Hello all. I am looking for sugestions on where to start looking for hearing aids. I do not have a prefrence of in the ear or over, whatever is more comfortable. I have tried over the ear and was not impresed with the sound, but i know part of this is the type of loss i have.
Im looking for being able to do DIY adjustments. I also have the problem of working in the garage a lot. So i need a way to hear when walking in the house to talk to people and not over amplify loud noises in the garage.
Thanks for any sugestions
Justin
You should probably be wearing hearing aids with that level of hearing loss. Get some good quality hearing aids, use work comp (hearing loss that quick over a decade period sounds like it is work related), benefits, whatever you can get.
Quality hearing aids have good background noise suppression built-in, and it’ll supress automatically based on environment, or manually.
Different hearing aid brands have different flavors of sound. I personally like Phonak, and once I tried another brand over a decade or so ago, it had felt too digital at the time. Also, even within the same brand/model, there are different levels to all the auto noise supression / crowd control / etc… Sometimes the most kitted out hearing aids work best for people, but sometimes the simpler models work better for others. Try some different types out!
With hearing that bad (and getting worse), you’re only hurting yourself and your future mental health (due to diminishing socializing capacity). Go see a proper audiologist.
Yeah you should pop in to your local Costco, they only sell the premium models at the best possible price point.
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As Tenkan says, you can get a good assessment and hearing aids from Costco (at an affordable price), if an outlet is near you. (It’s worth driving an hour for this!) They have long distance–online–adjustments available, going forward. The longer you wait b/f doing this, the harder it will be to adjust and benefit. So, the sooner = the better.
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Thank you both for the replies. I will have to look for a Cosco, but i dont think that their are any in the area.
We drive over an hour one way to get aids at Costco. It’s worth the drive for quality aids that are fit using best practices and great prices.
Your hearing loss is getting pretty bad. I bet you have a tuff time with women and kids and some men. Loud places are just about impossible to hear in for you too.
Good luck. You have come to a great place to learn about your hearing and hearing aids.
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You won’t be wearing your hearing aids in the garage, right? You’ll be wearing hearing protection.
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Used to drive me nuts when I took my car for regular maintenance at dealer-service–where there were glass work bays w/ technician-mechanics hard at work. Nary an earplug/cover to be seen!!! I always mentioned it to the service manager, but I’m sure nothing changed.
Well thats part of why I dont have hearing aids now. I have a hard time justifying aids that wont get worn at all. First 4 hours of the day in the garage, come in and spend an hour in the house, then go to work for 10 hours. I would love to find a solution like hunting hering aids where they limit the max sound but still ampify the soft/ high pitch sounds. That way i could whare them all the time. This is one of the reasons I am on this site. I know it has to be possiblle with the technology we have in aids today.
And yes i do ware ear muffs on the garage. I dont ware hearing protetion at work nearly as much as I should becouse i cant hear anyone.
yes, you’re in a tough spot.
You need to pick up some amplified earmuffs for work. How many hours a week are you in a situation where you are trying to hear someone outside of work?
Ear muffs are too hot, and drive me up a wall. Probably 15 hours max a week outside of a work environment.
Yeah, that’s hard. You have to pick from some bad choices:
- no hearing protecting, worsening hearing loss
- amplified hearing protection–note that hunting plus are designed for gun noise not tool noise.
- ear plugs, communication difficulties
15 hours a week may make it tough to adjust to amplification. Keeping rechargeable hearing aids plugged in by the door and putting them in as soon as you come in might be doable. maybe not at 100% gain. Rechargeables tend to be better for intermittent users.
After seeing another audiologist today it comfirmed going the DIY route. Also let me know how well aids can sound, and that was with minal adjustment.
Guy did great till I asked how much, then said it depends on your inchurance. Sliding scale, i get it. But he said we were done till i could find more info about my inchurance, even after I asking for a price repeatedly. They all seem to be after the sale. Sad