My mom has significant hearing loss and is currently using the latest and greatest state of the art hearing aids. She can listen to her TV through them, control the direction and intensity of the sound but she’s still pretty miserable. The aids still leave her hearing conversations the same way as we do talking to our friends through Bluetooth while driving a diesel truck. Loud and tinny with a ton of background noise.
Does anyone have any recommendations?
Is it phone using the hearing aid Bluetooth device, or a standard bluetooth device?
She operates it from her galaxy cellphone. She can also adjust it on the device.
She uses miracle ear hearing aids
Is it possible for her to type here so we can get a first person account?
I can try. She lives away and isn’t very computer literate. She celebrated her 90th birthday on January 28th. I gleaned this much info just talking with her.
Oh. Well never mind. Sounds completely unnecessary then.
By conversations do you mean conversations on the phone or in person? If in person, try to hold conversations in a quiet place. “Tinniness” can be adjusted out, but it’s probably giving her additional speech clarity. It’s something one can adjust to. How long has she had them? How often does she wear them? A lot of people fall into the trap of not wearing them most of the time because they don’t like how they sound and when they’re finally in a situation where they want to understand what’s going on put them on and complain they don’t work. (my father-in-law for instance) I’m assuming she’s past the trial period for her Miracle Ear hearing aids, but I think few on the forum would call them the “latest and greatest.” These kind of issues can generally be improved on by a thoughtful audiologist or hearing aid fitter, but it takes work.
1 Like
Thank you! Yes, we talk in person. This is her second set of hearing aids. The first ones were another brand. She doesn’t like them because of the tinniness sound so I don’t think she wears them too often for that reason. You have helped a lot. I now have good information to share with her.
- She needs to wear them all the time
- She needs to discuss this with her audiologist that sold her the hearing aids so he can help her fine tune them.
- She needs to get with the audiologist everyday if she has to, so she can learn and remember…
I’d temper things a bit. I’d hesitate to say she needs to wear them “all the time.” If they’re really irritating, she needs to work up gradually to wearing them most of the time. She definitely needs to work with the audiolgist, but daily is likely not realistic.
1 Like
suetaylor594, how old are the Miracle Ear HAs? The best solution might be to replace those HAs with top of the line HAs from a different brand, like Oticon, Phonak or Widex. This might cost $6000-7000. It would also probably entail multiple visits to a different audiologist than she is using now.
Finding the right HAs and getting them adjusted for maximum speech comprehension is inherently expensive and time-consuming. A 90-year-old might not have the funds or the ability and patience to visit the audiologist repeatedly for possible multiple trials of different brands.
BUT…The alternative might be worse. Of course I don’t know what your mother’s situation is, but if a person has great difficulty carrying on a conversation she is likely to begin to avoid interacting with people. This can cause social isolation and mental decline.
These are all issues to consider. I hope some of this is helpful to you both. Good luck.
Not one single hearing aid will eliminate background noise. Watching TV is next to useless unless the conversation is between 2 people in a sound proof enclosure. Sad but true
Bless you for your attention to your mother’s needs!
It does take time for anyone to get used to HAs. It can be jarring at first.
Speech is probably the hardest thing to pick out without amplifying background noise. I often have to remind my wife that I wear hearing AIDS, not hearing perfectors.
If you go the route of new hearing aids, contact some of the organizations that basically act as brokers that work with the big hearing aid Manufacturers. Hearing.com is one, and there are others. They help negotiate the prices to lower than ordering through most audiologists. They helped me get some for 4,800 instead of the 6-8,000.
Not sure what your mom’s dexterity skills are, but it could be that she is not “seating” her aids correctly in the ear. My mother-in-law used to half-heartedly push her aids in, then complain about the horrid sound. Taking a look at her ears, I could see, the aids were not seated tight enough in her ears. Take a look at how your mom’s aids are placed IN her ears.
The other point to bring up with dexterity is the program buttons. Many seniors simply lack the finger-point dexterity to work the buttons. My mother-in-law (age 90+) simply could NEVER change programs on her aids cuz it required a longer PRESS on the button. Even with an app on her iPhone, she was incapable of holding that finger DOWN long enough to change programs.
It could be that your mom is similarly inconvenienced with her coordination. She may have trouble increasing/decreasing the volume and/or changing programs for more comfortable hearing.
GOOD LUCK on this mission! Hope you can figure out what’s going on with your mom’s Miracle Ears. They are not the best brand out there, but they should be adequate IF - and only if - the person wearing them can use them correctly.
Your Mum may need quite a long time to learn to use the HAs. First thing is to ensure they are programmed well by a good audiologist. Next thing is to gradually increase her wear time by a half hour more per day for example. Start with an hour or two and work up to a full day. This will get her used to the “tinny” sound of all those high frequencies she has been missing for years. You could suggest doing this over several weeks to months if needed. Her brain also has to get used to hearing many things she has not heard in a long time. This is what many people find annoying when they first start to wear aids. Helping her know what to expect from aids may work better than looking for new ones.
Thank you. I gave her all of the recommendations. She’s made her mind up that it is the hearing aids “fault.” I will remind her of everyone’s suggestions every time she complains. It’s all I can do at this point. You all have been so kind.