Can Airpods Replace Hearing Aids?

Time to Read: 8 minutes

“Can Airpods Replace Hearing Aids?”

It’s a question we were asked recently.

The short answer is ‘no’.

Before we give you a longer answer, let’s take a look at what Apple Airpods are as well as other personal sound amplifying products (PSAPS), including what they can do and what they can’t do.

Personal sound amplifying products are small electronic devices that fit in your ear. As the name suggests, they increase the volume of sound going into the ears.

For people without hearing loss, they might be useful for watching television in bed without disturbing your partner. They are sometimes used by hunters and bird watchers out in the wilderness where they will more readily pick up softer sounds.

They are sometimes called hearing devices but they are not definitely not hearing aids.

What about Airpods?

AirPods are wireless Bluetooth earbuds created by Apple. In addition to playing music, AirPods feature a built-in microphone that filters out background noise, which allows taking phone calls and talking to Apple's digital assistant. 

Live Listen is an app created by Apple. It uses your iPhone or iPad as a microphone and streams the sound directly to your ear via Bluetooth which may be helpful in noisy situations like restaurants and lecture halls.

So, what is the difference between these devices and hearing aids?

As the name suggests, personal sound amplifying products (we’ll include the Airpod in this description) indiscriminately makes ALL sounds louder - even in the frequencies you can hear perfectly well.

What it doesn’t do is configure sounds and frequencies to match your specific hearing loss.

Treating hearing loss is more than just making sounds louder.

Hearing is a complex set of physiological and neurological processes and involves two important key areas - your ears and your brain.

You don’t actually “hear” a sound until the brain’s hearing centres receive electrical signals from the ear, process those signals and generate some reaction – like getting out of the way of an on-coming car as you cross the street.

As we grow older (or as a result of injury, illness, or extensive exposure to loud sounds), the hair cells in your cochlea die off.

The hair cells that detect high frequency are the ones most buffeted in day-to-day life and are the first to die off. This is why high frequency sounds - that help us understand speech are difficult to hear as we get older.

To add complexity to the equation, the longer someone goes with unaddressed hearing loss, the more difficult it is for the brain to remember to correctly interpret sound.

When you’re in a noisy environment, struggling to hear a conversation, you are likely to find these hearing devices make it even more difficult to hear.

Worse, if you use PSAPS when you actually need hearing aids, you could be damaging your already compromised hearing, leaving you susceptible to other health and cognitive conditions associated with untreated hearing loss.

Those conditions include:

• Poorer quality of life
• Depression
• Cognitive decline
• Increased risk of dementia

Australia’s Department of Health notes that personal sound amplification products, most commonly sold over the internet, are not registered by the Therapeutic Goods Authority and advises that:

Consumers should only purchase a PSAP if they have been assessed by a qualified hearing practitioner as not having hearing loss. A person who chooses to wear a PSAP because they are having difficulty hearing, may actually be causing themselves harm by over-amplifying sounds which they may already hear and by delaying the diagnosis and proper treatment of the underlying reason for their hearing loss. Some reports suggest caution be exercised in fitting any amplification device because of the potential for noise-induced hearing loss.

So, why would anyone use PSAPs in place of hearing aids?

There are a couple of reasons:

• Cost
• And not knowing how hearing  or hearing aids work

Even though hearing aids and PSAPs (and Airpods) sort of look the same, they don’t perform the same functions as hearing aids. We’ve given a very brief overview on how hearing and hearing aids work, but we have more informative articles here:

• Hearing Loss And the Ageing Brain
• How Do I Know A Hearing Aid Will Work For Me Or Not?
• How Do Hearing Aids Work?
• Better Hearing By The Letter
• Why Can’t I Hear Speech In Noise in a Noisy Environment?

Let’s talk about the cost

There are plenty of reasons why hearing aids cost what they do.

• Unlike PSAPs, hearing aids are regulated as medical devices by the Therapeutic Goods Administration.
• Manufacturers sell hearing aids at different prices to local suppliers in different countries
• Government funding towards hearing aids differ in each country
• The local cost of doing business differs greatly between countries
• Warranty conditions and local support vary between countries

We go into the topic in more detail in the article,  What do hearing aids cost in Australia?

Click on the link for ways to ensure that you get excellent value for money from your hearing aid.