#1

Does Costco have any brand of aid for people with tinnitus? I believe that the tinnitus feature is missing from some of (if not all) of their aids.

#2

Iā€™m pretty sure itā€™s missing from all of their aids. I think Iā€™m remembering that they made a decision that they couldnā€™t/didnā€™t want to try to deal with tinnitus. That said, it should be a pretty simple matter to stream masking sounds from an iphone to their Resound Forte or Bernafon Zerena. It seems like it would conceivably be possible to program a notch as mentioned by um bongo in an earlier post, although Iā€™m pretty sure Costco staff woudnā€™t assist with trying that. On second thought, itā€™s possible the Zerena does have the built in masking sounds. The reason I say that is that Costco retained the same model name. Typically they will change the name of a made for Costco hearing aid. And just a reminder, this is conjecture. Costco staff should be able to tell you if the Zerenas retain the tinnitus masking.

#3

Bernafon is more a European brand with some Canadian clinics. While it is available to US clinics there isnā€™t enough volume to concern them with the name used. So the aid is likely disabling tinnitus to meet Costco standards.

Notch filtering can be done to about any aid by the audiologist. At least thatā€™s my understanding. I would think the better Costco fitters could accommodate that.

The tinnitus feature is different from notch and can be duplicated by streaming soft sounds from an app. It works for some and not for others.

I had tinnitus when I started using aids and now donā€™t. The aids provide more sounds which gives the brain less confusion which resulted in my improvement. Worked for me but wonā€™t always solve it for others.

If you go with Costco, try one of the tinnitus apps available in the phone store. If it works well, you may prefer switching to a clinic aid with it resident. That avoids the streaming aspect. Many find that the soft sound helps at times but not always. You may want it in a quiet environment but not when you are in others. It can be set up on a program 1 aid as program to and used when you think it helps or just load the tinnitus app on the phone when you want temporary relief.

#4

Iā€™ve had my aids for about four years, from Costco. I did have tinnitus
and I donā€™t have it now.

I donā€™t know any of the technical terms or much else. Just seems to work
for me.

#5

Iā€™ve played with the Resound Relief app with my Forte 8ā€™s. This streams a variety of sounds to the aids. These are user-selectable and user-adjustable. I have not found it very helpful and I donā€™t have any comparison with ā€œonboardā€ tinnitus relief features nor any sense of how helpful those typically are.

#6

That the frustrating part. Itā€™s all anecdotal. Thereā€™s no known scientific fix for the problem. (that I know of)

#7

Just fuggedaboutit.

Hereā€™s how it works for me. Itā€™s a ā€œtop-of-the-brainā€ thing. If I think about tinnitus, itā€™s there. Even when I read about tinnitus (like now) itā€™s there. But when I become occupied with other thoughts, itā€™s gone. When I listen to tunes, itā€™s gone.
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So fuggedaboutit.

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Can tinnitus go away by its own?
#8

I think thereā€™s some research on ā€œnotch therapy.ā€ http://www.hearingreview.com/2017/01/signia-reports-hearing-aids-first-add-notch-therapy-tonal-tinnitus/ According to Um_bongo, it can be implemented in other brands of hearing aids, not just Signia. My very crude, lay understanding is that increased gain is applied to the frequencies on either side of the frequency of the tinnitus and that this additional stimulation ā€œpreventsā€ the brain from generating an internal signal. I have no personal experience with it (although I do have tinnitus)

Thereā€™s also this available online: https://tinnitusnotch.com/ My biggest problem in trying that approach is that I have a very weak sense of pitch and have no clue what frequency my tinnitus is at.

#9

Try this site to find your tone. (If itā€™s one constant tone) KEEP THE VOLUME DOWN! Donā€™t add to the damage. And you want to be sure youā€™re hearing both.

Increase the frequency while hearing your internal tone and this tone. When you hit your internal tone you wonā€™t be able to distinguish between the two. Go a little higher and verify the hit. Bring it back down below again to re-verify it. As you run through frequencies that your ears are bad at then you might want to increase the volume. NOT FOR LONG! Again. :slight_smile:

IIRC the last time I did it I was at around 8khz.

#10

I canā€™t tell the difference over a broad range of tones. I have a really rotten sense of pitch. If I ā€œsingā€ a note, I canā€™t tell if Iā€™m higher or lower than the one Iā€™m trying to match. When I finally do match, itā€™s something I feel in my chest more than ā€œhear.ā€

#11

So you have your internal tinnitus tone and then adding this tone at a low volume (but able to hear it still) you are NOT able to hear that theyā€™re playing at different frequencies?
Hmm. Interesting. I donā€™t know what else to suggest. Were you able to enjoy music once upon a time or have you always had hearing issues and so never could distinguish between tones?
For your loss obviously the high tones would have to have higher volume to so much as hear it let alone compare it to your internal tone.
The singing thing is kind of similar. When the two notes are close then (a person that can hear different tones :slight_smile: ) they seem to kind of warble and then when synced they will be one tone.
I wouldnā€™t expect that here for this testā€¦just that one wouldnā€™t be able to easily distinguish that theyā€™re different tonesā€¦just one tone.

#13

Iā€™ve pretty much always been tone deaf, but didnā€™t have hearing issues when I was young.
Not sure about doing worse in noise than other hearing aid users, but noise is definitely a challenge, although I didnā€™t do badly on a Quick SIN, averaging about 5dB. As an aside, Iā€™ve always been pretty good at recognizing voices.

#14

Well Iā€™ve always been a bit musically inclined. It was a primary concern about getting HAā€™s. Until I really realized that itā€™s all about hearing/comprehending speech and putting music secondary.
Probably on account of the declining hearing later on, when in a place with music in the background, I kind of always manage to hear and focus on the music playing at the cost of hearing people talking around me. But I would have struggled to hear everything that was being said anyway so that then at least I could focus on the music and smile and nod at all the appropriate moments.

That tone websiteā€¦the sound seems to go from one side to the other and back again several times. The audiogram explains it. With the equalizer program I use I can get it much closer to balanced on both sides where the rising frequencies donā€™t bounce back and forth.