Hearing Loss FAQs

Our Hearing Aids come with a 2-5 years warranty. The warranty doesn’t cover physical damage or tampering, but extended care plans are available.

Your audiologist will help you with servicing and maintaining your hearing aid. You’ll benefit from attentive and personalised aftercare for upto 5 years, including annual hearing checks, fine tune adjustments, software updates and reprogramming should your hearing needs change over time.

Simply call our Reception line on 01494 765144 if you have any problems with your hearing aid. We’ll ensure you get it back to full working order as soon as possible.

Our preferred Manufacturers are Widex, Unitron, ReSound, Phonack and Starkey. However, we are also able to prescribe Sivantos, Oticon, Bernafon. Should you have a preference in manufacturer please just let us know.

Just call us on 01494 765144 when you need new batteries or accessories. Of if you are a fully inclusive patient hearing aid batteries are FREE.

Typically you are looking at around 3-5 days for a size 10 and 5-7 days for size 312 batteries, 7-14 for size 13 batteries, but it will depend on how many hours a day they are being worn for and what hearing aid you have.

Hearing aids will not make an existing hearing loss worse. The longer you wait before using a hearing aid the longer your sound processing areas within the brain are left without stimulation, which can lead to what is known as auditory deprivation.

On average 45 days. But it will depend on your age, hearing loss, how much you wear the hearing aids and whether you have worn hearing aids before. It is not like wearing glasses your brain needs time to learn to hear again properly.

More choice, better hearing aid technology, no waiting times, personal service, attentive after-sales service, flexibility and excellent value. The connectivity to the television and phones wirelessly are also very useful features.

Private Hearing Healthcare providers unfortunately do not have the privilege of buying cheap hearing aids like the NHS. In comparison to the NHS we also use only the latest digital technology which is significantly more expensive.

The NHS offers a free service, however, for those of you who opt for our private hearing service the costs will be based on the level of hearing aid technology and level of aftercare package you select. It will vary according to your individual lifestyle needs and budget. The average price in the UK for hearing aids is around £1000 for a single Hearing Aid, are prices are relative and we are extremely competitive, However the cheapest Hearing aids we currently offer start from £650. If this price is too much for you please go to the NHS, if you pay anything less than this price, you are likely to end up just wasting your money.

A hearing aid is a small electronic device that you wear in or behind your ear. It makes some sounds louder so that a person with hearing loss can listen, communicate, and participate more fully in daily activities. A hearing aid can help people hear more in both quiet and noisy situations. However, only about one out of five people who would benefit from a hearing aid actually uses one. A hearing aid has three basic parts: a microphone, amplifier, and speaker. The hearing aid receives sound through a microphone, which converts the sound waves to electrical signals and sends them to an amplifier. The amplifier increases the power of the signals and then sends them to the ear through a speaker.

Behind-the-ear (BTE) consist of a hard plastic case worn behind the ear and connected to a plastic earmold that fits inside the outer ear. The electronic parts are held in the case behind the ear. Sound travels from the hearing aid through the earmold and into the ear. BTE aids are used by people of all ages for mild to profound hearing loss. A new kind of BTE aid is an open-fit hearing aid. Small, open-fit aids fit behind the ear completely, with only a narrow tube inserted into the ear canal, enabling the canal to remain open. For this reason, open-fit hearing aids may be a good choice for people who experience a buildup of earwax, since this type of aid is less likely to be damaged by such substances. In addition, some people may prefer the open-fit hearing aid because their perception of their voice does not sound “plugged up.” In-the-ear (ITE) hearing aids fit completely inside the outer ear and are used for mild to severe hearing loss. The case holding the electronic components is made of hard plastic. Some ITE aids may have certain added features installed, such as a telecoil. A telecoil is a small magnetic coil that allows users to receive sound through the circuitry of the hearing aid, rather than through its microphone. This makes it easier to hear conversations over the telephone. A telecoil also helps people hear in public facilities that have installed special sound systems, called induction loop systems. Induction loop systems can be found in many churches, schools, airports, and auditoriums. ITE aids usually are not worn by young children because the casings need to be replaced often as the ear grows.

Hearing aids are primarily useful in improving the hearing and speech comprehension of people who have hearing loss that results from damage to the small sensory cells in the inner ear, called hair cells. This type of hearing loss is called sensorineural hearing loss. A hearing aid magnifies sound vibrations entering the ear. Surviving hair cells detect the larger vibrations and convert them into neural signals that are passed along to the brain. The greater the damage to a person’s hair cells, the more severe the hearing loss, and the greater the hearing aid amplification needed to make up the difference. However, there are practical limits to the amount of amplification a hearing aid can provide. In addition, if the inner ear is too damaged, even large vibrations will not be converted into neural signals. In this situation, a hearing aid would be ineffective.

Your Audiologist will ask you a series of questions before examining your ears. Then your hearing will be tested using an audiometer. Further tests will establish how you respond to noise and the suitability of hearing solutions. You will be given a full explanation of the results and recommended solutions, before you have the opportunity to the benefits of any amplification for yourself.

A qualified Audiologist registered with the Health and Care Professions Council will carry out your test.

You can visit our practice in Little Chalfont or one of our high street hearing assessment partners across the Home Counties.

To book hearing test with Cox Lewis Hearing call 01494 765144 or Email [email protected], or alternatively contact your GP for a free NHS test