KANSAS CITY, MO — The Federal Drug Administration issued a final rule to improve access to hearing aids.
According to the FDA, this establishes a new category of over-the-counter hearing aids.
This gives those with mild to moderate hearing impairment a chance to purchase hearing aids directly from stores or online retailers.
Under the new decision, someone can do so without the need for a medical exam, prescription or a fitting adjustment by an audiologist.
Lakin Clumsky, a Kansas City, Missouri resident, says this is a step in the right direction.
“I wouldn’t be able to work if it weren’t for hearing aids,” Clumsky said. “I would just be like 'Huh' all the time.”
Clumsky has lived with hearing loss and worn hearing aids for most of her life.
“At 15-months-old, I got spinal meningitis and it led to me losing hearing in both of my ears," she said. "Luckily, I didn’t turn out completely deaf, but I just lost hearing in both of my ears. One is worst than the other."
Clumsky says although hearing aids help, without them life would be tough.
“Without my hearing aids, it’s like wearing a really good pair of ear muffs, everything is just like really muffled,” she said.
Clumsky, who works as a server at a local restaurant in the Waldo area, says her hearing aids are vital to perform well at her job.
“In the restaurant industry for example, there’s lots of background noise or music, people talking,” she said. “And so like having those hearing aids really help me like just hear everything in general, and it just helps me function is my every day life.”
Clumsky said the FDA's decision was only the first step in the right direction for all of those within the hard of hearing community.
“However, it doesn’t help with the mild to severe hearing loss which needs a little bit more technology, and therefore it’s going to be more expensive,” she said.
According to Clumsky, hearing aids are pricey, especially depending on your condition.
“We went recently to my hearing aid doctor to see about getting new hearing aids and it would be a minimum of five thousand dollars, and that's just for mid range,” she said. “And so obviously, you can go just a tab bit cheaper by going to like the lowest level, but I feel like I need to go higher and that would be a minimum of five thousands dollars."
Dr. Lindsay Lad, with the University of Kansas Health System, says the expected low costs can help bridge the gap.
“It will make some hearing products a little bit more accessible to more people over the counter," Lad said. "It’s going to be more of not as prescription based as seeing an radiologist or getting a prescriptive hearing aid."
Still, before heading to a drug store to grab a hearing aid, Lad says it’s important to get your hearing checked.
“You will find that a lot of individuals will overestimate or underestimate their hearing loss," Lad said. "So having that diagnostic by an audiologist is always beneficial, that way the audiologist will lead you in one way or the other. If over the counter hearing might be good for you or not, or if you need something more prescriptive."
Lad also adds its important to pay attention to the early stages of hearing loss.
In the meantime, Clumsky says she hopes more technology will come out to help those will all types of hearing loss needs.
“I feel like it’s a basic right to be able to hear and that we should be able to afford the basic things in order to help us function is every day life,” she said.
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