New England's Choice for Hearing Aids

What's The Best Hearing Aid on The Market?

The answer to this question depends on you. What is your hearing loss like? What kind of environments do you spend your time in? How much do you enjoy keeping up with new technology?

Your hearing situation is just as unique as you are, and there's no one-size-fits-all approach to fitting you with hearing aids. When you come to a team of experienced clinicians, like the team at Tobias & Battite, you're gaining access to a wealth of knowledge about what hearing aids are available today and how the different options suit different patients.

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Woman researches best hearing aids in Boston

Finding the Right Hearing Aids is a Team Effort

Before we can suggest specific hearing aids to patients, we ask a few questions. Click each question below to reveal more detail.

What kind of listening environments do you have trouble in?

Is your hearing good in quiet environments but you struggle to understand people once there’s background noise?
Do you spend most of your time at home, or do you often go out into noisier environments (such as restaurants, concerts, or sporting events)?
Are you often in classrooms or work meetings where it’s important to listen to one particular speaker?

How comfortable are you with advanced technology?

Do you want to be able to control your hearing aid with an app on your phone?
Do you want to connect your hearing aid to devices like your television?

What are your aesthetic preferences for hearing aids?

Do you want them to be as small as possible?
Do you mind what they look like placed behind your ear?
Do you want them to be a fashion statement, visible like any other bluetooth device?

Are you comfortable handling very small devices and pressing their buttons?

Some hearing aids are small in size and require dexterity to handle.

We also have to consider the results of your hearing test and what we learn about your ears. These are the questions we have to answer for ourselves. Click each question below to reveal more detail.

How severe is your hearing loss?

Will it require more powerful technology (and a bigger device) to treat?
Is it mild enough to be treated by any size of hearing aid?

What is the size and shape of your ear?

Is it large or small?
What’s the shape of your inner ear?
What will be most comfortable for you?

Do you have tinnitus?

How bothersome is your tinnitus, and when is it bothersome?

Do you have any complicated hearing situations?

Do you have a difference in hearing between your ears?
Do you have any other complex hearing-related situations?

The benefits of custom-fit hearing aids

Every hearing aid should be customized.

By default, we recommend hearing aids be custom-made for your ears, even 'Receiver-in-the-Canal' ("RIC") hearing aids. Some hearing care providers gravitate toward fitting patients with non-custom "open-dome" devices because it's quick and easy to dispense a one-size-fits-most solution. Sometimes that works well enough, but it is the philosophy at Tobias & Battite that people deserve the best – and this means customization. With custom-fit hearing aids, the devices stay put in your ears much better so the sound is directed right where it's supposed to be, every time you wear them. The right custom-fit is also more comfortable than an itchy earpiece that slides around in the ear canal.

In the past, two-part silicone earmold impression material was the only way to get a custom fit. This process can be uncomfortable for some people, and it can be a little messy. While we are still experts at doing earmold impressions, we are the first clinic in Boston to use the Lantos 3D Ear Scanning System. This system is much more comfortable, and faster, than earmold impressions. In 90-seconds per ear, we capture the unique shape of your outer ear, right down to your eardrum, and immediately send the digital impression to an earmold lab via an encrypted cloud-based system. And the good news: once we have your scan on file, we can use that same digital scan to fit you with almost any other device that can be customized for your ear, such as headphones, sleep earplugs, or custom hearing protection!

Hearing Aid Styles

Hearing aids come in a wide variety of sizes and styles to suit your preferences and your individual hearing loss. Cost is affected not by which style you choose but by how advanced the technology is. Smaller isn’t always better! What matters most is matching your hearing aid to your lifestyle and your hearing needs.

Many musicians appreciate hearing aids that fit deep inside the ear canal, because this takes advantage of the natural acoustics of your outer ear. While the size of your ear canal and your specific hearing loss may mean you are not an ideal candidate for deep-fitting hearing aids, if it can be done, our expert clinicians will make it happen.

Invisible-in-Canal

Completley in the canal hearing aid in ear

Completely-in-Canal

In-the-Canal

If you find small buttons to be challenging, you might have the easiest time with a custom-fit hearing device that fits in the outer part of your ear.

In-the-Ear

The most popular hearing aid style fits behind your ear and delivers sound through a tube or wire to your ear canal. These are comfortable and have a good quality of sound. It also allows us to use more sophisticated technology, since the size isn’t limited by what can fit inside your ear. Their size also makes bluetooth connectivity a possibility.

Receiver-in-Canal

Behind-the-Ear

Some hearing aids also offer rechargeable batteries. These are becoming more common, although they are still a new development.

Hearing Aid Brands

Tobias & Battite Hearing Wellness offers hearing aids from all the "big six" manufacturers: Oticon, Phonak, ReSound, Signia, Starkey, and Widex. These brands have good reputations for a reason. They all produce reliable devices and offer good customer service if we have questions or a patient needs repairs.

Many hearing aids offer Bluetooth connection to smartphones as well as other assistive devices such as televisions and portable mini-microphones. Many also can stream tinnitus relief programs that are crucial to tinnitus therapy. Every brand has its own benefits.

If there's a particular brand you have had good luck with in the past, we'll take that into consideration when suggesting a possible fit for you.