Audiologists and always wear my hearing aids

No. There is no part of the Oticon More that is still learning. The widex app uses some clever data mining to support the A/B comparisons that it presents, but I wouldnā€™t call that AI either.

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Wow, my thread has gone some strange places!
But my problem is understanding some voices. But I have no problem hearing most noises (high frequencies excepted). So if I am at home alone, there are no meaningful sounds to hear with or without hearing aids.
So my question remains: What will wearing hearing aids under these conditions accomplish?

Why not find out for yourself, you could then post your findings and this could then be a case study for anyone else.

Getting used to meaningless noises while wearing aids at home would prepare you to deal with those noises in conditions where you anticipate benefits from the aids.

The cessation of otherwise meaningless noises can carry meaning.

You really donā€™t know what might happen in or around your house in the future that would be signaled by a noise audible only with aids.

The more you know, the better.

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First I need to dispel the idea that I canā€™t hear noises. I was just walking in the park (between snow storms) I could hear others footsteps at 30 feet and two women talking at about the same distance (couldnā€™t understand them).
Sitting at my computer, I turned on my SPL meter to the most sensitive range, the only time the needle moved was for key strokes that I can easily hear. Put in my (audiologist molded) hearing protectors and I can still hear the noises that I make and the TV at a normal volume.

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Sorry I misunderstood your quiet ā€œishā€ environment. :slight_smile:

Yes, some of the study findings you mention Iā€™ve seen too. ā€œDementiaā€ does get used in multiple imprecise ways. To me it connotes memory loss, executive function deterioration and perhaps personality or emotional changes, including Alzheimerā€™s. So yes, this kind of potential loss is enormously threatening. I donā€™t like to see claims about it over blown.

As always, I appreciate you taking the time to provide information and talk things through.

Iā€™ve only skimmed this. I donā€™t see your audiogram. If youā€™ve got a mild loss and seldom hear speech, hearing aids probably arenā€™t going to help you much. Iā€™m confused though in that I thought you could listen to TV ā€œat normal volumeā€ and do ok. My understanding is that for hearing aids to help you understand speech, you have to be exposed to speech. Wearing them at other times lets you be accustomed to the louder noises that accompany the wearing of hearing aids.

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Okay, this is probably sort of a useless quibble, and I cannot see your hearing loss so I grabbed a random one. But say your hearing loss looks like this:

In that case, you cannot hear any sounds that occur in the yellow highlighted range, which are sounds that normal hearing people can hear. There are lots of speech sounds in that area, as well as lots of other sounds.

At a particular frequency, a speech sound and a ā€œnoiseā€ sound activate exactly the same nerve fibres. I think this is going to end up being a crappy analogy but. . . say you sometimes have to lift heavy things and all the rest of the time you keep your arm in a cast. Someone might say, ā€œYou know, if you take your arm out of that cast then when it comes time to lift heavy things it will be easier because your incidental arm use will help to keep it stronger and more mobile.ā€ And you say, ā€œBut lifting heavy things is the only important thing I do with this arm, and I get along perfectly fine without it the rest of the time. Though, when I do lift heavy things I notice that itā€™s still hard. I never lift heavy things at home. What would having the arm out of the cast accomplish?ā€

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@Neville

that audio-gram look very familiar to me :grinning:

yes my arms are getting stronger

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I wear my hearing aids all the time.

For a while I found I was really really tired by end of the work day. I was straining to hear. I increased volume each day until I could get in to see my audiologist. After changing settings including volume Iā€™m much better off.

Wonderful explanation!
Thanks Neville!

Hereā€™s a Reddit thread that may or may not help. The top post is from someone who did a paper on word recognition loss when a hearing impaired person doesnā€™t wear his/her hearing aids. I asked him/her a further question (scroll down for Joe_T) related to your question and he has responded.

I have said this before, comfort over efficiency as they are totally inefficient if you donā€™t wear them. If they are comfortable, and you put them on when you get up, you can have them in all day and not notice you have them in.
Where I get niggles is face masks etc where the aid gets dislodged.
Even so, the HA are not magic bullets and my wife will complain about household noises that I cannot here, the underfloor heating pump for instance.
There will be other noises that you will never hear without aids though, a dripping tap for instance.

You wonā€™t see my Audiogram, it doesnā€™t represent what I hear at realistic volumes.
The issue is:
Bilateral Dehiscence of the Superior Semicircular Canals
Presbycusis - hearing loss is only item #5 (of 7) on my ear problem list.

So a reciprocal of the Audiogram is painful.

Yes, SSCD is a real challenge, and in your situation I may not wear my hearing aids at home either. Itā€™s surely still good for your auditory system to hear sounds, but. . . sometimes youā€™ve got to manage what youā€™ve got to manage. If thereā€™s any room for balance (e.g. lower volume is tolerable) I might try for that, but if itā€™s really hard on your other symptoms to wear your hearing aids, then what can you do. One only has so many reserves.

That no music enjoyment strikes me as rather sad that something that was often the backdrop to our lives ā€œEVERYBODYS working for the weekendā€
ā€œHOT TOWN summer in the cityā€¦ go out and find a girlā€
Both of those i enjoyed the undertone/message - combine the 2 songs makes me remember when i was younger and Working for the Weekend which was wat everything else revolved around. WEEKEND and Hot Summers made weekends idyllic or the expectation of idyllic working on my tan by the pool. Youth is wasted on the young and foolish, it was on me anyway.

And i no longer listen either, it has lost its magic, its GLOW. Getting old while also losing hearing sucks.

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I had the same atittude. Very stubborn and refused to wear them for 20 years. At school I used to be called into the head mistress office and told to put them in but I didnā€™t. Audiologist also came in and talked to meā€¦ nope, not wearing them, soz! Now sounds are is distortedā€¦ presumably because I have not had my auditory nerve stimulated for so long, my speech impediment is very bad (cannot pronounce high frequency words because I have not been able to hear them until now), I get hearing fatigue on a regular basis TRYING to understand all the sounds around me. All of that could have avoided had I worn them. Listen to your audiologist.

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Good lesson!

I think that fatigue comes from understanding sound, and Iā€™ve fixed it by turning up the volume using the buttons on my Phonak Audeo Paradise P90 hearing aids.

For me, listening is like watching wheel of fortune. Iā€™m guessing the words. Except every letter is blank! And thatā€™s why listening is such hard work.

Iā€™ve made progress getting them set up. However, itā€™s taken a long time.

DaveL
Toronto

You should wear your hearing aids as much as possible regardless of the situation. But I have to admit that being retired and then covid, I have fallen into a similar situation. But I am also willing to admit that when I do put the aids in Iā€™m not hearing as well as I used to and I know why. But I figure at my age, who cares and Iā€™ll do whatever I want. PS. Itā€™s not a huge leap from profound to deaf.

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With the steep hearing loss, suggest to trial BTE ultra power or super power hearing aids. When you hear some sound (loud or soft), then slowly get use to it. Trial it for 6 months and see what happen. If it works or helps, move along. Get the Audi to help.