The federal Food and Drug Administration is dropping some of its regulation of hearing aids in hopes that cheaper alternatives will soon be available. But the proposal is drawing opposition from audiologists, who say inexpensive devices won’t help people with serious hearing loss.
Hearing aids are medical devices, so the FDA regulates how they are made and requires they be proved effective. The personal amplification devices are not regulated, so there is no guarantee they work, said Dr. Steve Doettl, an audiologist at the University of Tennessee Health Science Center in Knoxville.