize that I must have large ears (although flat) because my Naida’s are completely hidden!
Or you have tiny ears!
Any way Hearing is the most important as you also said, cosmetics come way down the list!
In your case however you have both! Very innovative!!
Sylvester
Does anyone know of a hearing aid that is larger than the Tego Pro BTE? I have a physical problem that is getting worse and I worry that soon I will not be able to manage changing batteries or adjusting the VC or changing the programs. I hate automatic types. I forgot the most important point: my hearing loss is only mild to moderate so I wonder if the larger aids can be adjusted to suit this requirment.
I know there are some aids out there that have magnets and such to change the programs and deal with batteries and stuff. I have worked with many individuals with motor skill related problems that have used these “assistive devices” quite effectively. I will look into it a bit more for you!
It is a shame that manufacturers of BTE’s, don’t include the over all size of the HA body in their specs i.e. width and length. I once had a list of HA’s compiled by someone. I can’t find it now but it is old anyway; modern aids are not listed. On the one hand the primary purpose of a HA is to hear better-as already mentioned. However, like it or not, BTE’s are visible so the size is a consideration. Especially for those whose ear Pinna’s are on the small side. If the HA body is thick then when trying to rest on a pillow it might be too uncomfortable. If the Pinna sticks out then there is more real estate between the Pinna and the skull so a wider body can be accommodated. For those who need a larger body for better access to the controls, a larger unit might be preferred. Therefore, if we had a list of HA’s with the body width and over all length noted, we could then measure the ones we presently use and COMPARE them with ones we are thinking of moving over to. Again, size must be secondary to the prime purpose of hearing but size is a serious consideration never the less. At the moment the only way we might be able to get an idea of the size is to compare battery sizes No 13 or No 675… As far as the shape is concerned, I am not sure what denotes a bad shape from a good one. Do you prefer a Honda Civic or a Toyota Corolla?
I have seen prod brochures with a 1 to 1 scale (actual size of the aid printed)… I think the resound brochure had a picture with the actual size of the aid…
Not long ago, I saw - Sonic Inv Velocity and the design of the aid look real nice… While i do not like a company that consistenly looses money
the velocity look real fine… They are on to something…
I forgot the most important point: my hearing loss is only mild to moderate so I wonder if the larger aids can be adjusted to suit this requirment.