New to hearing aids

Hearing Aids
#1

Hello everyone

Five years ago after I developed tinnitus I had an audiogram and was diagnosed as having high frequency hearing loss. I was told that I might need hearing aids in several years.

When I started having major problems hearing people last year, especially in groups or where there was background noise, I decided to get the hearing aids.

I got the Oticon Intiga 6 today and have been wearing them all day. What I have noticed is that all sounds seem louder - for example, I can hear my clothes rustling when I move. But what I do not notice is any improvement in my difficulties in hearing people. No change, except that people’s voices sound rather bright or tinny.

Rather discouraging that I still have to ask my wife to repeat herself constantly.

These weren’t cheap. I am hoping that this is perhaps a matter of adjustment.

But I would appreciate any insights from those with more experience in these matters.

Thanks so much!

#2

It will get better with adjustments. You probably aren’t at 100% of your amplification yet, so that is one reason you are still not hearing and having to ask people to repeat themselves. Your audi will bring up the amplification over time so your brain can adjust to all the new sounds it hasn’t heard in a while and begins to determine which ones ( clothes rustling) to ignore. The tinny sound will go away but it will take some time, for me it was only a few days before everything started to sound normal again. The HA will help, but you will have to ask people to repeat themselves just not as often as you did without them. Good luck!

#3

Even after several adjustments where you get everything about right, it will take a few months to get completely used to them.

#4

Many thanks, Seb and Don.

#5

Well, I tried the Oticon Intigas for a month, and even after adjustment I did not have any improvement in hearing speech. So today my audiologist switched the Intigas for Sonic Touch 24s, which he felt might be better for me.

It’s only been a day, but these seem even worse, in the sense that there is no discernible difference between wearing them or not. The Intigas did make everything sound louder; they just did not help me discern speech which is my problem. These Sonics seem to do nothing. I’ll give it another week, and then probably give up on hearing aids. Disappointing. I was hoping they would work.

Anyone have this kind of experience? I hear well enough for sounds in general, just have trouble with speech whether live or on TV or movies. I can hear the voice, but frequently can’t understand what is being said.

#6

Desert, this was one of my complaints when I had a pair of Resounds ten years ago. If the aids actually made words clear instead of just louder I would have worn them more.

Part of the problem is the microphone picks up all sounds in the area, not just speech. That means the background noise you have a hard time with only gets worse. I want to know why there is not new technology these days to make only speech louder and not the background noises we struggle to block out.

I also gave up on hearing aids because of this. I don’t always know someone is talking, but when I do, I often feel like the person is not speaking English or miss a few words. I only decided to give hearing aids another chance because the job services organization for disabled adults is paying for them.

I asked my audiologist how hearing aids improved in the last 15 years. He just said the electronics are better. Mom requested “top of the line” hearing aids so they will be a lot better than my old Resounds. Apparently Oticon is a better company, I guess.

#7

DesertD~ What is your hearing loss and what are your speech scores? Those two things will help greatly in understanding what kind of benefit you can expect from hearing aids.

I used to fit the Sonic Innovations Touches and stopped - mainly because it’s a couple years old and there are better things out on the market at this point. I would encourage you to try a different provider before giving up completely…it may just be that the tech they have chosen isn’t the right one for you.

Those speech scores will tell you a lot though…