Hearing Aids and Products

Hearing aids have become smaller, less obtrusive, and more sensitive in recent years. The days of the bulky hearing aid are gone! At A&A Hearing Group hearing aids are custom-fit to your ear, and carefully programmed to provide optimal correction for your hearing loss. We are committed to providing our patients with the highest level of patient care and support before, during, and after your initial hearing aid fitting. Read more about how to get hearing aids from us here.

Hearing Aid Manufacturers

Our hearing products include a wide range of instruments for very slight hearing losses as well as severely hearing impaired individuals. We dispense only high quality hearing aids from respected manufacturers in the hearing industry. We will customize each hearing aid to our patient’s hearing loss with specialized computer programming.

Lyric Hearing Aids, made by Insound Medical

Lyric devices are fairly new to the hearing aid scene, but they have quickly become very popular. If you're tuned into hearing aids, you've probably read something about the company in the New York Times, or seen something on TV. We began fitting the Lyric in the spring of 2009, and patients really love the results. From new users to experienced hearing aid wearers, when the Lyric fits, it is an excellent instrument to wear. It fits an wide range of hearing losses, and stays in the ear for 60-90 days at a time. It is comfortable, and effortless. Can you tell that we like this device?

We are one of the most experienced Lyric providers on the East Coast. We are not only trained in the device and considered a Premier Provider by the manufacturer, Insound Medical has asked Dr. Cushing to give lectures to other audiologists around the country regarding practical fitting advice.

If you are interested in learning more about the lyric, read more further down on this page.

Phonak Hearing Aids

Phonak has a complete product line to accommodate every hearing loss. The top level hearing aids manufactured by Phonak have excellent noise reduction. The noise reduction is even better when a directional microphone is added to the device. This is possible in almost every device, except for the CIC (completely in the canal) hearing aid.

 

Phonak FM Systems

Phonak also has excellent FM system devices. FM systems are designed to help listeners very easily understand speech in noise, or speech at a distance. An integrated FM system cost between $2000 and $3500 but it is worth every penny. Phonak's new FM devices have especially impressive background noise reduction technology, and their newer hearing aids actually recognize when the device is turned on, and will automatically connect with it.

This device, the Smartlink SX,for example, allows the user to answer and talk on a cell phone, while listening wirelessly with their hearing aids.

It also can plug into the television and wirelessly transmit clear audio to your hearing aids. It can also be used to hear whispers at the other end of a long auditorium.

Often, the most used feature is the "zoom", which allows the listener to hear in very noise places like restaurants or dining halls.

Assistive listening devices can be used either as a supplement to hearing aids or alone.

Widex Hearing Aids

Widex produces one of the industy's smallest hearing aids, the Widex Passion.

The Widex Passion comes in 4 different levels of technology: PA-105, PA-110, PA-115, and PA-440. These different levels are technology can accommodate all different budgets. Our favorite is the PA-440 because it has the cleanest sound quality for almost every listening environment and because feedback from our patient's with tinnitus has been incredible.

For those who like control over their hearing, this device also comes with a small pocket remote, which allows the listener to change the volume and other settings.

This can be especially useful for special circumstances, where perhaps hearing at a distance needs more clarity, or more clarity while listening to the TV at a distance.

Starkey Hearing Aids

Starkey has an excellent power instrument that is very small. It's also very water resistant.

The S Series is Starkey's newest hearing aid line. One of our favorites is the instrument pictured to the left. The craftmanship for the earmold is excellent. We also like that even though the circuit is not as powerful as other starkey circuits, because it has a speaker in the ear, when the audiologist makes a nice long canal, this device sounds great with little or no feedback, even for the most profound hearing loss.

Starkey also makes a lot of other excellent products to fit a wide range of hearing difficulties including the most recently released OtoLens. The OtoLens is a custom-molded hearing aid built using Starkey’s Comfort Fit process and lives in the second bend of the ear, meaning that it is totally invisible. OtoLens features the same technology and digital signal processing as Starkey’s leading product family, S Series iQ, and provides 35dB of gain which allows professionals to fit patients with moderate to severe hearing loss.

Oticon Hearing Aids

Oticon has a fairly comprehensive product line. Many long time Oticon hearing aid wearers have profound or severe hearing loss and have been successful with the analog line of aids - like the model "380P".

Oticon does offer more than just analog hearing aids of course. Their most popular current model is called the Dual, as shown here. The Oticon Dual is accompanied by an Oticon Streamer in the picture to the right.

Siemens Hearing Aids

Siemens is a large German company, manufacturing many products, among which are hearing aids. They make hearing aids for private labels like Miracle Ear, Tru Hearing, and others. Siemens newest hearing aids include the Life, Motion, Pure and Explorer.

Unitron Hearing Aids

Unitron, like Phonak (because they are owned by the same company), is a Swiss based hearing aid brand. They have a full product line. We prefer their top product, Passport because it has all the great features of a premium aid, for a little less than the premium price. It also has a great remote control if you like that type of thing (it's completely optional). The picture here is the "Shift", the smallest version of the Passport (very small).

Resound Hearing Aids

Resound has 2 products that are very popular. The first is called the "Be". It is a unique instrument is an open fit device, but instead of sitting on top of the ear, like most open fit devices, this one sits in the ear.

The other popular product is called the "Dot", named because it is small like a dot.

Both of these instruments come in different levels of technology, and are good products.

Sonic Innovations Hearing Aids

Sonic Innovations makes a great little very water resistant hearing aid called the Touch. It's a very small device too.

The Process of Getting Traditional Hearing Aids

The steps in getting hearing aids that work for you are simple

1) Have a comprehensive diagnostic exam done (don't just get a screening.) Usually insurance (including Medicare) will cover the testing, and often you will need a referral from your primary care doctor.

2)Have your hearing tested, and speak with the audiologist about the results and recommendations.

3) Ask questions. Typically the patient and the audiologist talk about what the best hearing aid solution is and why. The audiologist usually covers everything thoroughly, but if the patient or family members have any questions, we encourage it!

4) Make a decision about the device. You don't have to decide on the spot, but you can if you want to. When you decide, a small downpayment is required, unless you are financing the devices. If your insurance covers some part of the purchase, we will need to discuss that at this time.

5) Ear impressions may be made depending on the devices being purchased. Ear impressions are made using a cool silicone gel that hardens in the ear in about 5 minutes. It is not painful, in fact most people find it relaxing!

6) The audiologist places the order for the hearing aids exactly to the required specifications.

7) Within 2 weeks, your new devices will be ready and you will need to return to the office to meet with the audiologist again and have the hearing aids fit and programmed using a computer with special software.

8) You will then finalize any payments, and leave the office with the new ears! You will have a trial period of a minimum of 30 days, which will give you time to adapt to the instruments.

9) You will return for a follow-up fitting within a week to 2 weeks.

The Process of Getting Lyric Hearing Aids

The steps in getting Lyric hearing aids is a little different than tradition hearing aids. You will still get the comprehensive exam, but then you are usually able to be fit with a device on the same day (if time allows) or within a couple of days. The audiologist does not need to make an impression; instead he or she will measure the ear and place the device and program it for the patient.

The patient will then watch a 10 minute video in the office (and the patient can bring the video home if he/she needs a refresher), and will have the opportunity to ask any questions.

The process is very easy. And most people who are candidates for the Lyric love to wear them.

One other thing. The Lyric devices are purchased by subscription only. Usually people use about 5 Lyrics in one year, per ear, but if you use more, you are not charged for it. It'll be included in your subscription. Currently the price for the Lyric device is about $1650 per device per year.

Assistive Devices

We dispense high quality personal amplification devices like television amplifiers, telephone amplifiers, personal amplifiers for group meetings and noisy environments, free-field speakers for school classrooms, personal alerting systems like vibrating alarm clocks, flashing smoke detectors, door-bell lights, and other Bluetooth enabled devices.

Specialized Earpieces

We also provide custom earpieces for MP3 players, cell phones, swim plugs, musician earplugs, and personal protection hearing Devices (PPD) like noise cancellation devices.