Hearing Aid Questions

[rockfan4]

A couple questions on hearing aids.
I can hear things just fine, but sometimes have trouble comprehending speech.
The last time I had a hearing test, I had, I believe, a 20db drop around 1200Hz.

One on one, I'm fine.
Watching TV, usually fine, although sometimes I will turn on the captions.

If there's a group of people in a room, all talking, I have trouble separating out the one person I need to be listening to.

The other issue I have is accents. Working in IT, a lot of our support is based offshore. I just cannot understand someone from India. I just give up and ask them to use chat.

Too many concerts in my youth I guess. There's a constant ringing in my ears.

[Bill Douglas]

i'VE JUST BOUGHT ONE, sorry, I said I've just bought one. An Oticon.

I don't have it on loud, but rather it fills in the spaces in my hearing range that are missing. I only seem to wear it when I go out, but that works OK . In fact I quite like it and can hear everything in a restaurant type environment.

[NY65912]

Went deaf in one ear 3 years ago. Doc told me to wait a year for my brain to get used to the fill in noise (tinnitus). I got a Widex Moment and it really helps. Even prior to the deafness I could hear what was being said but could not understand what was said. Still happens in noisy situations, that's never going to get better. I recommend the best one you can afford.

Good Luck

[wdfifteen]

Originally Posted by Bill Douglas

i'VE JUST BOUGHT ONE, sorry, I said I've just bought one. An Oticon.

I don't have it on loud, but rather it fills in the spaces in my hearing range that are missing. I only seem to wear it when I go out, but that works OK . In fact I quite like it and can hear everything in a restaurant type environment.

Oticon you say? I have real problems hearing speech in a restaurant. I don't go out to eat with friends because conversation is just torture.
I volunteer to help out at a seniors dance on Thursdays. I'll go help set up and come back to help clean up, but I can't stand to be there with 100 people talking and a band playing. All I hear is a loud roar.
Did you go to an audiologist to get them or just buy them on line?

[bob deluke]

I got a pair of Oticon hearing aids from the VA about 6 years ago after I had my hearing checked and couldn’t hear low volumn sounds. Battery powered, pia to change them but they worked well. This past year got a pair of Phonax rechargeable from Uncle Sam. Both were very expensive, $4-6K. I still have a problem comprehending what people say, and I can hear them. My wife is very soft spoken and even with hearing aids in, I don’t understand a lot of what she says. I am always saying “what”? That really ticks her off…she’s always looking at my ears to see if my hearing aids are in. The audiologist told me hearing aids won’t help with comprehension. Kind of disappointed they don’t seem to help in that respect. I wear them daily though and they do help with hearing.

[fintstone]

Originally Posted by bob deluke

I got a pair of Oticon hearing aids from the VA about 6 years ago after I had my hearing checked and couldn’t hear low volumn sounds. Battery powered, pia to change them but they worked well. This past year got a pair of Phonax rechargeable from Uncle Sam. Both were very expensive, $4-6K. I still have a problem comprehending what people say, and I can hear them. My wife is very soft spoken and even with hearing aids in, I don’t understand a lot of what she says. I am always saying “what”? That really ticks her off…she’s always looking at my ears to see if my hearing aids are in. The audiologist told me hearing aids won’t help with comprehension. Kind of disappointed they don’t seem to help in that respect. I wear them daily though and they do help with hearing.

Do you know which version/model of Phonak you got (from the VA?)?

[wdfifteen]

The Oticon Real was just released in February. It is supposed to have some sort of filter that suppresses background noise and enhances voices. The demo is pretty impressive.

[Superman]

COSTCO is your friend. Quality is high, prices are great and they program the hearing aids according to your personal hearing profile. Across several frequency bands. They do this for free, but the devices themselves run about $1600. You would pay around $4K for these anywhere else. Mine are Rexton brand. There are several other brands. Using my phone, I can program the directionality. That is....I can program them to listen in a 360-degree circle. Or, when sitting at a restaurant table, I can program them to focus on the person sitting across the table from me and ignore the rest of the room. This is a nice feature.

Hearing loss tends to occur at the higher frequencies. speech contains a lot of information in the mid and high frequencies, where the hearing loss exists. When I went to Costco for a (free) evaluation, I was not trying to solve a problem. I suspected hearing loss, and just wanted to know. I'm glad I did. These devices are helping me.

[Rikao4]

Originally Posted by wdfifteen

Oticon you say? I have real problems hearing speech in a restaurant. I don't go out to eat with friends because conversation is just torture.
I volunteer to help out at a seniors dance on Thursdays. I'll go help set up and come back to help clean up, but I can't stand to be there with 100 people talking and a band playing. All I hear is a loud roar.
Did you go to an audiologist to get them or just buy them on line?

after Years of Helo and volume buttons..
deaf as a long whaaaaaaaaaaaaaaat ya say..
audiologist at VA dialed mine in..
mine has 3 setting I can use..
Normal..Concert /Rest. and Music..( learning Gitar..)

the settings are different..
and I use them.

[fintstone]

According to my audiologist, the best you can get now is https://earlens.com/. Of course, she sells them.

I am intrigued by the technology. My hearing has gotten worse and I am ready to upgrade soon, but they are really expensive. I already have some very expensive hearing aids that are just not cutting it anymore (but I guess that tech is about seven or eight years old). If I thought they would be a great deal better with speech, I might consider regardless of cost.

[Arizona_928]

There's not one question in that blurb.

No one can understand IT from India, hearing aids won't help that

The 1200 Hz is a frequency we test. Octave and inter-octaves from 125 and up.

From an AudD.

[Arizona_928]

It's limitations of the technology imho. Steamers work fine and one on one is good. It just can't help with a lot of ambient noise

[Crowbob]

The inability to understand speech due to hearing loss is called impaired speech discrimination. Usually, the higher end frequencies created by speech, ‘s’ ‘t’ ‘ch’, etc. are obliterated with hearing loss. Upping the volume does have some effect but is typically not all that beneficial because it is analogous to upping the volume through a worn out speaker; it just makes the speech louder, not clearer.

Background noise has the same effect as noise cancelling headphones. The frequencies of the noise cancel out the frequencies of the speech making speech discrimination even worse. In addition, hearing loss has a significant impact on one’s ability to locate the source (direction) of sound (including speech) because binaural hearing gets reduced to monaural hearing, especially if one side is more impaired than the other. As such, the speech from the guy next to you has the same relevancy (to your brain) as, say, the hottie sitting across the table from you at your favorite I-Hop in Philadelphia.

Some people (certainly not me) can luck out with cheapo, non-programmable hearing instruments. Some can’t (certainly me).

It’s definitely worth a go at using hearing instruments. Not only because it might make your life easier but because it makes the lives of the people around you easier. Some people who unknowingly encounter a person with hearing loss presume the person is stupid.

With me, it’s not a presumption, unfortunately.

[rockfan4]

Originally Posted by Crowbob

The inability to understand speech due to hearing loss is called impaired speech discrimination.

I'm wondering if working from home the last 3 years has made this worse for me. My brain forgot how to tune out noise and concentrate on what I need to hear. I went in to the office a while ago and had a heck of a time trying to concentrate with people near me either talking to each other or on the phone.

[Superman]

Crowbob speaks truth.

"They" say that unaddressed hearing loss accelerates dementia.

And, as Crowbob reports, it affects our loved ones too. I am pretty happy with my hearing aids, which are programmed to add volume at the specific frequencies of my personal hearing loss profile.

[bkreigsr]

Originally Posted by Superman

COSTCO is your friend. Quality is high, prices are great and they program the hearing aids according to your personal hearing profile. Across several frequency bands. They do this for free, but the devices themselves run about $1600. You would pay around $4K for these anywhere else. Mine are Rexton brand. There are several other brands. Using my phone, I can program the directionality. That is....I can program them to listen in a 360-degree circle. Or, when sitting at a restaurant table, I can program them to focus on the person sitting across the table from me and ignore the rest of the room. This is a nice feature.
Hearing loss tends to occur at the higher frequencies. speech contains a lot of information in the mid and high frequencies, where the hearing loss exists. When I went to Costco for a (free) evaluation, I was not trying to solve a problem. I suspected hearing loss, and just wanted to know. I'm glad I did. These devices are helping me.

Same here - Only mine from Costco are branded 'Philips'. (Also (~$1,600)
I have downloaded the Philips Hearlink 2 app and have my calls, phone messages, alarms, and text messages sent to the aids via blue tooth - whatever that is.

I did not bring them with me on my drive (2,200 miles) in my turbo to Werks reunion. Too much noise from the car, radio, tires and exhaust.

If I anticipate an environment where there is going to be multiple audio inputs from a variety of sources - I don't put them in.
YMMV
Bill K

[Zeke]

Originally Posted by Superman

Crowbob speaks truth.

"They" say that unaddressed hearing loss accelerates dementia.

And, as Crowbob reports, it affects our loved ones too. I am pretty happy with my hearing aids, which are programmed to add volume at the specific frequencies of my personal hearing loss profile.

Never heard that.

I suffer from all the usual comments. Tinnitus too. One of the toughest things is having coffee at a donut shop and a few tables are occupied and people coming and going, ordering, etc. All hard surfaces for non acoustics.

Then some idiot comes in talking on a phone and that's all anyone can hear.

Some people are important I guess.

[MBAtarga]

I've got a ReSound Costco unit - right ear only has a hearing loss. This is probably the 4th, 5th or 6th hearing aid thread in just a few years. I guess all us Pelicans are getting older. Anyway - do search on here - lots of information already posted. You'll see Costco recommended very frequently.

[Crowbob]

Originally Posted by rockfan4

I'm wondering if working from home the last 3 years has made this worse for me. My brain forgot how to tune out noise and concentrate on what I need to hear. I went in to the office a while ago and had a heck of a time trying to concentrate with people near me either talking to each other or on the phone.

This doesn’t sound like hearing loss to me. Also, it seems to me, that one would have to have been in total isolation for years for one’s brain to ‘forget’ how to isolate and perceive speech. You could just be out of practice so even if your brain forgot it wouldn’t take long to relearn.

There may be some other neurological cause though, such an acoustic neuroma, mini-stroke, age-related cognitive decline, etc. Doubtful, though. Social anxiety can do strange things, too.

[bob deluke]

Fint,
I have Phonak Audeo L90-R model. Rechargeable. Custom program options: WhistleBlock on (whatever the hell that means) and long term user. I usually have them on about 10-12 hours a day. Very comfortable and I like the rechargeable feature, no batteries! I think I may have some age related cognitive decline as Crowbob said.