While prescription hearing instruments are only available through a licensed professional, hearing devices known as “personal sound amplification products” (PSAPs) are available without a prescription elsewhere. While these over-the-counter devices may be better than nothing, they do not approach the comfort or effectiveness of a custom-fit hearing instrument that is configured to address a wearer’s specific hearing-loss profile. PSAPs are somewhat like reading glasses that can be purchased in a store. They may be useful in helping address mild loss of near-focusing ability, but they may not be suitable for correcting more severe and complicated vision loss. The same applies to PSAPs, which may help with mild hearing loss, but may not help with moderate to severe hearing loss.
A hearing instrument that doesn’t fit properly or deliver the quality of sound the wearer has a right to expect is probably going to end up unworn at the back of the night table drawer no matter where it was purchased. For comprehensive testing and evaluations, a complete line of today’s most innovative hearing instruments, expert fittings, as well as follow-up adjustments using state-of-the-art technology, please call Brenda, your doctor of audiology at The Ear Clinic, 226-909-0966. Located at 46 Nelson Street W., across from the LCBO. We’d like to offer you a complimentary hearing evaluation.
P.S. The prescription for a custom-fit hearing instrument is based on an audiogram, a graph that provides a detailed description of a person’s hearing ability. A PSAP is simply a one-size-fits-all device.