BEST Places to Buy OTC Hearing Aids

Hi guys. Cliff Olson, Doctor of Audiology, and founder of Applied Hearing Solutions in Phoenix, Arizona. And in this video I'm talking about the best places to purchase over the counter hearing aids...coming up!

Well, it is official. Today, October 17th, 2022 is the first day that you can purchase over the counter hearing aids. After five long years of anticipation, we now have a regulated category of over the counter hearing aids that you can purchase direct without having to go in and see a hearing care professional first. Of course, you might be asking yourself where you can actually find these over the counter hearing aids. Can you find them online? Can you find them in an electronic store, at a pharmacy, a grocery store, a doctor's office, or somewhere else? The answer is all of the above, but some of them will offer better technologies. Some of them will offer more options. So let's go ahead and talk about the best places to purchase over the counter hearing aids. But before I do, if you could do me a huge favor and click the like button, it really helps out my channel because it gets these videos in front of a bigger audience.

And while you're at it, if you have not yet, hit that Subscribe button with Notification Bell, go ahead and do that as well, because that ensures that you never miss one of my newly released videos and I release multiple new videos every single week. That being said, I really appreciate it. And let's go ahead and take a look at where you can find these over the counter hearing aids online on my website, hearing up.com. I'm developing a comprehensive list of different over the counter hearing aid companies as well as the products that they sell, and giving you a detailed description of these products as well as a video review. In addition to all of this, I will be giving you links that you can click through to actually purchase those particular products, whether I have an affiliate link or not, this would probably be the best place for you to start your online research into over the counter hearing aids.

Since new over-the-counter hearing aids will be released all of the time, and I will be able to stay on top of these new releases and give you updates in a few weeks. I will also be publishing my new over-the-counter hearing aid buyers guide. And depending on when you're actually watching this video, that Buyer's Guide might already be available on hearing up.com. As far as electronic stores go, Best Buy will probably be the clear front runner because not only will they have a dedicated space inside of their stores for over the counter hearing aids, but you can also purchase over the counter hearing aids through their website. Best buy.com. And since direct to consumer, hearing aids have been around for a while, Best Buy has already been retailing companies like Eargo, Lucid, Lexie, and Hearing Assist on their website. Not only can you expect Best Buy to add these current online offerings inside of their brick and mortar locations, but you can also expect them to add other brands like Sony, Nuheara and Jabra.

Just make sure that you do your homework before going into Best Buy to purchase over the counter hearing aids because I suspect that the staff at Best Buy will not have a really good understanding of these particular products and have really no idea which one would be most ideal for you. Pharmacies and grocery store pharmacies will also be offering over the counter hearing aids and possibly some other supplies that you may need to upkeep your devices. Some of these stores will likely include Walgreens, cvs, Walmart, and pretty much any other major chain that you see out there. Just expect these over the counter hearing aids to be locked behind some glass or have display cards that you take up to the pharmacist because these devices are going to run around $700 all the way up to a thousand dollars, and they would probably be a very easy product to steal.

Again, do not expect the pharmacist or a pharmacy tech to have a good understanding of these different product offerings inside of their stores. They're basically just gonna take that card and hand you the product without giving you any advice. And last but not least, you'll be able to purchase over the counter hearing aids from your local hearing aid clinic. Now, I know that this sounds counterintuitive because your local hearing aid clinic primarily diagnosis and treats hearing loss with prescriptive level hearing aids, but a lot of these clinics, or at least some of these clinics starting up, will have some over the counter options that they will either keep on their shelves or that they will actually retail through their website. Some clinics may even offer these as an option after having a comprehensive hearing evaluation. If affordability is an issue for you for a prescriptive level device, just keep in mind that a lot of prescriptive level devices are going to cost roughly the same as some of these over the counter hearing aids.

So you ultimately just have to decide which one's best for you. No matter where you purchase your over-the-counter hearing aids from, whether it's online and an electronic store, a pharmacy or a doctor's office, you will likely be getting those devices at the same price no matter where you purchase them, as long as you're purchasing the exact same brand through any one of those channels. Now, some over the counter hearing aids will be more expensive, some of them will be less expensive, but do not expect to be able to go from online to a store and expect a big price difference. So if you ask me, it really comes down to convenience and the level of service that you get from wherever you decide to purchase those devices from. Some people, it will be easier to purchase online and have them shipped directly to you. Others might feel like, Hey, I want those devices right now, so I'm just gonna drive into the store, pick 'em up so I have them immediately.

And then other individuals who are gonna wanna purchase over the counter hearing aids from a location that can provide them with a little bit of advice and potentially some servicing if those devices end up having issues. Overall, there is no bad place to purchase an over the counter hearing aid as long as the brand of overthe counter hearing aid that you are purchasing is from a reputable company. Now, how do you know if the company that you're purchasing from is reputable? Will you just go to my website HearingUp.com and I will tell you exactly who the good companies are and who the bad companies are? The most important thing here though, is that if you have a perceived mild to moderate hearing loss and you've been putting off treatment waiting for over the counter hearing aids to arrive, well, they have arrived. So now you actually need to go do something about your hearing loss. So stop watching this video. Go to HearingUp.com and start looking for the best place to purchase here over the counter hearing aids. That's it for this video. If you have any questions, leave them in the comment section below. If you like the video, please share it. And if you wanna see other videos just like this one, go ahead and hit that subscribe button. Also, feel free to check out my website, HearingUp.com.

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