A client's summer evening by the river, and why I'm looking forward to Oticon's newest hearing aid.
By Martin Jurek, Campbell River Hearing Clinic
On October 1 we were in Vancouver for Oticon's launch of their newest hearing aid, called the Reveal. Before I tell you why I'm excited about it, let me tell you a story. It's one of many like it that I've heard from our clients, and this one involves a river.
Every summer he and his wife go camping with two other couples at the same spot beside a river. And every year, when the sun went down and everyone gathered around the campfire, he took his hearing aids out. The rush of the water filled everything, and the voices across the fire disappeared into it, so there didn't seem much point in wearing them.
This summer he went back with a new pair of Oticon Intent hearing aids. He was sitting by the fire, deep in conversation, not giving his hearing aids a single thought, until he turned his head a little and heard the river swell for a moment and then settle back again. That's when it dawned on him: his hearing aids were in, he was following every person around that fire, and the river was still there. Only now it wasn't drowning anyone out. The sound of that river is what makes the spot special, and this time it simply sat in the background, part of the evening, along with the crackle and pop of the fire, while every voice around it came through clearly. He wasn't working at it. He was enjoying his friends and the river, both at once.
What's behind stories like his is how Oticon thinks about sound. Rather than shutting the world out, they give your brain the whole picture, the river, the fire, the wind in the trees, and make more room around the voices you want to follow. You keep the sounds that make a place feel like itself, without them taking over the conversation. It sounds natural, and that's a big part of why people stop noticing they're wearing them.
The Reveal builds on the Intent. Oticon says it handles background noise and wind even better, and much of that comes from AI. I know the word gets a bad rap, but here it simply means the hearing aid has been trained to recognize individual sounds and sort out, as you move through your day, which ones matter most to you.
One honest note: in almost thirty years of doing this, I've sat through a lot of launches. Every time something new comes out, the marketing people go to work and claim it's the best thing since sliced bread, and it doesn't always turn out that way. We've seen promises that didn't hold up, and it's the people wearing the hearing aids who end up putting up with it. That's why this one excites me. We've worked with Oticon for many years, and while every manufacturer has its off moments, Oticon has been the most consistent for us, time after time. I'm hoping the Reveal carries that on, and I have a feeling a lot of our clients are going to be very happy with it.
We went to learn everything we can about it so we can bring it home to Campbell River and Port McNeill. If you've been wondering whether something like this could help you hear the people you care about, give us a call. We'd love to tell you what we saw.
– Martin
Campbell River Hearing Clinic · 250-914-3200 · tohear.ca
Photo: my own family around our fire.