Another aid. Very frustrated and nearing my limit trialing

Hearing Aids
#1

I know my type of loss, single sided (possible extreme) reverse, is supposed to be very hard to fit but most of my issues doesn’t seem related to this. I keep asking my audis if maybe my ears are too small or er… wrong… and they don’t think so. I feel so so bad, like I’m extremely hard to please but they literally fall out, turn my ears red and burning, completely die, or…

It’s been almost a year since I started trying to get an aid. I’m on my 5th -ish hearing aid to try. In my last post, it was indeed too high settings (cause inflammation which in turn cause poor fit causing my ears to get scratched up…). It landed me in same day urgent care and the doctors wondering wtf is going on in audiology. Had to take medication for months.

That was Oticon Own. All previous ones were that model too, but varied between CIC and IIC. I really liked the sound; the world sounded very beautiful. Since the last experience ended up spectacularly bad though, we abandoned Oticon and now I have Widex Magnify mini-CIC. Did we downgrade to the most awful aid or setting extremely difficult?

It’s twice as large as the IIC and overall larger than the CIC too; my ear gets red and throbbing…
The sound is awful; I’ve been getting very nauseous. It seems at low volumes, there is no amplification and at a certain limit, all the sudden there is and it’s very obvious when there is amplification. Whether due to this or something else, the sound in my left is jarringly different from my unaided right. Sometimes like there’s a delay too as if sound bounce in my head. Feedback noise is also intolerably loud and occurs every time I insert or remove the aid so I have to open the battery door prior; I can live with this but if there’s any feedback while wearing I’m screwed. There is literally nothing positive about this aid. I’ve also gotten two pangs of intense pain like the ones I had with the previous aid; I’m scared I’m going to end up in urgent care again.

Tone is also distorted to be brighter vs richer and full with Oticons (which is how it’s supposed to be due to my type of loss).

#2

Type of Aid will be the issue, not the manufacturer.

Why don’t you try a RIC Aid and see if the issue carries on or stops?

I believe this was mention in your other thread a while ago.

#3

I was wrong, disregard.

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#4

I tried one in the office before and there was too much “white noise”, static, or whatnot which increased with tiniest movement. I could not have a conversation or do anything else because it was so distracting.

The noise does happen on CIC/IIC too but once the gain is turned down, it’s fine. RIC never got better… unless it was turned off :).

#5

I agree with Reginald–get BTE style aids. And possibly custom molds, since you have issues with fitting in your ear.
You really liked the Oticon Own aids. Surely with BTE aids and a custom mold you could get a good fit. I’ve never heard of too high settings causing inflammation of the ear canal. Hmmm. But if so, simply dialing down the settings would fix that. No need to change brands. In other words, the issue seems to be with your domes not fitting. That’s an easy fix.
Don’t drive yourself crazy! Ear canal fittings will be identical between different brands. And again, if your Oticon’s were programmed too high, program them lower! This is easy peasy!

#6

Different manufacturers have a different formula for how to create the molds from the cast so different mfg will fit differently which causes the sound to be different. The Widex is physically wildly different from the other ones even if you chop it to the same length.

#7

Couple of points here.

1, This is a mild single sided reverse slope loss.
2, RIC/RITE/BTE are inherently unsuitable for this situation. Definitely not a pair.
3, Default fitting prescriptions are likely to sound pretty awful.
4, Processed/Delayed sound is going to be terrible due to the reference sound from the good side.

If I was fitting it, I’d revert you back to the Own, set the Music program as default and manually enter approximately one third of your loss as the gain level initially via the manufacturer software and refined via REM using speech mapping. Then we’d sit through a couple of tracks of music and background noise to make sure you didn’t have issues with it.

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#8

@Um_bongo I don’t mean to hijack this thread, but can you explain why you said RIC/RITE/BTE are inherently unsuitable for this situation? I think my audiogram is pretty similar PianoJoys so I’m curious. My first HAs (~7 years ago) were IIC, but I replaced them about a year ago with Oticon Moores, and I feel like these are so much better. Honestly I don’t think I could switch back but I’m wondering now if I am missing something. Are there specific situations where you would expect the IIC to be better?

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#9

Specifically it’s the left Ear on Joy’s Audiogram, the reverse slope.

Yours is a flat loss, the whole weighting of the Audiogram, the whole bias of the receiver, the fitting algorithm and the amount of seal on the ear is ok for you, but it is intended for a loss that’s worse in the HF than the Low Frequency.

If you want to fit Joy’s loss properly you have to undermine lots of technical assumptions, turn the aid off above 4 KHz and limit a lot of the features that would otherwise be noticeable in the lower pitches.

You ‘could’ fit a RIC with a decent occlusive mould/Cshell, but:
1: You lose the natural pinna effect you get with a CIC/IIC
2: The direction effect goes in the bin as most of it impacts above 1.5KHz.
3; None of the advanced binaural beamforming functions work because it’s monaural.
4: You’d still need to drop all the noise management stuff as phase/level changes would be obvious vs. the other reference ear.
There’s more, but I’d just put an Own 3 IIC/CIC in there, stick it in Music program and leave it. It could be run with incremental programs to allow the user to try different levels of balance in different settings. I’d also turn down the 600/750Hz ‘Bump’ that Oticon add in their aids because they think they have a wonderful understanding of how people want to hear, rather than just getting the aids fitted properly.

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#10

@Um_bongo Thank you for this explanation!

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#11

Yes! Doing roughy everything you are saying. I have the most basic tier aid, make sure there’s no “extra”, have no programs, and turn off all extra software stuff like feedback management.

Lowest gain was selected, then lowered much more, and then mid to high ish lowered even more with some at 0. Most of the time spent is in clicking the down button. I double over from things being too loud if this isn’t done at initial fitting.

The one previous that landed me in doc’s office, this was done too but during my return visit, it was adjusted to high due experience of having to ask 90% of people to repeat themselves. It was not unbearable loud but then intense nerve pain saga occurs…

I’ve only had one experience on REM; the result was horrendous. I don’t know if before or after adjusting the gain makes a difference. It was done before.

Problem being… they poked my ear badly (red and raw), literally fell out, possibly some sort or reaction, or . That’s why the switch and current aid went through roughly the same so I don’t understand why there’s so much issues.

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#12

All good: but it might still sound ‘wrong’. Persistence and further adjustment and you might be halfway there.

Edit; don’t poke your ear.

#13

If you fit an occlusive mould/IIC as well as turn off the aids above 4kHz, surely @PianoJoy will have no access at all to higher frequency tones which could potentially make things sound very dull/flat. And wouldn’t the risk of occlusion be high given it’s only a mild loss in the lows?

#14

So, have you tried perhaps a Lyric? This is COMPLETELY way down IN the canal. Your hearing loss (are you sure you even need aids?!?!?!) seems to be suited for the MINIMAL kind of aid out there.

That said, your experiences with RED, SORE, irritation, etc., are clear indicators that you have sensitive skin. You could be allergic to custom mold materials made of silicone or acrylic.

If so, I wonder if a small behind-the-ear unit with wire connected to in the ear receiver/speaker that has a soft, silicone dome could work?

Granted, EVERY aid is going to work its way out of the ear canal as we articulate (chew, talk, yawn, laugh!) through the day, but some materials are a bit more grippy inside the ear canal.

NEVER EVER stick with any aid that causes redness, swelling or irritation. Do NOT apply any Miracel or ointment to help with insertion. Those aids are a dead end. You need aids that fit naturally with no allergic reaction or you’ll end up with otitis.

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#15

We always ask for the largest vent (but I have tiny ears). If it matters, loss is conductive. So we also turn down the lows to very minimal (lower than low).

My problem was an incident of going to a large facility )high ceiling, where I had difficulty communicating with everyone.

#16

It wouldn’t be totally unvented though would it?

30dB in the lows would give a 2.4mm vent usually. There’s no loss at 4KHZ. So Joy can hear most natural highs through that vent. That’s even if the aid does drop the gain to 0dB, with REM you don’t want to eliminate the ambient, just flatten it.

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#17

That kind of environment is challenging for nearly EVERYONE who wears an aid. The acoustics are simply too challenging. Huge space, often hard, reflective surfaces, sound waves that soar into the stratosphere, completely missing our cupped-shaped ears - whether with aids in them or not.

Also, the noisy restaurant or huge shopping mall - places where sound either crashes around like flying plates or reverbs up into the high ceiling - LOST to those down on the ground.

It’s a challenge unique to hearing aids, which after all, mostly magnify SOUND without regard to human speech frequencies that we really want boosted (or, ideally: STREAMED direct into the aids).

#18

I’ve only had hard acrylic; material seems fine. On one, we added sticky stuff; it’s possible I had a reaction. I think it’s more the physical fit. My current one is pushing? my antitragus, which is red; rest of my ear seem fine I think.

Somehow I also have reaction when it’s too loud. Thought I was supposed to “get used to it”

Yes, those soft silicone dome things! Ive never had problems with ear buds or musician ear plugs

#19

I didn’t hear background noises over the people, I just somehow couldn’t understand anyone. It wasn’t garbled or unclear. At least one incidence I completely didn’t hear it at all. If this is normal, I can live with having to take off the aid in these situations but the audiologist seemed quite alarmed.

#20

Yes, well there ya go! Maybe see if a different TIP on the receiver/speaker or actual aid in the ear can be done?

I am actually hideously alergic to the hard acrylic (clear or so-called pink tinted “hypoalergenic” material), or firm acrylic. For some miraculous reason, I don’t react to the smoke topaz colored domes pictured above.

If you have tender redness in the ear, that sure sounds like POOR FIT. You’ve got a contusion going on - like wearing a pair of bad-fitting shoes. There’s no hope for that, altho I’ve had audis shave that down on special sanding machines. And then the shaving down results in baggy, feedback-induced fit. Ah, it’s ROCKET science!