Best style of hearing aid for cookie bite loss

Hearing Aids
#1

I’m reposting this because I think I put it in the wrong area to start with…

Well, as of six weeks ago I’d have said I was happy with my first pair of HAs, my Siemens Motion 700s. They are allegedly CICs, but stick pretty far out so I’d say they look more like ITCs. I heard pretty well, but I kept having trouble with the fit, so they got sent back a number of times, which resulted in my getting an exceptionally long trial period.

I’m approaching the end of my trial period, and one of them still doesn’t fit right (my ear, by the end of the day, feels like I have an ear infection), and all the adjustments I’ve gotten have made it HARDER to hear, particularly in noise. Plus, my audiologist is leaving and she keeps canceling appointments and I’m getting really fed up and frustrated.

So I’m thinking of returning them and starting anew with a different audiologist/office. Which is making me wonder if I should get a whole different type of HA. I got the CICs because I dance and do yoga and didn’t want to worry about them staying put. But what I’m wondering is this: I hear pretty well WITHOUT aids. The main things I have trouble with are people who lower their voices to say something private, people with naturally soft/mumbly voices (like, unfortunately, my husband), and listening to the TV. I do NOT, curiously, have a problem with voices in noisy situations. In fact, I find that at parties and other noisy situations, people lean closer and speak louder, and I can hear them as well as anyone else can.

The HAs, by and large, are not helping with the soft/mumbly voices. And they’re making other situations WORSE. It’s actually harder to hear in noisy situations. It’s not just that everything is noisier – it’s more like it’s messing with the attentional system of my brain, so that I can’t focus on just one noise out of many.

So what I’m wondering is this: would something like open fit make more sense? Would that let me use the hearing I do have, without blocking it up like a CIC? Or is there a way to wear an HA where you just have it on in some situations? I don’t really want to be putting them in and pulling them out and having to keep track of them all day long, but that’s actually how it seems I’d hear best.

I don’t much care how they look – I’ve got lots of hair. And besides, I’ve spent the past two months peering into everyone’s ears to try to find HA wearers to talk to, and despite all the concerns on this forum, it is incredibly hard to notice them, even when deliberately searching.

Any advice would be greatly appreciated!

My audiogram:
250 R30 L35
500 R30 L45
1K R45 L45
2K R50 L50
3K R45 L45
4K R35 L35
6K R20 L25
8K R15 L20

#2

I have a similar audiogram and have been searching for a long time to find an aid that I can actually say that I am hearing better with them. Recently, I purchased the Phonak Yes IX and was lucky enough to get the I-cube for self programming. It’s very, very, slow going on that end. Like you, every adjustment I make ends up sounding worse than without aids. I have to take it slow with minor adjustments. I’m going to give it a year to find just the right adjustments. I know it’s there somewhere!! Good luck. Our loss is extremely hard to fix

#3

The ironic thing is, when I first got the HAs, I could hear perfectly well. I could hear in noise. My main problems were with the fit, and with the ear-to-ear feature which was making random changes. The only thing I really hated about how I actually HEARD was what sounded like an odd metallic noise when anyone said the letter ‘s.’ The noise would continue so long that it would cross over into the next word the person said. I was irritable and cranky, but I could hear. I would’ve sworn that I would’ve kept these aids, that they could have been tweaked until I was happy with them. But not with an unreliable audiologist who keeps canceling on me! You’d think she’d want to actually make the sale. But evidently not.

I know other people have made this point, but the ‘dependence’ I feel on ONE audiologist is really unnerving. The fact that I can’t call the HA company myself and ask some questions; the fact that when the HAs didn’t work right I had to make an appointment, go to the audiologist, wait ten days for them to come back, go back in… rather than my sending a FedEx and having them FedEx them back directly to me… it’s stressing me out.

#4

I’m a cookie biter too, and a long time hearing aid wearer - I’ve worn aids since I was 14 (I’m 36 now). Having never been terribly satisfied with my hearing aids, I spent the last year and a half trying to track down a better solution. I tried America Hears, Oticon Epoq XW RITE, Phonak Exelia Art micro BTE, Unitron Passport Moxi 13, and Passport BTE. I have settled on the Passport BTE and am very, very happy with it. I know that everyone’s experience and loss is different, so what works for me may not work for you at all, but I’m hearing better with these aids than I thought was possible for me. We did some verification testing in the booth at my last appointment - with my aids on, I scored 100% speech recognition in quiet, 100% speech in noise with speech in front and noise behind, and 70% with speech behind and noise in front. My audiologist was pleasantly surprised that I could do that well.

For me, having tried both CRT (or RITE) models and standard BTE models, I just hear better with a standard earmold. The Passport BTE is a big aid - not discreet if that’s what you’re after - but they do have a nice, sleek design. Mine are plum colored and I think they are pretty cool. I’m very, very satisfied with them at this point. They also have a remote that I find very functional and practical, and you can get a UDirect, which is a twin to Phonak’s iCom.

It does sound like you need a new audiologist. You need to feel good about the person you’re working with, and obviously they need to be reasonably accessible.

#5

mamajoy, what did you don’t like about the exelia art? I am going to order them next week, my audiologist recommended either exelia HS/FS art or versata and I really need some feedback specially in art. my audio is in my other posts
thank you

#6

One of my issues with my Exelia Art trial really had to do with the particular model I was trying. I had the micro BTE, and it drove me nuts that it didn’t have onboard volume control. This could have been addressed by switching to the Exelia Art M. Another downside for me was the My Pilot - I wanted aids with a remote, but really didn’t like the My Pilot - again, thats not a flaw with the aids. As far as the aids themselves went, I did not like the way music sounded with them (not in the auto program or in the music program), and I just felt like I experienced a lot of white noise with them. They weren’t awful, and if I had chosen to continue to wear them, I’m sure that we could have improved on the experience with more adjustments. I had already planned to trial Unitron’s new Passport, so I gave up the Exelias and went on to them. The Passports just seem like they were made for me. I’m understanding speech well, music sounds good, and I hear well in noise.

The Exelia Art is a very good aid - it just wasn’t the right one for me - might be for you. I do give the Unitron Passports two big thumbs up, plus I really like the remote control. They also cost me several hundred dollars less than the Exelia Arts would have.

#7

Thank you mamajoy for the information, I will trail the Passort if I experienced the same issues with Exelia art.

#8

You can’t go wrong either way as both are excellent aids.

#9

Sounds like the irritation in your ear is caused from an improperly fit earmold. signified from the discomfort. New impressions and mold may fix this, but if you arent getting the customer support that you need, its time to find a new provider.