Your Options to Address a Hearing Challenge in 2025

by | Jan 10, 2025 | Patient Resources

Hearing loss challenges affect millions of Americans across the country. If you’re looking to optimize your hearing beyond its current capabilities, chances are you’re feeling a little overwhelmed by the number of choices you have to go through to find the best one for you.

With so many options to choose from, it can be difficult to know what you’re looking for and what will work best for your needs.

If you’re here, you’re looking for a professional’s opinion—and you’re in the right place. Here are your best options to address a hearing challenge in 2025.

Hearing Technology vs. Hearing Care

2024 brought a litany of incredible innovation in the hearing aid industry, but where many people believe that great technology is the one-stop solution to “curing” hearing loss, the truth is a little more in depth.

Just like how you’d need an optician’s help to address troubles with your sight, working with a professional audiologist or hearing care expert is the best way to optimize your hearing and keep your holistic health maintained simultaneously.

With a professional’s guidance and support, you can rest assured, knowing that your hearing health is safely looked after by passionate experts who want to see you succeed as a person, not just bring them success as a patient.

What Are My Options to Optimize My Hearing?

Depending on whether you’re looking for a do-it-yourself solution at home or something with more support and help along the way, you have your pick of some of the latest options around:

1. Personal Sound Amplifier Products (PSAPs)

PSAPs work as general sound amplifiers; they fit into your ear and make all sound louder, allowing for louder sound in many environments.

We’d equate PSAPs to a magnifying glass—a quick solution for some situations, but not all of them. Magnifying glasses magnify everything within the lens, which won’t always help for certain sight troubles.

PSAPs amplify all sound, so if your hearing challenges are a case of hearing some pitches but not all, they’re not personalized to your specific needs.

2. Over-the-Counter (OTC) Hearing Aids

Federally authorized in 2022, over-the-counter hearing aids lifted several barriers for those looking for hearing care on a budget. More accessible and readily available at most drugstores, OTC hearing aids are like “reader” glasses you can find at the store: a good fix for some situations, but not all.

Because OTC hearing aids do not come with the results of a hearing test to guide programming needs, they’re preprogrammed for more generic hearing loss requirements. You must also fit and adjust them yourself at home, which can lead to frustration for some wearers.

OTC hearing aids also don’t accommodate hearing challenges caused by earwax impaction or tinnitus, so they won’t be personalized to your specific needs.

3. Apple AirPods Pro 2—Hearing Aid Features

In October 2024, Apple released iOS 18, which includes some impressive hearing aid features, including the ability to test your hearing at home and use the AirPods Pro 2 as hearing aids.

These can be a great, user-friendly choice for those looking for quick noise amplification and assistance helping with background noise suppression; we’d equate Apple’s hearing aid functions to testing your eyesight at home and ordering glasses online.

Apple’s hearing test, included in iOS 18, is a pure-tone audiometry test that tests how well your hearing works based on different pitches of sounds you can hear. In comparison, a comprehensive hearing assessment from an audiologist is more exhaustive, looking at how well you understand speech, the response time of your inner ear hair cells, and more.

Apple’s hearing aid features mark a huge step forward in normalizing hearing care, which is often stigmatized as a negative sign of getting older. However, if your results from the Apple hearing test show you’re dealing with hearing loss, we’d recommend coming to see an audiologist for a more in-depth understanding of what’s going on in your ears.

4. Costco/Big-Box Store Hearing Aids

Costco has long been dispensing hearing aids, and their Kirkland-branded hearing aids come programmed to your hearing loss needs after an in-store hearing test. They’re an affordable and quick possibility for those with hearing challenges looking for an option with some assistance.

However, Costco’s retailer status means that wait times for follow-up care or repairs to your devices can leave you waiting for weeks. Costco also sees your hearing loss as “solved” by your hearing aids, rather than focusing on what will work best for your unique circumstances.

5. Working With a Local Audiology Clinic

For any and all hearing care concerns, including tinnitus treatment, earwax removal, and more, working with a local clinic of passionate professional audiologists is the best way to address your hearing loss challenges with professional guidance and support.

A hands-on approach to your hearing health, partnered with experts concerned with helping you win as a person, not just a patient, will provide lasting results that put your overall health at front of mind.

If your hearing loss does require hearing aids to help your hearing, your audiologist will recommend the best options that work with your specific hearing needs, considering your lifestyle choices, hobbies, medical needs, and budget as well.

Start Your Hearing Health Journey With Family Audiology

Our team is here to help you, no matter what your hearing health concerns may be.

To get started on your hearing health journey with our team, or to chat with us about your unique situation, please don’t hesitate to request a callback and we’ll get in touch with you as soon as possible to help.

For a more immediate conversation, feel free to give us a call at (972) 943-0466.

Start Your Hearing Health Journey Today!

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Celia McCormick, Au.D

Dr. McCormick has lived in Plano since 1988. She is a graduate of Texas Christian University and completed her Doctorate of Audiology at the University of Texas at Dallas. Soon after, she opened a private practice in Plano and now enjoys serving the community that has been her home for the past three decades.

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