Hi all,
Hope you are all well. Was recommended this site by friend.
Was looking to see anyone could give advice on if a discreet H/A would offer substantial benefits for me with low tone’s and in loud social settings?
I have attached a copy of my audiogram.
Thank you for any advice.
Welcome to the forum, sure your loss isn’t so bad at all, a bit of reverse slope, easily handled by any HAs on the market today, I’d recommend Costco, OTC is a possibility as well.
Loud social settings seem to be a difficult challenge for everyone, and I don’t think that any hearing aid manufacturer has found the silver bullet for it. Hearing aids can make it better, but you will never have perfect hearing again.
I would imagine that your speech recognition scores must be not-great with your low frequency loss, even though it wouldn’t be classified as severe.
My only real advice would be to try to not focus on “discrete”. I have worn hearing aids for over 25 years, had 3 different styles, and as a professional trainer I interact closely with people every day (and a different group of those people every week!). I always make sure that I tell people that I am hearing impaired, and even after working around me for a couple of days, their reaction is almost universally “really???”.
I currently wear a style called “RITE”, which stands for “Receiver in the Ear”. These are very popular with basically everyone these days because they are modular and very easy to fit.
The “speaker” - the part that delivers the amplified sound - is a tiny device that goes entirely into your ear canal, putting the speaker very close to your eardrum. In most cases it is held there by a little soft silicone mushroom. They usually don’t require custom-made ear molds. The speaker is connected to the electronics by a fine wire that snakes out of your ear and loops up over the top. The battery and all of the working parts hang from that wire behind the ear.
As a hearing impaired person, I actively look for hearing aids on people, and they are still sometimes hard to see.
I guess what I am trying to say is “who cares?”. My friends and family don’t care that I wear hearing aids (and certainly don’t think less of me because of them), and the strangers that I don’t know? Well, I don’t care what they think anyway!
They should be ok actually, he has moderate to mild loss, most speech is in the low to mids anyway, good high frequency for clarity, nice.
The cocktail effect hasn’t been solved yet, but Phonak has just released their debut AI and make such wonderful claims, should be interesting to see.
Here’s the Speech Banana.
Thank you both for the wonderful replies.
I do struggle with low tone (prominently male’s and speaking in loud gatherings as the low tone’s can often blend in with background noise).
Ps - if there’s anyway I can support the forum via a donation etc please let me know.
I would not worry about discrete, even ones that sit behind your ear with the speaker in your ear are pretty invisible (there is a tiny wire that joins the two, but it is copper with a clear cover, so it is very hard to spot).
These have all of the fancy speech filtering and are normally rechargeable.
These are very different to the big pink behind the ear aids of my childhood we had a big plastic plug in your ear.
There are a couple of other options.
Ones that sit in your ear, many of which look like earbuds. Hearing aid manufacturers have a variety of these, but Sony and Jabra make over the counter hearing aids that also function as earbuds. These are cheaper than many hearing aids, are rechargeable but can only be bought in the US. Phonak Virto or Sony CRE-E10 are a couple of examples.
The next ones smaller than these site completely in your ear canal and just have a tiny plastic wire to allow you to pull them out at the end of the day. Signia make some and so do Sony CRE-C10. These are normally battery powered and don’t have Bluetooth.
The smallest are the ones than an audiologist can insert and stay in for 2-3 months. These don’t have any of the bells and whistles, but are undetectable.
I wear an aid in my left ear. My loss is conductive and I’ve never had issues in loud social settings. Ones I’ve tried are the lowest-ish tier with all extra settings turned off and the largest vent.
I have tried, and liked, Oticon Own IIC/CIC and Phonak Virto P30 CIC. The Oticons had better bass but they couldn’t make a mold that would actually fit my ear so I had to go with the Phonak.
I don’t wear any, but have been helping my mother with this newer set from Costco. They are a Jabra Enhanced Pro 10. She was worried about how big they were, I took a picture to show her. They are not really noticeable unless you really look for them. Her benefit of hearing better was more than worth it. Only way I can tell she has them on is she doesn’t keep asking me to repeat myself.
I hate to sound like a Costco salesman… They were able to program a test set right away and give her a test try. Then of course take them away and order her a new set.
Costco has been a good help and best prices so far. Our local Costco sells 3 brands. One thing I have noticed with Costco, you get different “helpfullness” depending on the people’s attitude. One may go way out of the way to help, and another is too busy to help. I have heard that from reading some posts about them today. I would recommend them.
Might be the going thing, but get the rechargeable ones. Mom loves them. She hated messing with the little batteries that didn’t last too long.
I wouldn’t shy away from a CIC/IIC for a reverse slope like that, if the ear canal is big enough.
I would shy away from people who judge you by your HAs…
Eh, I’m obviously not someone who cares about what hearing aids look like, but reverse slope loss can be tricky. CICs are a benefit there if the canal is the right size and shape for it as they tend to provide more stable low frequency gain and better wind noise management than a RIC or an ITC. The physical fit is often less annoying. Mild loss often doesn’t really require extra directional and Bluetooth features.
Thank you all for your advice.
With everyone having things constantly in their ears, any stigma has gone.
If you really want discrete, and cost isn’t a concern, Phonak Lyric may be perfect
Peter
I wasn’t the one looking for “discrete”. I simply responded that it’s probably not as worrisome as the original poster seemed to think that it is.
I wear hearing aids and look for them on other people & still only see them occasionally. My point being, most people don’t look for them and are unlikely to notice them.
I apologize for my supposition. Overall, I completely agree.
