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An estimated 1.8 million U.S. residents age 12 and up have severe hearing loss.1 And older adults are more likely to experience severe hearing loss than other age groups. For many, wearing power or super-power hearing aids can help enhance their quality of life and ability to interact with the world around them. Below, we’ll take a look at the best power and super-power hearing aids on the market, along with the common features to look for in devices for severe hearing loss.
The Phonak Naida is a powerful hearing aid filled with top-level technology and features. You can control settings right from your smartphone with the myPhonak app. Just keep in mind that Phonak doesn’t advertise pricing online. For purchasing, you’ll need to visit a hearing care professional, which is a best practice for managing severe hearing loss anyway. Learn more about our thoughts on Phonak hearing aids by checking out our 2023 Phonak review.
The Oticon Xceed features BrainHearing technology, an open sound experience, and whistle and static prevention to deliver better hearing in any environment. You also can’t ignore the convenience of the MFi design. Connect your hearing aids to any Apple device, and have an easier time hearing not just conversations, but music, movies, and more. Of course, all of this great tech doesn’t come cheap. Oticon doesn’t publish pricing information online, so you’ll need to visit a hearing care provider for more information.
Did You Know? When you buy hearing aids from an audiologist’s office or hearing aid center, your purchase typically includes follow-up care like hearing tests, fittings, and in-office or remote adjustments.
Want to learn more about Oticon? Check out our Oticon review for 2023.
ReSound offers the technology and remote care that olders adults with severe hearing loss need. This includes a range of add-on hearing aid accessories that help you hear conversation partners, phone calls, and your television more clearly. To learn about ReSound accessory and hearing aid pricing, you’ll need to visit a hearing care specialist. Check out our review of ReSound for more information.
Want to know more about ReSound and Oticon? See how the two stack up against one another in our ReSound vs. Oticon comparison guide.
The Starkey Livio AI is more than just a hearing aid. It helps you monitor your physical well-being, detect falls, and complete helpful tasks like transcribe conversations. Available in four different hearing aid styles, there’s a Starkey Livio AI for all types of hearing loss. Your Starkey hearing professional can recommend which style suits your needs best, as well as share Starkey pricing information. For a closer look at Starkey and the Livio AI, give our latest Starkey review a read.
If you’re in need of a hearing solution for severe to profound hearing loss, the Signia Motion Charge&GO P X and SP X devices are solid choices. Wearers enjoy enhanced speech understanding, telecoil functionality, and Bluetooth streaming for a better listening experience no matter what you’re doing. Unfortunately, Signia’s pricing isn’t available online. Instead, you’ll need to visit an audiologist or hearing center to inquire about pricing or the right model for your level of hearing loss. Prepare for your appointment by reading our review of Signia hearing aids.
Widex’s advanced hearing aids with PureSound and ZeroDelay enable seniors with severe hearing loss to hear naturally. Through the Widex Zen app and other Widex apps, wearers can manage tinnitus, stream phone audio, and adjust volume and pitch. If Widex sounds right for you, visit your audiologist or a hearing specialist. They can walk you through the different styles and review pricing information, which isn’t available online.
To learn more about Widex, read our latest Widex hearing aid review.
Helpful Hint: Want more hearing aid options? Check out our list of the best hearing aids. All of the providers in this article made the cut!
Whether you’re buying your first pair of hearing aids or shopping for your next pair, it’s difficult to wade through the sea of hearing aids for severe hearing loss. To help you out, we narrowed down the choices to our top hearing aids for severe hearing loss. We evaluated factors like price, features, user-friendliness, Bluetooth connectivity, mobile app compatibility, and reputation.
Individuals with severe or profound hearing loss can’t use just any style or type of hearing aid. Instead, they need power or super-power hearing aids. These types of hearing aid tend to come in the BTE style with a component that sits behind your ear and another component that fills your ear. The style and larger size provides room for more powerful receivers, amplifiers, and processors.
Other hearing aids come in smaller styles, like the invisible-in-the-canal (IIC) style. An invisible style is too small to include the power and features that a person with severe or profound hearing loss needs. You can visit our list of the best invisible hearing aids to learn more about IIC devices.
You can find power and super-power hearing aids in rechargeable or battery-powered styles. For example, Signia’s Motion Charge&GO SP X features a rechargeable battery, while Oticon’s Xceed relies on disposable batteries.
Super-power hearing aids amplify sounds, but that’s just the start. The technology also focuses on making sounds clear and distinct so that wearers can process what they’re hearing. A big part of this is transposing hard-to-hear frequencies.
It’s common for those with severe or profound hearing loss to struggle to hear low- or high-frequency sounds. No amount of amplification would improve the wearer’s ability to hear at those frequencies. That’s why power and super-power hearing aids detect sounds in those hard-to-hear frequency ranges and then transpose them to a more moderate frequency. The transposed frequency, paired with sound amplification and feedback cancellation, helps the wearer to hear clearly.
All of the top players in the hearing aid industry sell hearing aid solutions for severe hearing loss. However, you’ll need to visit an audiologist or hearing center for purchase and fitting. The audiologist will test your hearing, review purchase options and pricing, and make a mold of your ears. Hearing aid earmolds come in a variety of colors, but clear or skin-tone molds offer the most discretion.
When deciding which hearing aids to purchase for severe hearing loss, research or ask your audiologist about the following features:
Hearing aids do not correct hearing loss or restore your hearing.5 While in use, hearing aids do help you hear better.
Power and super-power hearing aids are the best option for older adults with severe hearing loss. If that’s you, focus on models that meet your budget and come with the features you need, such as Bluetooth streaming and remote microphone compatibility.
Oticon claims to have the world’s most powerful hearing aid: the Oticon Xceed. This device offers a true-to-life hearing experience and eliminates whistling and static.
If you have hearing loss in one ear and normal hearing in the other, you can purchase one hearing aid. However, age-related hearing loss often occurs in both ears, even if one ear is better than the other.6 In that case, using two hearing aids can give you a better listening experience.
Ruth Reisman, AuD MBA, is a licensed audiologist and hearing aid dispenser in New York state and is certified by the American Speech and Hearing Association. After serving as an audiologist in the New York downstate hospital system, Dr. Reisman led the… Learn More About Dr. Ruth Reisman
National Library of Medicine. (2016). Prevalence of Hearing Loss by Severity in the United States.
Phonak. (2022). Phonak Naída™ Marvel.
WebMD. (2022). Frequency Shifting Hearing Aids: How They Work.
National Library of Medicine. (2020). A comparison of the severity of tinnitus in patients with and without hearing loss using the tinnitus functional index (TFI).
UCSF Health. (2022). Hearing Loss Treatments.
Harvard Medical School. (2019). One hearing aid or two?