‘Game changer’: New AI hearing aids help people live fuller lives

MONROE, N.C. — To Cindy Carter, hearing the sounds of an acorn crunching under her feet gives her life.

“The first hearing aids I had, I was surprised at the bird sounds that I heard,” Carter said. “I’m used to that, but to hear acorns under my feet, I don’t even know they made a noise.”

Hearing loss runs in Carter’s family, and she started wearing hearing aids after she developed it. But it was still difficult for her to sing in theater or go to dinner.

“I was sitting at the table with my friends and I couldn’t understand what they were saying, so I’m really excited that Sharon [Klein] has introduced me to the AI program on these new hearing aids,” Carter told Channel 9’s Gina Esposito.

Klein is a hearing aid instrument specialist at Beltone in Monroe. She showed Channel 9 the new AI hearing aid that she gave Carter.

“It’s called Beltone Envision, and it’s the only dual AI hearing aid that’s the size that it is in the entire world,” Klein said.

Klein says it has become a game changer for her patients because the artificial intelligence inside the device doesn’t just amplify sound.

“When people typically have trouble hearing, a big issue that they have is in noisy environments. And so what this does is it literally, with that AI, cancels out that noise in the background to give them better clarity and better understanding where they’d normally have much more difficulty doing it,” Klein said.

This hearing aid has been around for more than a year, and so far, hundreds of people have received it at Beltone’s location in Monroe.

Klein explained that for each patient, she increases the strength of the hearing aid slowly, over time.

“Never start at a full prescription,” Klein said. “Because the brain has to acclimate to hearing sound it hasn’t heard in a long time.”

There’s no cure for hearing loss, but this new technology is helping people like Carter live fuller lives.

“I have been so surprised at the sounds that I’ve heard, that I should’ve been hearing all along and didn’t hear it,” Carter said.

Klein says hearing loss can start at any age, but 50 is when she recommends annual checks. She says that particular AI hearing aid can cost upwards of $10,000, but discounts are possible and insurance may help.

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