Oticon Own SI Review by Dr. Cliff

They're like the Oticon Intent hearing aids, only invisible. That's the best way I can describe the new Oticon OWN SI custom IIC and CIC hearing aids that I've been testing extensively in my clinic.

The Oticon Intent hearing aids have been around for a while now and have become some of the most popular hearing aids available on the market since their release in late 2023. The reason for their popularity is that Oticon released a second-generation Deep Neural Network inside the Intent hearing aids that uses artificial intelligence for sound processing.

You see, Oticon was the first major hearing aid manufacturer to use a Deep Neural Network inside their hearing aids back in 2021, which means they're now the first hearing aid manufacturer to be on the second generation of their Deep Neural Network while everybody else is still on their first generation.

The Waiting Game for Custom Technology

While it might drive you crazy, all of the newest innovations inside hearing aids always hit the receiver-in-canal style devices first. This means if you're the type of person who would prefer to have a custom invisible-in-canal style hearing aid, you typically have to wait for that technology to trickle down to a manufacturer's custom line of devices.

Well, I'm happy to say that this technology has finally made its way down to a custom in-the-ear style device from Oticon called the Oticon OWN SI. I can easily say that the Oticon OWN SI is definitely better than the previous generation Oticon OWN custom in-the-ear devices, but they're still not perfect.

Two Styles, Different Capabilities

The Oticon OWN SI comes in two custom styles: the Invisible-in-Canal (IIC) style, which is what I have here, and the Completely-in-Canal (CIC) style, which is slightly larger. While it's nice that these hearing aids are so small, you definitely give up certain features to get them this small.

For instance, in the previous generation Oticon OWN hearing aids, you also had an in-the-canal, half-shell, and full-shell style that had more capabilities than what you have with these devices. This includes Bluetooth connectivity with your phone - something you do not get with the Oticon OWN SI.

This means you have no app controls, no Bluetooth streaming for media or phone calls. As of the launch of the Oticon OWN SI, Oticon doesn't have any of these larger styles available, so you don't get any wireless connectivity capability.

Missing the 4D Sensor Technology

You also don't get any of the 4D sensor technology that made the Oticon Intent substantially better than the generation that preceded it, because there simply isn't enough room for a motion sensor inside these tiny hearing aids. So basically, one of the major benefits of the Oticon OWN SI is that it's so incredibly small that it's virtually invisible.

If you want this hearing aid to be as small as humanly possible, you want your hearing care professional to do digital ear scans on you and upload those scans to Oticon so they can make these hearing aids really small and fit really deeply into your ear canals.

IIC vs CIC: The Key Differences

The ones I have here are the invisible-in-canal style (IIC). The CIC is a little bit larger than these, but they also have room for an optional push button. That push button can be used to change programs and volume.

Honestly, I'm surprised that Oticon still hasn't figured out a way to make these adjustable using a smartphone. You have over-the-counter hearing aids out there right now that have apps that can communicate wirelessly with their hearing aids to make volume and programming adjustments. Even other hearing aids use magnet wands to make adjustments to the program settings of their devices.

The Reality of Invisible Design

Let me show you how invisible these actually are. The IIC has a very short removal string - maybe five millimeters. I don't even know if you can see that, but you have an option of making that a little bit longer. On my right side, it needs to be longer because it's very hard to get this out of my ear.

When I put these in and show you what they look like in my ears, you can see they're incredibly discrete. They come in a variety of different faceplate colors, but I highly recommend that you get the black color because when you look in someone's empty ear canal, it just looks like a black hole. If you get a flesh-colored faceplate, it's going to stand out more.

Oticon makes some of the deepest IIC hearing aids that I have, and I have to say that these hearing aids are by far some of the most invisible hearing aids I own. The only hearing aids that are more invisible than these are the Lyric extended-wear hearing aids.

Battery Life and Maintenance

You know that they use a disposable size 10 battery for both the IIC and CIC versions of this hearing aid. You get anywhere from around 40 hours to 55 hours of battery life on a single battery. Depending on how many hours you wear these hearing aids every day, you're probably going to get maybe three to four days of battery life before you have to fight with one of those childproof packages to get another pair of disposable batteries out.

Honestly, I was really hoping that Oticon was going to figure out a way to make these hearing aids rechargeable because those battery packages are so difficult to get into, and we're in 2025 right now. Pretty much everything is headed in the direction of being rechargeable, but for these hearing aids, you still have to go with disposable batteries.

Technology Levels and Customization

The Oticon OWN SI comes in four different technology levels: level 1, 2, 3, and 4, with level 1 being their premium offering. Each time you drop down in technology level, it takes features and customizations away from your hearing care professional when they're trying to optimize the performance of these devices for you.

My recommendation is literally the same for everybody: you should be going with the highest level of technology that you can reasonably afford. If you cannot afford it, you should be dropping down to whatever technology level you can afford, and then it's the job of your hearing care professional to optimize the performance of those devices for you.

Fitting Ranges and Limitations

Because these are smaller in-the-canal style hearing aids, you can still get a 75-decibel receiver or a 90-decibel receiver. The 90-decibel receiver will be a little bit larger, so it might make these devices bigger inside your ears.

You can technically fit a hearing loss anywhere from mild to severe level hearing loss. However, I will say that trying to fit anyone with a moderately severe hearing loss or worse with an invisible-in-canal or completely-in-canal hearing aid is borderline malpractice for most individuals. You just cannot hit severe level prescriptive targets with an in-the-canal style hearing aid because even if you try to increase the amplification enough, you're just going to get feedback issues.