First pair of hearing aids but see no improvement

Hearing Aids
#104

Well there ya go. When an audi says “where WE want your hearing to be” that indicates they need to take a pause and listen to YOU. Ultimately, it’s going to be YOU wearing these, and you should articulate what’s missing or wrong with how you’re hearing the world through these aids.

In NO way will a pair of aids be “good to go” right outta the box - no matter if there is a factory setting or the audiogram used or REM. It simply WON’T work for most folks. For starters, it’s a process of how to re-learn hearing the world, You’ll have preferences: turn high freqs up a notch, or increase bass a bit. If you can articulate the nuances, your audi will hopefully be trained enough on the software to make the adjustments.

Believe me, even the wire length, domes used ALL those factors will impact the sound quality. So be persistent or find a new audi. Your audiogram seems to indicate this should be an EASY fix. You just need some boosting in a few frequency ranges.

GOOD LUCK in getting these aids tuned to YOUR specifications.

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#105

Do NOT project worries into the future. Just relax and take each day ONE at a time. Geez, I wish I had YOUR audiogram. At 67 I’d coast past 100 smiling every day … even if it did drop a tad with age. :slight_smile:

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#106

It’s more like 1 or 2dB, at 10dB you’d be blowing you eardrums.

#107

Might be then -/+3db Per click

#108

I think each 3 dB is generally perceived to be double in sound pressure or energy/power level, and every 6 dB is perceived to be a significant enough level of increase to be quite noticeable, and 10 dB increase is generally perceived to be double in volume intensity.

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#109

Sorry can you explain further? -/+3db is what is on my volume control on the phonak target my audiologist showed me.

#110

I’m sure that your audi is correct to tell you that your volume control is equivalent to a +/- 3 dB for each click up and down. I’m not questioning or trying to correct that at all. It does make a lot of sense.

I was just trying to give some reference as to what a +3 dB increase vs a +6 dB increase vs a +10 dB increase would be perceived by a person in general. So 1 click for +3 dB would be noticeable, 2 clicks for +6 dB would be quite noticeable, and 3 clicks for +9 dB would sound about almost twice as loud as before from your default level.

#111

Thanks for the clarification!

#113

From memory i’m pretty sure it’s 2dB for each click, you can choose from 1,2 and 3dB when making adjustments in target for fine tuning tho, @Zebras would know as a long time Phonak user.

#114

I looked at my program paper thing and it looks like it’s set for 3db. I’m not sure if that may mean I need specific frequencies amplified more since my programming just got updated to match my Audiogram better. Or if that means maybe I hearing level has changed within the last few months which I doubt.

#115

Of course I’m not a Phonak owner so I don’t know how Phonak is set up, but it makes sense that Phonak allows users to set their clicks between 1, 2 or 3 dB

Just for reference for Oticon users who are curious, Oticon similarly gives you 2 options, either 1 or 2.5 dB per click. You can also set the volume range as well. Below are a couple of screenshots for Oticon Genie 2 where you can set those parameters (see bottom part). One thing to mention is that the default volume level may not be in the middle. It may be more toward the right (like the 2.5 dB example below) if your hearing loss is heavy enough that you need a louder amplification. Therefore, you may not have enough reserve gain to go up from default as much as you can go down to 0 dB from default.

But back to @DeafAntifa 's excellent original point to the OP, if you’re new to hearing aids, don’t be afraid to use the volume buttons to adjust to hear more if not enough, or to hear less if too loud, until your next visit where you can get your HCP to fine tune the default level further to be just right for you. The details of how many dBs to increase or decrease are not as important as remembering to make the volume control your friend. I’m an experienced user, but to this day, I still fiddle with my volume control and turn it down so I don’t get overwhelmed in loud places, or turn it up so I can hear better.

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#116

Volume control up (5 clicks) and down (5 clicks) is 2 dB each time. The newer Phonaks can be a max of +10dB or -10dB. Older Phonaks can be set at +10dB or -20dB.

On the software, you can raise or lower by the 1dB button or the 3dB button.

Does mean you can press the 1dB button 5 times and adjust that way as well.

@DeafAntifa

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#117

That makes more sense! I typically will put it 2-3 clicks up in average situations. I may just need to mess around with the custom programming levels.

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#118

Thanks @Zebras for clearing that up.

#119

Louie

Priceless. Its commendable for having the nads to speak the truth about certain hearing healthcare professionals. My mindset has always been “some are incompetent or flying by seat of their pants” but LAZY hits the nail on the head. No offense to anyone so please refrain from calling security.

Tony

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#120

Hi guys, so it’s been almost three months since this post and I’ve had the aids sent back to manufacturer for diagnosis. Aids were said to have microphone suspensions damaged on both and batteries were also damaged. They think that is why I was having the problem. I also had 3 adjustments after the repaired. I’m still unsure if it’s helping me. I mean I wear it everyday, I don’t miss it if I don’t have it on. I was standing in front of my friend the other day and still couldn’t understand her. I was sitting with my mom today and her phone was ringing in the room . My sister and I we both couldn’t hear it. Sister wasn’t wearing hearing aids only I did. I mean is it too much to think that with the help of hearing aids I should have been able to hear the phone ringing ? I’m starting to think maybe I’m expecting too much from hearing aids that leads to the thinking that it’s not helping me . There’s a lot of other times I still can’t hear too. I’m just confused.

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#121

It’s so unusual to hear that someone would have such rotten luck with a pair of brand new hearing aids that were BOTH damaged in 2 different ways (mic damage and battery damage). But even more odd is that these 2 different types of damage happened the same on BOTH aids, what are the odds of that? What I mean is that if one aid has a mic damage and the other aid has a battery damage, that’d be more understandable. But for both brand-spacking new aids to have 2 identical types of damage on them. That’s a real head scratcher.

If you’ve had 3 adjustments by an HCP on the KNOWN good replacement aids and still can’t tell much difference between them, then there must be something else going on. What does your HCP say about all this? What further test has the HCP done to verify that you’re hearing a difference with the aids on? Surely you must have consulted with your HCP about these issues well before coming to the forum as a last resort.

#122

Yes, I told my audiologist and she had me redo the hearing test to compared it with the ENT test ( I did worst on the test with the ENT compared to the first one I did with her ) there’s a small difference in mid range so she did tell me that she made changes there. She’s also not sure why It’s not working for me . She said that I’m above target when we were doing REM 🥹

#123

Did she consult Oticon support to get suggestions from them to try out?

If your sister is of normal hearing and couldn’t help your mom’s phone ringing, then I’m not sure your hearing aids would help make you hear better than your sister’s normal hearing anyway. Perhaps your mom’s ring volume is set to a very soft level to begin with. But you need to have the expectation that while the hearing aids may help you hear better, it’s not going to help you hear better than what a normal hearing person can hear. At best you should just have the expectation (and hope) that you can hear better than without them, but never as good as normal anymore. So I think that you may be right that you might have set your expectation for your hearing aids too high.

You do have moderate hearing loss at mid to high frequencies, though. So at the very least, when listening to music via a good set of speakers, you should be able to do A/B comparison by turn on/off the hearing aids (or take them out and put them back in) and be able to discern “some” difference. At least you should hear higher frequency sounds from the music a little more clear. If not then something is wrong and you should go back to your HCP and do some more of this kind of testing in front of them so they can make more adjustment for you.

As for normal everyday situation, maybe the difference is more discernable when you’re in a noisy place and try to listen to people talking. If you’re at home where it’s more quiet and not noisy, you probably can’t tell much of a difference. So try to find noisy places to go to and do A/B comparison test (by simply turn on/off the hearing aids) and listen on the fly to see if you can hear a difference.

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#124

IMO, you need a different audiologist. I waited 3 years with my first pair of hearing aids to change audiologists. I waited far too long. When my hearing aids were properly fitted, it was like night and day.

In my case, I went to a university hearing clinic, figuring that they teach this stuff so they should know it as well as anyone and should employ best practices. I was scheduled with one of the professors, who was excellent.

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