- In this video, I'm reviewing the new and most definitely improved
Earlens hearing aid system, coming up. (upbeat music) Hi guys, Cliff Olson, doctor of audiology and founder of Applied Hearing Solutions in Phoenix, 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, make sure you hit that subscribe button, and don't forget to click the bell to receive a notification
every time I post a new video. A few years ago I published a review video about the Earlens Light-Driven
Hearing Aid system based on my experiences with
this revolutionary technology that promised to give
better hearing performance than a traditional hearing aid. In that video, I mentioned
a number of shortcomings of the Earlens Light-Driven
Hearing Aid system, and basically came to the conclusion that due to the extremely high cost, the lack of reliability, and
the complex delivery model of that particular hearing aid, that the Earlens Light-Driven Hearing Aid was more trouble than it was worth. The good news is, Earlens learned from all the positive
and negative feedback that they received from their original Light-Driven Hearing Aid, and decided to pivot
away from this technology and move it in a different direction. Now, if this is the first time that you're hearing about Earlens, let me go ahead and give
you a quick explanation about what Earlens is and how it compares to a traditional hearing aid. In general, traditional
hearing aids amplify sounds to make those sounds more audible to an individual with hearing loss. Sound is picked up by a microphone, either behind your ears
or inside of your ears. That sound is then processed by the hearing aid and amplified according to your hearing
loss prescription. That sound is then put into your ear canal to vibrate your eardrum
at a more intense level than what that natural
sound would have done. The original light-driven
system was designed in a completely different way. So let me go ahead and
actually play a video on what this device actually did. - [Narrator] The Earlens
Light-Driven Hearing Aid has three major parts, the photon processor, the light tip and the lens. The small, custom fit
lens is placed in your ear by an ear, nose and throat physician. The lens stays in place on your ear the same way a contact lens
stays in place on your eye, with surface tension. Sound enters the microphones on the rechargeable
behind the ear processor. The processor communicates
the sound to the light tip, which converts the sound
into non-visible light. The light signals the
lens to gently activate your natural hearing system. - So instead of amplifying sounds, like what you would do with
a traditional hearing aid, they actually converted that
sound into a light impulse that could directly drive your eardrum. This method of stimulating better hearing actually has advantages over
traditional hearing aids in that you get a broader
frequency range of amplification and you can leave the ear canals open and still be able to stimulate
low-frequency hearing. However, the flaws in this original design led the company to completely
switch away from this method of directly driving the eardrum. The biggest flaw that they had and the biggest reason for the change is that when you had that ear
tip inside of someone's ear, that light had to be directly
pointing at that lens. And so anytime someone would chew on food or smile or anything like that, it would take the tip of that light source and actually make it
miss the lens altogether, which completely negated all
the benefit of this device. This is why Earlens decided to abandon the light tip design and switch to an inductive power design. However, the overall concept
remains completely unchanged. They want to be able to
directly drive the eardrum with the lens that sits on the eardrum. They're just changing the way
that they drive that lens. Instead of using a light source, they're using inductive power. Inductive power does not
require a direct line of sight, so you can chew on food,
you can smile all you want, and the hearing aid is
gonna continue to work. So what are some of the other good things about this inductive
power ear lens system? First, you still get a
broader frequency response with Earlens versus a
traditional hearing aid. Instead of capping out
at around 6,000 hertz for a traditional hearing aid, Earlens can go all the
way up to 10,000 hertz, which actually gives you more audibility at higher frequency
ranges of hearing loss. Some research suggests
that the benefits of this could actually improve music appreciation and the ability to understand speech and quiet and background noise. Second, Earlens can actually amplify low-frequency sound waves, even though they leave your
ear canals completely open. You see, one of the problems
with traditional hearing aids is that low-frequency
sounds cannot be amplified and actually stay inside the ear unless you actually
close off the ear canal, but this is completely
different with Earlens. They can have an open vent
on the tip of their earpiece and still allow in some
natural low-frequency sounds, but even amplify low-frequency sounds inside of your ear without having to worry about those sounds leaking out. Not only does this allow you
to amplify low frequencies with an open ear canal, but this allows you to also
prevent the occlusion effect, which is that perception of your own voice being really boomy and loud when you have your ears
plugged up with something. And due to the direct drive
aspect of how Earlens works, it can actually improve the quality of streaming sound from your smart device. This open ear tip also helps
to prevent insertion loss, which is that effect that you get when you put something inside of your ears and it blocks some of
your natural hearing, making your hearing a little bit worse, so you then have to go in
and amplify on top of it. Third, the Earlens
system can actually apply negative insertion gain,
which basically means that they can apply some form
of active noise cancellation. This allows for better functioning of directional microphones, signal processing and noise reduction. And fourth, the new
Earlens inductive system has seemed to overcome
some of the major problems that were plaguing the old technology, which was reliability and
consistent performance. Now, I've spoken to a
number of otolaryngologists and audiologists who have
been working directly with this new version of Earlens, and I've also spoken to some patients who've worn this new
version of Earlens, as well, and it seems as though
a lot of the problems that they had with the first
generation of this technology are significantly improved. Not only are audiologists reporting a higher rate of satisfaction when fitting the new Earlens system, patients are also reporting a high rate of satisfaction, as well. When directly comparing
clinician perceptions of the previous light-driven
photonic version and the new inductive version, not a single clinician reported that the previous version was better, although 48% did report
that the two systems were about the same. 30-day patient satisfaction ratings were also favorable for the
new inductive Earlens system, where about 82% of users reported being satisfied
or very satisfied. So what is the process of getting Earlens? Well, you actually have to see
two types of professionals. You have to see a physician
in the form of otologist or an otolaryngologist, and you also have to see an audiologist. This way, they can determine
if you're a good candidate for Earlens based on your
ear health and ear condition, as well as your audiometric data. If you have significant ear abnormalities, like a perforated eardrum or exostosis that would actually block being able to put a lens on your eardrum, then you are not a good candidate. However, just like with
traditional hearing aids, most forms of sensory neural hearing loss can be treated with Earlens. The audiologist may also have
you listen to a comparator, which lets you compare
the differences in sound between a hearing aid and Earlens. Ultimately, if you're a
good candidate for Earlens and you decide to pursue
treatment with Earlens, the next step is to get
two impressions made. The first impression is an
impression of your eardrum. That's right. They're actually going to
take a physical impression of your actual eardrum so they
can make the custom Earlens. The second impression is
more of a traditional one where they would actually
inject silicone material into your outer ear like they would do if they're just doing a regular ear mold. The first impression has
to be done by the otologist or otolaryngologist, but
the second impression can either be done by them, as
well, or by the audiologist. Once the impressions are made, devices are ordered and
custom production begins with your ear tips and your lenses. This process takes about two weeks, and then once you come
back into the clinic, the otologist or the otolaryngologist will actually place the
lens on your eardrums, and then you'll go and
see the audiologist, where they will actually fit you with the processor and the ear tip and program those devices for you. This starts a series of
fitting follow-up appointments over the course of the next couple months, and then over the course
of the entire first year, you'll probably go in around quarterly to see your otologist as
well as your audiologist. Okay, so that's roughly how the process of getting Earlens works. Yes, there is a lot of moving parts there, but let's get into some of
the more interesting stuff, which is what does the
Earlens system look like? Now when I go ahead
and wear these devices, and give me a second here
'cause I'm gonna go ahead and put them in my ears
to kind of show you what they look like. So there's the left one. I think that one was, what, a silver one? This one here is more of a black color, but they look a lot like
a traditional receiver in the canal hearing aid. Let me kind of center myself there. Kind of show you this side, show you from behind. Let's flip around, show you
the other side and from behind. I do notice that these wires right here, they do stick out a ways. That's the one thing about this, is because this is not
a rigid wire right here, it doesn't hold the form really tight up against the side of your head. These do feel a little
bulky behind the ears, but after wearing them for a while, you probably wouldn't notice it that much. Overall, I would say that they
are a pretty comfortable fit, as long as the audiologist makes sure that they have a really good
solid impression of your ear and make any modifications
if necessary to the earpiece. All right, guys, so I
wanna go ahead and show you a little bit more of a closeup
of these custom lenses. Now, like I said, these are all custom, so they will be a little bit different, but I'm gonna remove this one from the shipping container here and just set that off to the side so you can get a better
size comparison with a dime. Now, what we're looking at right here, this red tip is the receiver coil. That is what is actually
receiving the signal from the tip of the actual ear mold here, that little red coil that
you can see right there. But let's get that out of the way and show you a little
bit more about this lens. This silver piece right here is the motor. So that's what is actually creating the movement of this lens on the eardrum. And then if I flip it over here, this little piece right there actually makes contact with the eardrum and more specifically
the umbo of the eardrum, so it actually creates that vibration. All right, let's go ahead and
take a look at the processors. I'm gonna take them out of
their charger case here. And as you can see, we have
two different colors here. We have the black color, and more of this silver champagne color. But the important thing to
note here is that, again, this right here is the transmitter coil that will send a signal
to the receiver coil that's inside of the lens. Now, the ear mold in and
of itself has an open vent. You can see right through there. The bigger, the better, and you don't lose any low frequencies when you have an open vent because we're using a
direct drive system here. The material here is really soft silicone. You can see how it kind
of squishes around there, so it gives a really comfortable
fit inside of the ear. The wire that goes down to this tip, you can see that it's
a little bit more rigid along the top right there, but then it dangles along the bottom, so that's why it doesn't contour with the side of the ear that well, as I showed you a little bit earlier. And then I'm gonna switch
over to this device here, as I show you the push buttons. So you have an up push button
and a down push button, and then you have a front and
a rear microphone, as well. Very similar to a pretty traditional behind the ear or receiver
in canal hearing aid. And as you can see, this is
a pretty hefty-sized device. Like I mentioned before,
you can stream audio directly from an iPhone
into your Earlens devices, and you also get access to an app that allows you to do
a few different things, like change programs and
change the volume levels. Now as cool and as revolutionary
as the Earlens system is, and it is pretty cool and
it is pretty revolutionary, there are still a few
negatives about this system. And the first negative
is that the logistics of the fitting and maintaining
process are really complex. In most cases with
traditional hearing aids, you only need to see an audiologist, but in this case you have
to see an audiologist and you have to see an otologist
or an otolaryngologist, and you have to basically
bounce back and forth between the two of them. From a scheduling perspective,
this can be a problem, and this develops into
even more of a problem if you run into any
issues with your devices, because half the time,
you're not really sure who you should go see. Should you go see the audiologist? Should you go see the medical doctor? If you go to see one and they're like, oh, that's not in my jurisdiction, you have to go see the other
one, then you have to hope that the other one's actually available. Second is the fact that
you can only stream from an Apple device. I happen to be primarily an Android user, but if you're an Android user, you can't stream audio
into your Earlens devices. So if you happen to be an Android person, you're gonna have to switch
over to be an Apple person. That being said, if you do not care about streaming whatsoever, and you don't care about having an app that lets you do remote control features, then basically this is not a negative. Third is the price. Now, I happen to be a strong believer that you get what you pay for, and that having a high
price tag on something generally means that that thing is going to be better for you. However, the question becomes,
will Earlens provide you with twice the amount of value as a traditional premium level hearing aid that can be usually half the cost? Because premium hearing aid
technology for both ears is generally gonna run you
between $6,000 and $7,500, but Earlens is generally gonna cost you between $10,000 and $12,000. The fact that you have to see
two different professionals to get this system fit and maintained, it's going to cost you more money. And the fourth negative is
access to Earlens providers. Earlens is still a super new company, and even though they're adding new clinics across the United States, it can be still as difficult
to find an Earlens clinic as it is to find a clinic
that follows best practices when fitting hearing aids. However, it does appear as though Earlens has significantly improved
upon their original design with a light-driven system by switching over to the
inductive power system. I do expect to see more
and more individuals gravitate over to Earlens
if they can afford it and if they're not 100% happy with their traditional hearing aids. And of course, I always look forward to seeing more peer-reviewed studies comparing the performance capabilities of Earlens versus traditional hearing aids as more and more
individuals start to adopt this revolutionary technology. That's it for this video. If you have any questions, leave them in the comment section below. If you liked the video, please share it. If you want to see other
videos just like this one, go ahead and hit that subscribe button. Also feel free to check out
my website, drcliffaud.com. (upbeat music)
