Charlie Swinbourne: What is the future of ear care and hearing aids? (BSL) (2025)

Having worn hearing aids since I was two, there are habits which have become second nature when it comes to managing my ears and my hearing aids.

I (almost) always leave my hearing aids in the exact same places, whether next to my bed when I sleep at night, in the same spot in the bathroom when I take a shower, or in a certain pocket in my rucksack if I go swimming. I still misplace them from time to time, but it’s now down to only once or twice a year, compared to what felt like a constant problem of losing them (and searching the whole house in desperation, right down to checking behind the sofa) when I was a teenager.

Likewise, I always have a full box of fresh hearing aid batteries at home, and spare single packs of batteries dotted all around, including a pack in the car, one in the kitchen drawer, and one in my work bag. Covering all bases was triggered by a weekend around 20 years ago when I went to visit a hearing friend and his family, in a remote village, only to find both my hearing aids running out within a couple of hours, and no supplies nearby. That became a very long weekend indeed, which I didn’t want to repeat!

When it comes to ear care, and managing ear wax, which can easily build up with hearing aid use, I’ve always visited my local audiology clinic or GP clinic to get things tidied up once or twice a year.

That said, there was one time during the pandemic (when access to face to face services suddenly became much harder) when I had really blocked ears, and in desperation, bought a product at the chemist that promised to break down the wax, along with a squeezy thing that looked like an ear trumpet that I could use to squirt water into my ear to get some of the wax out.

I remember feeling a bit unsure about using that product – what if things went wrong? What if I damaged my ears, or lost some of my hearing, or made my tinnitus worse? Having always used NHS services, it made me feel a bit vulnerable when I took matters into my own hands. After trying once, and failing to resolve the problem, I booked a private appointment which sorted it all out (to my immense relief) although this cost around £90.

While I’m lucky that I’ve been able to go back to accessing NHS services since the pandemic, it seems that more and more deaf people are having to resolve ear wax issues themselves or resort to paying for private care (if they can afford it, that is).

Last week, RNID released a report as part of their ‘Stop the block’ campaign revealing that “more than 8 million people in England have no support available from the NHS if they need ear wax removal, and that many people feel forced into risky self-management of wax removal at home, or giving them no choice but to go private – which more than a third say they cannot afford.”

The report revealed a postcode lottery, where the support people can get varies hugely in different places, with 45% of Intregrated Care Boards not providing wax removal services in line with public health guidelines . And it showed the human cost of this issue, with some people facing hearing loss, tinnitus, earache, isolation, mental health difficulties and time off work.

There was also worrying evidence of widespread use of DIY wax removal methods. When asked, one in three people said they used cotton buds, while one in 20 admitted using tweezers or hairpins. The campaign is calling on the Government to urgently step in to ensure everyone who needs wax removal can access it on the NHS.

On the subject of hearing aids, another recent development was Apple releasing a ‘hearing aid’ feature for their AirPods Pro 2 headphones in the UK, which could be just the start of devices primarily known for being used for entertainment, being used as hearing aids as well.

Apple said:

Mild to moderate hearing loss affects millions of people in the UK. Research has shown that untreated hearing loss can affect a person’s overall health and wellbeing, including an increased risk of dementia and social isolation.

Using the personalised hearing profile generated from the intuitive Hearing Test that takes about five minutes to complete, the feature enables personalised dynamic adjustments so users have the sounds around them boosted in real time. This helps users better engage in conversation and keeps them connected to the people and environment around them. With the incredible audio quality of AirPods Pro, the hearing profile is automatically applied to music, movies, games, and phone calls across devices.

This news was cautiously welcomed by the RNID, with Crystal Rolfe, their Director of Health saying that the feature “had the potential to make a huge difference” while also saying that “there are still many reasons to see a hearing health professional” who can “carry out a full diagnostic hearing assessment, ensure hearing aids are programmed correctly, and also check for any underlying health conditions.”

While Apple’s feature might be welcomed by many, it’s easy to see, as Rolfe said, that there’s a risk of people arranging their own hearing care, which may not match the quality of actual hearing aids, without ever seeing a professional audiologist who would ensure their devices matched their deafness while also checking for any wider issues.

These two recent developments, the news of the lack of access to ear wax care and the release of Apple’s hearing aid feature makes me wonder whether we’re moving more towards a world where deaf people are increasingly expected – or forced – to take control, manage, and fund their own ear care and hearing devices? I think we are, and that there are clear risks that will come with this.

With DIY ear wax removal, those risks are clearly laid out in the RNID report. Hearing loss, tinnitus, earache, isolation and mental health difficulties, time off work. There’s also the fact that while some people may afford to go private, others can’t.

With hearing aids, while there might be some people who may be more than happy to treat mild deafness with a pair of AirPods, the issues include the fact that not everyone can afford AirPods (though they are significantly cheaper than private hearing aids), the devices may not match the quality of a proper pair of hearing aids, and underlying health conditions may not be discovered.

Alongside all of those issues, I think there’s also a more subtle downside, of more and more people keeping their deafness hidden from those around them, keeping deafness invisible, which won’t help reduce stigma or increase society’s deaf awareness skills in the long run.

As an additional point, what’s also darkly ironic is that there have been warnings about the risk to people’s hearing of using headphones for years. To be clear, I don’t know what those risks are like with Apple’s Airpods specifically, but is there a risk that the very same audio device someone may be using to treat mild or moderate hearing loss, may have actually caused some of that loss in the first place? And continuing to use these devices for entertainment – such as loud music – may in fact make a person’s deafness worse, even when they also use it as a hearing aid?

Back to the overall point, what deaf people really need is equality of provision when it comes to ear care, that shouldn’t depend on the postcode you live in. During a cost of living crisis, people shouldn’t be having to resort to dangerous DIY methods to clear their ears, or be forced to pay for expensive private treatment. The stakes are high: the amount of ear wax someone has affects how much they can hear, which then affects communication, which then affects how isolated they may feel.

We should also be cautious about people starting to treat their own hearing using private devices which were primarily designed for entertainment. For one thing, if more and more people do this, it could become more of an expectation – that less people need to bother getting a proper appointment with an audiologist and get fitted with a hearing aid. That doesn’t benefit deaf people in the long run, if it gives the sense that NHS services are no longer needed to the same degree, and the government in turn reduces the funding for these services.

For more information and to support RNID’s Stop the Block campaign, visit www.rnid.org.uk/stoptheblock