Newbie here: [Cookie Bite] got any hearing aid recommendations?

Hearing Aids
#1

Hi,

I’m 26, recently confirmed I’m HOH (I think I have something of a cookiebite profile?).

I’m demoing my first pair of hearing aids (Signia Styletto X) and I’m not really enjoying them. Clapping almost has a “hiss” at the tail end, things like paper crinkling and keyboards sound WAY too loud (like louder than I would expect even taking my hearing loss into account). Playing guitar sounds downright awful, almost nasally.

I figured I would have to adjust to the sounds, but fit has been an issue too. I can’t seems to get the tips comfortable in my ears, especially my left one, which is a bit narrower. What are my options here with respect to tips?

What are some things I might mention to my audiologist when I go in for adjustments? I’m not sure how to talk about what I’m experiencing with him, and how to choose the best hearing aid + prescription for me.

#2

I suggest that you try the Search function in the banner. You’ll be able to choose from literally dozens of great discussions about just what you’re enquiring about.

Welcome to the Forum.

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#3

Welcome to the forum.

26, first pair of aids. Looking at your audiogram and this being your first pair of aids is something. I can only guess you have been struggling for a while. Yes to cookie bite. We have a number of members with a cookie bite loss. It’s one of the more difficult losses to fit. Finding a fitter with cookie bite experience would be very helpful.

Since this is your first pair of aids with that hearing loss, it will be a learning curve for you to adjust to hearing aids. Be prepared for kitchen and bathroom sounds to be loud among other things.

Adding “cookie bite” to your thread heading would bring in better help.
Good luck.

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#4

Hi, thanks for your response & the tip on the heading! Nice to meet you.

I suppose I’ve been struggling for a while, but I suppose I’ve always noticed my tinnitus more than hearing loss. My friends / family are the ones who suggested I get my hearing checked, so I suppose they noticed a bit before I did.

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#5

Fair enough, I have been learning a lot just reading through some other experiences here. nice to meet ya!

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#6

@ifj: :smiley:Good job! Your willingness to search and read will greatly accelerate your learning about your hearing loss and potential treatment.

We’ll be glad to help you if you get bogged down. The Members are a fine, very knowledgeable, and unselfish bunch, I have found.

You are welcome here!

#7

My hearing loss started as a cookie bite loss and over my 16+ years I have slowly lost my high frequency so it is less of a cookie bite now. My point is that a cookie bite loss is hard to fit and adjust hearing aids for. It has been very hard for me over the years to understand speech. Your hearing loss looks to be where I slowly became doing better understanding speech with hearing aids. It is going to take a huge amount of patients for both you and your Audi and many adjustments over a number of months to get your aids working for you. Or you could be lucky and get there much quicker than I did.
I wear Oticon aids and have for about 11 years, I have tried other aids and prefer the Oticon sound. Now I am going to say this hearing aids and sound is a personal thing and you will have to find what works for you.

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#8

Welcome to the group, it’s a good one. I was new to hearing aids about a year ago. I have learned a lot here, still am.

Only advice I can give is don’t expect to much to soon. Sounds you had rather not hear will be louder than what you do want to hear. This will gradually get better with time. I now have my aids set with no noise reduction or filters 90% of the day (I can understand speech better that way) and most louder noises I don’t even noticed anymore, I never would have thought that a year ago.

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#9

Give it a while. Your brain has to relearn a great deal about the noise that’s coming down the pipeline.

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#10

With respect to the “tips” that go in your ear. There are two basic options: “Domes” are off the shelf items, made of silicone I believe that come in several sizes and range from “open” which has lots of holes to allow outside sound to come (and unfortunately amplified sound to leak out) all the way up to Double Domes with no holes which form a pretty tight seal. The other basic option are custom molds. These are custom earpieces based on an impression of the inside of one’s ears.
Signias are good aids, but they aren’t the first one that comes to mind for somebody with a cookie bite loss. If they don’t work out, I’d look at Oticon.

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#11

@ifj: Please keep reading/posting: there’s no such thing as a stupid question (except perhaps “What is the best hearing aid on the market?”).

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#12

@ifj: :hushed:How’s it going? We haven’t heard from you in 4 days.

I hope everything is okay, and that you’re finding all the information that you need to find appropriate and successful treatment for your hearing loss.

:chair::chair::chair:

#13

@SpudGunner Thanks for checking in! Much appreciated :slight_smile:
Things are going alright, I had my first adjustment and we were able to remove some of the things I was hearing. It turns out that a “feature” called sound smoothing was actually creating the oddly compressed artifacts following “impact sounds” such as chopping, typing, clapping, etc.

Still getting used to the new sounds, but that’s a given. Another bright note was that I was able to find a tip that feels a lot more comfortable (though I think I may need to opt for something without vent holes to make listening to music tolerable and loud environment easier.)

Speaking of which, I listen to (and play) quite a lot of music. Do you stream to your hearing aids (and if so, how in the world do you get it to sound good?) or do you use dedicated headphones? Something else?

#14

My guitars sound pretty good through my More3s with the music program. It’s not going to be as loud as when I was playing Chicago blues in loud bars, but the sound is good.

In the studio, I still wear my closed back AKGs and ask the engineer to EQ my monitor mix as best as he can. After all, speech comprehension is not an issue.

I can’t wear the phones over the HAs because the vents in my moulds are too small (smaller than a darning needle).

I’m not sure yet how my 5-string banjos are going to sound!

#15

For better understanding, you mentioned tips, these are called domes most places.
And I am curious why your fitter hasn’t mentioned custom earmolds for your hearing loss.

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#16

@Raudrive: ah, you’re right, sorry. carryover from talking headphones i suppose. I use the signia click sleeve.

I asked about custom molds but we are also both very aware of my strong preference to keep my ear as open feeling as possible. And there are still other domes I can try. Is there a reason I might consider custom molds regardless?

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#17

@ifj: Would I be wrong in assuming that you have significantly damaged your hearing by listening to music that’s way too loud, for way too long?

If I’m not incorrect, then please consider this:

  1. No hearing aid is going to move enough air to give you the listening “rush” that may have damaged your hearing in the first place. The physics of it are impossible;

  2. If your quest is to, once again, revel in those crushing SPLs, you may - in the not-too-distant future - end up DEAF rather than just severely HoH;

  3. Parts of your hearing apparatus are quite literally dead, so over-amplification of the frequencies you’re missing will either a.) further damage whatever hearing you have left in those bands, or b.) have zero impact on what you’re hearing.

That being understood, if you’re a studio musician, your recording engineer will actually be able to read your audiogram and boost or attenuate whatever frequencies on the spectrum will approximate a flat signal to your brain. If you’re reasonable with the SPL you’re asking the person behind the board to deliver to your monitors, you may be able to dodge the deaf bullet.

The hardest thing for your brain to habituate itself to will be that your hearing is severely compromised, and you will never get it back. You’ll be living with compromised hearing for the rest of your life.

This is where WE enter the picture - each and every one of us has had to swallow that same bitter pill - but we look to our trusted hearing care professionals and our HoH friends and acquaintances to make the best of it and achieve the highest quality of life possible, given our deficiencies.

To hear normally again, however, is one of the unicorns that you’ll never be able to saddle up and ride (unless technology achieves huge advances during your lifetime.)

I’m not trying to rain on your parade: I will help you in any way I can, but you had better take the measure of the beast you’re trying to confront.

I wish you NOTHING BUT SUCCESS, but them’s the facts …:confused:

#18

Not an expert, just trying to help.
Your low frequency hearing loss is in the 40 dB or worse zone out to 2000 hertz. That’s kind of a rule of thumb about needing earmolds. Your upper frequencies can easily be covered by hearing aids versus open type domes.

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#19

This is a copy and paste from one our very helpful pros, @Um_bongo.
This might help you about earmolds and why.

The degree of occlusion experienced will be down to a few different physical factors:

1 The pathology of the ear canal and the surrounding structures.
2 The depth of the fitting.
3 The degree of low frequency loss.
4 The level and pitch of your voice.
5 The venting of the mould.

People with a pathology that transfers sound well from the vocal chords, will struggle with more occlusion than others.
If the tip of the hearing device goes beyond the point in the ear canal that is reverberating with your own voice then it’s less likely that occlusion will be experienced.
Typically people with over 60 dB (in the lower frequencies) losses don’t get occlusion as they simply don’t hear their unamplified voice anyway. Common high-frequency loss or Presbyacusis, tends to have a milder low frequency component which is often only 20dB or less - this leads to significant awareness of occlusion.
There’s an association with a resonance at 500Hz which seems to be where occlusion is most prevalent. If you don’t make a 500Hz sound at any great level, its possible you won’t experience the same degree of occlusion as someone who does.
Moulds need to be vented properly: as a rule of thumb the following apply -
At low frequency losses greater than 60dB - No venting is needed - though it might be handy to have a pressure vent in there for equalisation.
At low frequency losses 40-60dB, venting around 2 mm is desirable.
20-40dB - venting of 4mm makes things sound a lot better.
0-20dB - As open as possible.

You can see why RIC open fittings are doing well compared with the older more occluded fittings, simply in terms of wearer occlusion comfort they win out due to better venting.

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#20

I have worn hearing aids for 55 yrs
Do you have one or two aids