So today at 37 i picked up my hearing aids. They're not perfect. I'm taking notes on sound, feedback etc. I have hereditary nerve damage. I had hearing tests all the way through grade school and i must say the audiologist was pretty spot on. I will say it's night and day in stuff i missed. Seems like very little except charging and keeping them clean. Anyone have any insight?
Anyone here with hearing aids?
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Hi, I am deaf/hard of hearing, and have been so all of my life. I grew up with hearing aids and continue to use them to this day. I read lips as well.
Several things come to mind... give the aids some time. It appears some people do not give hearing aids enough time, and give up on them. Your brain needs time to adjust to them.
As well, you will find hearing aids pick up all the sounds and mix them together. A noisy environment will pose difficult for you. The solution for that is to have the conversation in a side room away from the noise.
For care for the hearing aid, keep it dry! Moisture will hurt them. If you do not already have one, get a hearing aid drier. A few hours in a drier will remove the moisture.
Let me know if you have any specific questions and I will try to answer them if I know the answer.
Several things come to mind... give the aids some time. It appears some people do not give hearing aids enough time, and give up on them. Your brain needs time to adjust to them.
As well, you will find hearing aids pick up all the sounds and mix them together. A noisy environment will pose difficult for you. The solution for that is to have the conversation in a side room away from the noise.
For care for the hearing aid, keep it dry! Moisture will hurt them. If you do not already have one, get a hearing aid drier. A few hours in a drier will remove the moisture.
Let me know if you have any specific questions and I will try to answer them if I know the answer.
Mine are Sonos brand I think. I'd have to double check. They have 3 "modes" which i can scroll through with my cellphone. Normal, Noise and Music. There are definite differences between them. However... I thought the noise cancelling function would be more pronounced like a set of high end headphones, but i go back in a week for final adjustments.
Well I used to but now I have a Cochlear implant. Getting them early on is very helpful my hearing just continued to get worse. Finally my audiologist told me no hearing aid was going to help me anymore. My hearing was so bad my comprehension without lip reading was between 4 to 8%. Technology its a great thing now they retested me with the implant and I'm around 98%. The noise cancelation is ok but it just isn't anything like what your ears could do before hearing failure.
Mine is an Advanced Bionics.
Mine is an Advanced Bionics.
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My Siemens behind-the-ear style do not cancel noise in the noise mode. They are just tuned to lower the volume but keep the voice range up. If there are hearing aides with active noise cancellation, I can't afford them.
I am 55 years old and have been using hearing aids for about 2 years now, they really help me a lot. For me it was like an illiterate person finally learning to read when I first got them. They have made a world of difference in my life. It does take time to get used to them, the best way to do that is to read a book out loud while wearing them. The longer you use them the more natural the sound will become. Music, movies, phone calls and conversations with my wife and other people are so much more clear and understandable now. I got mine at Costco, they are Phonak Brio. Costco did a very extensive hearing test and adjusted the frequency bands on each hearing aid based on my hearing in that ear. Get a good drier and store them in it at night. Moisture will ruin hearing aids.
I want to tell you about my friend James. His hearing loss is profound and he wears his hearing aids to help him as much as possible. He is an expert lip reader. He lives in New Zealand now and sells equipment for Detroit Diesel. The New Zealand division is apparently still controlled in some way by Roger Penske. James attends meetings and positions himself at the meetings so he can see everyone's face and if need be he'll ask someone to shift their chair so he can see their face. Now get this; he always keeps the meeting notes, and at the end of the meeting will review the notes and ask for any clarifications. His clients really like him, and he does very well. His attitude is everything.
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Been wearing them for years. Best advice is same as others mentioned - give them time and go back for as many adjustments you need. Only digital is acceptable as analog is dead technology and not worth it. I have used both behind the ears and in the ear....I prefer in the ear (mine is called CIC completely in the ear) because the sound is more natural. Behind the ears are awful when you sweat or do activities and get in the way of glasses. I had advanced set of behind the ear (phonak) units that as great as they were - still could not beat in the ear digital. Just my opinion and hearing aids are an individual choice so go with what you feel best wearing and meets your needs. I just got my new set of titanium phonak in the ears.....expensive but the titanium shell is light and thin and durable.
I have 35% hearing loss...and being industrial hearing loss I'm covered in this country for hearing aids. I got some 12 years ago, and was retested and got some more 5 years ago. I used to wear them, but haven't for years. First off because what I do at work is what caused the hearing loss, so have to turn them off and wear ear muffs...pointless. I go home, and why bother putting them in ? Industrial hearing loss is the higher frequencies, and really, I don't want to hear all those high pitched beeps coming out of everything these days...cars are terrible, and I'm in and out of them all day...open the door, turn the lights on, put it in reverse. No, I really, really don't want to hear that stuff.
It appears I've learnt to compensate, maybe some lip reading and just knowing where the conversation is going. But something out of context really throws me, I have to get them to repeat what they are saying until I get the drift. Silly old fool, he's deaf. I'm thinking I should maybe wear my hearing aids, so took them with me today, and some batteries...and never put them in. Oh well, maybe another day.
It appears I've learnt to compensate, maybe some lip reading and just knowing where the conversation is going. But something out of context really throws me, I have to get them to repeat what they are saying until I get the drift. Silly old fool, he's deaf. I'm thinking I should maybe wear my hearing aids, so took them with me today, and some batteries...and never put them in. Oh well, maybe another day.
Same as above, I work in a boiler plant and noisy area, no sense wearing them at work. Mine go in the ear a bit and I've had them since 1995 or 96. Wore them quite a bit for awhile after my car crash - helps with family conversations etc.... but I got used to not wearing them often and they've laid around for years. Just a week ago, I decided it might be good to go back to them around the grand kids and same old family time / conversations. Had been cleaning and organizing when I discovered them and thought it might be good to get back to them. They indeed help but as others probably find, I pick and choose when it's best and when I don't need or benefit from them. They are the type with a tiny on / off / volume knob and there are times I do some adjusting on-the-fly.
My hearing loss was attributed to a car crash or at least that was the icing on the cake. I was 34 at the time and it went through insurance / workers comp b/c /I was working at the time of the crash.
Some of the things I mis hear or mis heard are some of the biggest laughs my wife and I get at times. Wearing those things just might take some of the fun away !
My hearing loss was attributed to a car crash or at least that was the icing on the cake. I was 34 at the time and it went through insurance / workers comp b/c /I was working at the time of the crash.
Some of the things I mis hear or mis heard are some of the biggest laughs my wife and I get at times. Wearing those things just might take some of the fun away !
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When you first get them they can be very tiring as you're mentally processing way more sounds than you are used to.
Have Oticon hearing aid in right ear, left ear is really bad, got the aid from Ear works, what I like about then is free batteries for life of hearing aid and adjustments have been free did not use many adjustments. I have to use the hearing aid everyday and w/o I can not drive have to pass medical for CDL licence!
Huh, I can't hear you.
Everyone's experience is likely different. I have the most hearing loss in my left ear only, right is basically age related loss, but not severe. Years ago I bought a CIC aid for my left ear. At the time it was just an analog aid, so It was just too loud. I soon tired of that and put it away.
About 5 years ago, I went to Miracle Ear for an updated hearing test and a new aid. They were very professional, and did a great test. I paid about $2700.00 for a single aid which was advertised as "Receiver in Canal" (RIC). I figured that would be close to CIC so I went with them. Turned out that it was just a simple Behind the Ear aid, which did not provide the directionality that I was hoping for. I thought the CIC did a better job with that. Follow up visits, retests, calibrations have been all free since that time. I am not very happy with the aid for several reasons, one of which is I still can't get my head around the fact that they are called RIC, when in actuality they are not. Even when asking about that fact, the lady was adamant about the Receiver part, I guess because it receives sound from behind the ear, who knows.
Anyway, the hearing aid industry is a mess, and really needs to step up their game. My suggestions for improvement:
When doing a retest, why won't they test you with your aid IN YOUR EAR? They insist on using the ear buds, with no aid. How can they evaluate the performance of the adjustment they make without even having the aid in use? The tech said thet they will do that for truck drivers as required by the DOT for CDL, but only in that case. Puzzling.
If you've ever tried to describe to someone exactly what you saw (and you can use visual aids) just TRY to describe to someone exactly what you hear! HUGE disconnect, especially when talking to somebody that hears fine. Now throw in a technician (audiologist) that wears two aids, and all bets are off!
Be more honest with pricing and sales. Every time I go in for retest, They try to sell me a second aid. Not good. Set two of them up for me to try. The adjustments were completely off so it was a failure to show off the capabilities (if there were any other that more profit)
The Miracle Ear aids are just rebranded Siemens aids, which now have changed the name and made the new company a "subsidiary". I suppose people were catching on to their game.
Just underhanded marketing IMO.
If anybody knows of a good professional hearing device provider, please post a reply. My experiences have been far less than perfect.
About 5 years ago, I went to Miracle Ear for an updated hearing test and a new aid. They were very professional, and did a great test. I paid about $2700.00 for a single aid which was advertised as "Receiver in Canal" (RIC). I figured that would be close to CIC so I went with them. Turned out that it was just a simple Behind the Ear aid, which did not provide the directionality that I was hoping for. I thought the CIC did a better job with that. Follow up visits, retests, calibrations have been all free since that time. I am not very happy with the aid for several reasons, one of which is I still can't get my head around the fact that they are called RIC, when in actuality they are not. Even when asking about that fact, the lady was adamant about the Receiver part, I guess because it receives sound from behind the ear, who knows.
Anyway, the hearing aid industry is a mess, and really needs to step up their game. My suggestions for improvement:
When doing a retest, why won't they test you with your aid IN YOUR EAR? They insist on using the ear buds, with no aid. How can they evaluate the performance of the adjustment they make without even having the aid in use? The tech said thet they will do that for truck drivers as required by the DOT for CDL, but only in that case. Puzzling.
If you've ever tried to describe to someone exactly what you saw (and you can use visual aids) just TRY to describe to someone exactly what you hear! HUGE disconnect, especially when talking to somebody that hears fine. Now throw in a technician (audiologist) that wears two aids, and all bets are off!
Be more honest with pricing and sales. Every time I go in for retest, They try to sell me a second aid. Not good. Set two of them up for me to try. The adjustments were completely off so it was a failure to show off the capabilities (if there were any other that more profit)
The Miracle Ear aids are just rebranded Siemens aids, which now have changed the name and made the new company a "subsidiary". I suppose people were catching on to their game.
Just underhanded marketing IMO.
If anybody knows of a good professional hearing device provider, please post a reply. My experiences have been far less than perfect.
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Originally Posted by Papa Bear
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