From a previous job I was in a position that I had to be neutral on assistive hearing technology including apps. So I learned early on try not to promote just one item or best product but overall give summary of each product and how it could benefit them rather than just the one. So I am HCP trainee in Texas and I come from a background growing up with hearing loss. I have worn so many types of hearing aid brands and models over the years. I can relate and understand as a consumer that I would want only the best and dismiss the rest. But as a professional, I'd rather be neutral. Its good to know what you said in your video :-)
On January 1, 2025, I woke up with absolutely no ability to hear in my right ear and a slight ability to hear in my left ear. There is a great deal of noise in my head all of the time. My neighbor drove me to the emergency room and I was immediately hospitalized. They did a CAT scan with and without contrast and they also did an MRI of my head and neck. They ruled out cancer and stroke and probably some other stuff. They discharged me and told me to go to an audiologist. I am pretty freaked out right now because I’ve never had one moment of problem with my hearing in my entire life. Of course I’ve spent a lot of time on the computer trying to get information about sudden bilateral hearing loss. This has shown me to be much more aware of the trauma of hearing loss for the people that are in my life. I’ve always taken perfect hearing for granted. I don’t like to whine but I’m so sad today.😢 Thank you for your videos and I will definitely search “hearing up” and try to find someone in my area of Florida. Happy new year!
Yikes! I feel great empathy for your situation. 25 years ago I suddenly lost the hearing in my right ear, which came with very much vertigo and vomiting. ( left ear remained normal, which is/was some hearing loss but didn’t at that time require a hearing aid). I went to emergency, Dr. gave me a gravol shot and sent me home, two weeks later I got in to see an ENT. He told me if I had seen him right away ( or at least within the first two weeks) he may have been able to recover some of my hearing. ( large dose of prednisone). With research online I later self diagnosed SSNHL . Sudden sensory neural hearing loss. This is surprisingly common, typically does not affect both ears! However, if I were you get to an ENT ASAP!!!! Living with one functioning ear is the pits!!!
@@howardbutler4878 Thank you for your reply and advice. I will definitely call all the audiologists in my area and try to get an appointment right away! I’m sorry you had to go through the vertigo and vomiting! That had to be just horrible!! 🤢 I only have a tiny bit of vertigo if I move too quickly. I live near the villages in Florida, so I’m sure there are tons of audiologists around. Fingers crossed that they’re not already booked till March! Good luck to you if you’re in the frozen tundra up north! Again, thanks!
@@jerimow8400 Hi, I am extremely sorry about what happened to you and that I am really wishing, hoping, and praying for the very best outcome for you as possible. If I were you I would go to a ENT that has a audiologist so in that way you can hit two birds with one stone so that you do not have wait to go see a ENT after you see a audiologist and in that way you can get treated a whole lot sooner because time is of the essence here. Also a lot of audiologist and ENT doctor offices will specifically ask you what your exact symptoms are to determine if you are experiencing a medical emergency (SSHL is a medical emergency.) to see if they can fit you in as soon as possible and make you a top priority. Also if they do not ask what your exact symptoms are or what you are experiencing please tell them that you are experiencing SSHL, that is it a medical emergency, and that time is of the essence here and they should be able to realize the true severity of the situation and really try to make you top priority and see you as soon as possible or extremely unfortunately if they no please be sure to keep on calling other audiologist and ENT doctor offices until somebody takes you extremely seriously. In the meanwhile, please really give yourself some self care by allowing yourself to grieve, talk to other people, see a mental health professional, find a support group, take off from work if you have too, try to do some fun and relaxing things to keep your mind occupied, and etc if you feel like it even though those things that might be super hard to do at times. In other words do what you think is best and what works for you. Once again, I am extremely sorry that this happened to you, that me and a whole lot of other people are always here for you, and that we all really truly wishing, hoping, and praying for the very best possible outcome for you. May God bless you always! Happy New Year! Peace!
Dr. Cliff, we, who watch your videos comparing hearing aids, are shopping for both hearing aids and doctors who dispense them, so what we need is a way to optimize picking both. If doctors insist on not being an expert on all the good devices out there (you included), then we need to know. I am not sure how any doctor can claim to follow all the best practices if he does not know all the good technology out there. So we would really appreciate it if you made yourself an expert on ALL hearing aids so we can get the best information. If you don't have the time for that, please tell us what hearing aids we need to research somewhere else as you did in this video with Widex. We really appreciate your videos. If you are concerned about the cost of purchasing all of these hearing aids to test out, I suspect your channel is motivation enough for any manufacturer to supply you with a set to test at least.
The nice thing about having Cochlear implants, you're basically locked into one brand and there's generally not a lot of options, Which also leads to an issue of not having as wide of a range of audiologists who actually specialize in said brand.
Hello Dr. Cliff. It looks like you were good friends with Mary Shelley. I've created a monster! Some hearing professionals seem to sell only one main product such as Phonak, Starkey or Oticon. I am sure there are incentives for selling certain brands and the audiologist being beholden to one or another. I agree with you if the audiologist is not familiar with a brand that a patient might not get the best fit even though that's the hearing aids that they want. Great video and information as always. 👏
Meh! You are very good about what you present and how you present it. You have stated many times that the best hearing aid for one person will not necessarily be the best for another! I recently purchased ( after listening to your reviews and doing my own research on what my particular needs/ desires are) a new hearing aid. Only need one, because one is ear not correctable. Wow. What a great improvement in technology, my old one was only 3 years old and still functional, but no comparison!!! Especially in noisy environments!!! Glad I lived to experience this!!! So people… don’t be lazy… do your own summary of what your needs are. Select the hearing aid that will best meet your needs! As Dr. Cliff says buy the technology level that you can reasonably afford!!!
You have introduced me to deep neural network HAs. I am interested in purchasing a pair. My Best Practices audiologist is most experienced with Phonak. I wasn't comfortable wearing the Phonak Sphere. I trust her advice. It will be interesting to see how this plays out!
Hey Dr Cliff, I'm Ravindra practicing Audiologist in India. It would be great if u could do a video on lifestyle based counselling for suggesting proper hearing aid to patients. Thanks in Advance
I would assume, with you training and experience, you could create 5 to 7 prototypical hearing loss patient profiles and then explain why hearing aid X is best for patient 1, hearing aid Y is best for patient 2, et cetera. Or, perhaps, hearing aid X is best for about 40% of patients and hears whyt, hearing aid Y is best for about 20% of patients and hears why, et cetera. Or, maybe the factors that steer to one or the other aid...
I watch your videos so I can make an informed decision on buying a better quality hearing aid without trying each one of them. Too expensive to be experimenting!
Hearing aid remote mics should sound as good and hang on your shirt as easily as the one on your collar. All the remote mics are heavy and point at the floor. And they don't sound near as good as your voice. BTW. FAWK Widex
I think you are taking to much credit on this. For the almost 2 1/2 years I have been watching your channel you have been very clear about not only the ranking in no particular order, but also about what might be the best HA for one person, not necessarily being the best for another person. And I am pretty sure you have even talked about having a level of experience with specific brands and not others and how important it is for the provider to be experienced with the specific product they are dispensing. Patients need to take the responsibility for having open and frank conversations with their providers. Of course, this is a two way street. Thanks for your content.
What bothers me most about your “best of” videos is that they’re chronologically inaccurate. Case in point: in December, you released a “Best Hearing Aids of 2025”…and we hadn’t even STARTED 2025 yet. What you’re actually doing is a retrospective of the aids released in 2024, so your videos for this would be better titled “The Hearing aids of 2024: The Year in Review.” Just a suggestion. And, yes, Widex makes great aids. See my lengthy comment regarding your review of the SmartRIC. (But you’re 100% spot-on with THIS video!)
From a previous job I was in a position that I had to be neutral on assistive hearing technology including apps. So I learned early on try not to promote just one item or best product but overall give summary of each product and how it could benefit them rather than just the one. So I am HCP trainee in Texas and I come from a background growing up with hearing loss. I have worn so many types of hearing aid brands and models over the years. I can relate and understand as a consumer that I would want only the best and dismiss the rest. But as a professional, I'd rather be neutral. Its good to know what you said in your video :-)
Thanks for your honesty!
On January 1, 2025, I woke up with absolutely no ability to hear in my right ear and a slight ability to hear in my left ear. There is a great deal of noise in my head all of the time. My neighbor drove me to the emergency room and I was immediately hospitalized. They did a CAT scan with and without contrast and they also did an MRI of my head and neck. They ruled out cancer and stroke and probably some other stuff. They discharged me and told me to go to an audiologist. I am pretty freaked out right now because I’ve never had one moment of problem with my hearing in my entire life. Of course I’ve spent a lot of time on the computer trying to get information about sudden bilateral hearing loss. This has shown me to be much more aware of the trauma of hearing loss for the people that are in my life. I’ve always taken perfect hearing for granted. I don’t like to whine but I’m so sad today.😢 Thank you for your videos and I will definitely search “hearing up” and try to find someone in my area of Florida. Happy new year!
Yikes! I feel great empathy for your situation. 25 years ago I suddenly lost the hearing in my right ear, which came with very much vertigo and vomiting. ( left ear remained normal, which is/was some hearing loss but didn’t at that time require a hearing aid). I went to emergency, Dr. gave me a gravol shot and sent me home, two weeks later I got in to see an ENT. He told me if I had seen him right away ( or at least within the first two weeks) he may have been able to recover some of my hearing. ( large dose of prednisone). With research online I later self diagnosed SSNHL . Sudden sensory neural hearing loss. This is surprisingly common, typically does not affect both ears! However, if I were you get to an ENT ASAP!!!! Living with one functioning ear is the pits!!!
@@howardbutler4878 Thank you for your reply and advice. I will definitely call all the audiologists in my area and try to get an appointment right away! I’m sorry you had to go through the vertigo and vomiting! That had to be just horrible!! 🤢 I only have a tiny bit of vertigo if I move too quickly.
I live near the villages in Florida, so I’m sure there are tons of audiologists around. Fingers crossed that they’re not already booked till March! Good luck to you if you’re in the frozen tundra up north! Again, thanks!
@@jerimow8400
Hi,
I am extremely sorry about what happened to you and that I am really wishing, hoping, and praying for the very best outcome for you as possible.
If I were you I would go to a ENT that has a audiologist so in that way you can hit two birds with one stone so that you do not have wait to go see a ENT after you see a audiologist and in that way you can get treated a whole lot sooner because time is of the essence here. Also a lot of audiologist and ENT doctor offices will specifically ask you what your exact symptoms are to determine if you are experiencing a medical emergency (SSHL is a medical emergency.) to see if they can fit you in as soon as possible and make you a top priority. Also if they do not ask what your exact symptoms are or what you are experiencing please tell them that you are experiencing SSHL, that is it a medical emergency, and that time is of the essence here and they should be able to realize the true severity of the situation and really try to make you top priority and see you as soon as possible or extremely unfortunately if they no please be sure to keep on calling other audiologist and ENT doctor offices until somebody takes you extremely seriously.
In the meanwhile, please really give yourself some self care by allowing yourself to grieve, talk to other people, see a mental health professional, find a support group, take off from work if you have too, try to do some fun and relaxing things to keep your mind occupied, and etc if you feel like it even though those things that might be super hard to do at times. In other words do what you think is best and what works for you.
Once again, I am extremely sorry that this happened to you, that me and a whole lot of other people are always here for you, and that we all really truly wishing, hoping, and praying for the very best possible outcome for you. May God bless you always! Happy New Year! Peace!
@@jerimow8400good luck and hugs
Dr. Cliff, we, who watch your videos comparing hearing aids, are shopping for both hearing aids and doctors who dispense them, so what we need is a way to optimize picking both. If doctors insist on not being an expert on all the good devices out there (you included), then we need to know. I am not sure how any doctor can claim to follow all the best practices if he does not know all the good technology out there. So we would really appreciate it if you made yourself an expert on ALL hearing aids so we can get the best information. If you don't have the time for that, please tell us what hearing aids we need to research somewhere else as you did in this video with Widex. We really appreciate your videos. If you are concerned about the cost of purchasing all of these hearing aids to test out, I suspect your channel is motivation enough for any manufacturer to supply you with a set to test at least.
👍🏻 totally agree 100%
The nice thing about having Cochlear implants, you're basically locked into one brand and there's generally not a lot of options, Which also leads to an issue of not having as wide of a range of audiologists who actually specialize in said brand.
Hello Dr. Cliff. It looks like you were good friends with Mary Shelley. I've created a monster!
Some hearing professionals seem to sell only one main product such as Phonak, Starkey or Oticon. I am sure there are incentives for selling certain brands and the audiologist being beholden to one or another.
I agree with you if the audiologist is not familiar with a brand that a patient might not get the best fit even though that's the hearing aids that they want.
Great video and information as always. 👏
Meh! You are very good about what you present and how you present it. You have stated many times that the best hearing aid for one person will not necessarily be the best for another! I recently purchased ( after listening to your reviews and doing my own research on what my particular needs/ desires are) a new hearing aid. Only need one, because one is ear not correctable. Wow. What a great improvement in technology, my old one was only 3 years old and still functional, but no comparison!!! Especially in noisy environments!!! Glad I lived to experience this!!! So people… don’t be lazy… do your own summary of what your needs are. Select the hearing aid that will best meet your needs! As Dr. Cliff says buy the technology level that you can reasonably afford!!!
You have introduced me to deep neural network HAs. I am interested in purchasing a pair. My Best Practices audiologist is most experienced with Phonak. I wasn't comfortable wearing the Phonak Sphere. I trust her advice. It will be interesting to see how this plays out!
Hey Dr Cliff,
I'm Ravindra practicing Audiologist in India. It would be great if u could do a video on lifestyle based counselling for suggesting proper hearing aid to patients.
Thanks in Advance
I would assume, with you training and experience, you could create 5 to 7 prototypical hearing loss patient profiles and then explain why hearing aid X is best for patient 1, hearing aid Y is best for patient 2, et cetera. Or, perhaps, hearing aid X is best for about 40% of patients and hears whyt, hearing aid Y is best for about 20% of patients and hears why, et cetera. Or, maybe the factors that steer to one or the other aid...
I watch your videos so I can make an informed decision on buying a better quality hearing aid without trying each one of them. Too expensive to be experimenting!
Hearing aid remote mics should sound as good and hang on your shirt as easily as the one on your collar. All the remote mics are heavy and point at the floor. And they don't sound near as good as your voice.
BTW. FAWK Widex
I think you are taking to much credit on this. For the almost 2 1/2 years I have been watching your channel you have been very clear about not only the ranking in no particular order, but also about what might be the best HA for one person, not necessarily being the best for another person. And I am pretty sure you have even talked about having a level of experience with specific brands and not others and how important it is for the provider to be experienced with the specific product they are dispensing. Patients need to take the responsibility for having open and frank conversations with their providers. Of course, this is a two way street. Thanks for your content.
I think he is trying to mitigate some damage that might have been caused by his true believers, his fans, he seems really on-point to me.
What bothers me most about your “best of” videos is that they’re chronologically inaccurate. Case in point: in December, you released a “Best Hearing Aids of 2025”…and we hadn’t even STARTED 2025 yet. What you’re actually doing is a retrospective of the aids released in 2024, so your videos for this would be better titled “The Hearing aids of 2024: The Year in Review.”
Just a suggestion.
And, yes, Widex makes great aids. See my lengthy comment regarding your review of the SmartRIC.
(But you’re 100% spot-on with THIS video!)