- In this video, I'm talking about the most futuristic
hearing aid on the planet, The Earlens light driven hearing aid. Comin' up. (upbeat music) Hi Guys, Cliff Olson, doctor
of audiology and founder of Applied Hearing Solutions
in Anthem, Arizona. And on this channel, I cover a bunch of hearing related
information to help make you a better informed consumer. So if you're into that, consider hitting the subscribe button. Back in 2016 I had the
privilege of being one of the first audiologists to fit and program a pair of commercially
available Earlens Hearing Aids. I was super excited to
do so at the time because the Earlens Light Driven Hearing Aid completely changed the way that traditional hearing aids worked. Now what do I mean by
light driven hearing aids? I'm not talking about the
hearing aids being solar powered, or anything like that. I'm talking about the
infrared light technology that they use to stimulate hearing. But instead of trying
to explain it myself, I'm gonna go ahead and let Earlens explain it. - Traditional hearing aids
amplify sound acoustically. But instead of amplifying
sound acoustically, the Earlens devices
will convert this sound into an infrared light that will cause a mechanical vibration of the lens that sits on your eardrum. And instead of acoustically
amplifying sound, your essentially mechanically
amplifying sound. But what's the main
benefit of amplifying sound with infrared light mechanically versus amplifying sound acoustically with a traditional hearing aid? When you amplify sound with light, you can actually increase
your frequency bandwidth. So instead of being restricted
to only about 6,000 hertz with a traditional hearing aid, you can get all the way up to 10,000 hertz with the light driven hearing aid. Now why is this important? The high frequency components of speech are what dictate clarity
so if you're looking for more clarity from speech, you need to make sure that your amplifying as high frequency as possible and Earlens lets you do that. In additional to the
potential improved clarity in speech, you also may
be at less likelihood for feedback or that whistling sound that you get from traditional hearing aids if you have too much
leakage of that sound. One of the other benefits
that Earlens claims to be able to do is because they're amplifying
sound mechanically, it puts you at less likelihood for this leakage of sound. However, in my experience, if you do have more of a severe
high frequency hearing loss, that vibration that's caused
by that light stimulating the lens, will actually
create its own vibration which could leak outside of your ear and cause that feedback sound. In terms of candidacy for Earlens, the requirements are very similar to that of traditional hearing aids. However, if you do have any kind of issues with your eardrum, you probably will not be a candidate and if you have
a conductive hearing loss, you probably won't be a candidate either. However, if you are a
candidate for Earlens devices, and you want to experience the increased high frequency benefits that Earlens could potentially give you, there are a few things that
you need to put up with and the first one is cost. There are a lot more steps in the process of getting Earlens devices as opposed to traditional hearing aids. First and foremost, you will have to get a hearing test and you'll have to have a consultation from an audiologist. You'll then have to have a consultation from an ear, nose, and throat physician. Once you've met those
candidacy requirements, you will then have to
get an impression made of your eardrum by the ENT. Once that is sent off to
Earlens and they send back your custom lens, the ENT will then have to place that custom lens on your eardrum. Once you've had that
placed on your eardrum, they will then send you through
to the audiologist again and they will actually put
the light tip in your ear and the behind the ear
device behind your ear and program your devices. So there is a lot more
steps in this process in order to get an
Earlens device as compared to a traditional hearing aid. The clinic that I used
to work in had to charge $12,000 for a pair of Earlens devices. So it is significantly more expensive than getting even the best
traditional hearing aids. The second thing that
you have to be willing to deal with is the added inconvenience of using Earlens. On top of all the added office visits that I previously mentioned, you're dealing with
multiple different providers that have to make sure that they stay on the same page with each other and sometimes communication
could break down which could create an issue if you end up having problems with your treatment. Since this technology is really new, you don't really know what to expect with treatment in terms of how consistent the treatment will be. In fact, when I was first treating someone with these Earlens devices, I had one case of where an individual smiled, it cut off the amplification. It doesn't seem like that big of a deal until you realize you can't really go throughout a whole day without smiling and if you do smile, you
end up missing things that people are saying to you. The third thing that
you have to be willing to deal with is the size of the devices. Because they put lithium batteries inside of their technology, which is great from a
rechargability standpoint, it does make their devices
a little bit bigger and on top of that,
they don't have a bunch of different color styles, so you aren't gonna be
able to custom match that to your hair color, which
would blend it in the most, but if you're someone who doesn't care about the way that your hearing aids look or the size of them, then you
don't have to worry about it. Ultimately, my experience
with Earlens was mixed. When they work, they work really well. When they don't work,
they really don't work. In my opinion, Earlens has some things that they need to work
out with their technology to make it more consistent
with their users. And when they do, I think that they might be on to something. But until that time, if you're using traditional hearing aids and
they aren't working for you assuming they'd been fit
and programmed appropriately using Real Ear verification, then you may want to give Earlens a try
to see if that increase in high frequency amplification can give you additional benefit. That's it for this video. If you have any questions, leave them in the comments section below. If you like the video, please share it and if you want to see other
videos just like this one, go ahead and hit that subscribe button. I'll see you next time. (upbeat music)
