Newbie questions

Hearing Aids
#1

Hi,

I’m a newbie to the forum, trying to decide whether to take the plunge and buy hearing aids and, if so, which ones to buy.

I noticed some loss in hearing certain tones (of my alarm clock) about 4 years ago and went to get an exam at that time. The audiologist told me at that time that I should get hearing aids, but I’ve been putting it off.

My exam results have been nearly identical for the past 4 years, (although they dropped just a tiny fraction on a couple of frequencies in one ear this year). Here are the results of my exam from about a month ago:

Freq: 250/500/1000/2000/4000/8000
Left db: 20/20/25/30/20/40
Right db: 15/20/30/35/45/55

Is that really in the range that I should be getting hearing aids, or are they just trying to make a sale on some expensive hearing aids? I am starting to get annoyed at times with not hearing everything clearly, but I don’t want to jump the gun and get hearing aids if they’re really not appropriate yet.

A big concern is wondering whether it will generate any consequential social stigma that will affect me in my job. (I’m 49 years old, married, and work as a software engineer.) What kind of reactions have you had in your workplaces? (I know that every situation is different, but what have you guys seen in your own situations?)

My audiologist’s office recommended the Starkey Xino or Halo at $6400/pair. What would Costco have that would be comparable and what (if any) features would I be missing if I went with the Costco ones? Costco definitely sounds like it would be a lot cheaper than $6400/pair!

Finally, does anyone here have the Halo (or other iPhone compatible units)? If so, is the iPhone connectivity really worth it or would simple bluetooth be as useful? (Right now I have an android phone, but my wife has been lobbying for us to get iPhones and the iPad and iWatches look pretty neat too…)

Thanks in advance for any help and advice!

#2

You seem more concerned about image than your hearing loss. You don’t say anything about loss of understanding. You don’t seem to know how your colleagues and friends see your hearing loss and are only concerned with acceptance. Know anybody that wears glasses? Do your colleagues call them 4-eyes?

Concerning clinics: it is caveat emptor. That’s the case for everyone who isn’t well informed. Read some of the threads here; then you’ll have smart questions.

#3

Well, I don’t know. If it was me I would probably not aid the left. Maybe on the right but it would depend on what I thought I was missing (subjective, I know). There are other parts of the test that measure your word recognition and that may help you decide. See an example in my signature. At 105db I recognized 84/80% of the words, which is not good. Basically if you yell at me I get most of it. So if you are missing some word recognition it might be good to aid both ears.

I’m a developer also and it is a valid question about any effects at work. I’m late 50’s, which is 107 in programmer years. But, when I was ready to get the aids I had the talk with the people I work with and told them I was going to get hearing aids. They said that’s great, you need those, where are we going for lunch. I have been very underwhelmed at people’s response to my hearing aids. Nobody really looks at you or notices things as much as you think, and with all the ear buds (SOP for programmers, right?) and bluetooth devices nobody really notices a very small device.

One day, a guy that I work with almost every day came by my office (not in the group to whom I had announced), about 6 months after I got hearing aids, while I was trying to find a ring tone I could hear. He asked what I was doing and I told him I was trying to find a ring tone I could hear. He said, you have trouble hearing? I said yes, that’s why I wear hearing aids. He said, you wear hearing aids?

Almost forgot, thumbs up on Costco.

#4

Take from someone that did not get aids for a very long time after needed them, you are losing a lot of your speech recognition . Due to that you lose the capacity to spell correctly, and you become unable to really know for sure what someone is saying to you. And as I finally figured out, I was reading lips most of the time. I figured this out the hard way once I took a job doing phone support. Once you start losing your hearing and losing speech recognition you become more and more of a loner. Then you will get to the point that you could care less about TV, going out with friends, and family.
Yes it does happen.
All I can say that what you do for your hearing is in a lot of cases more important to you in the long run than what you do for your eyes.
Your hearing is at the point that you could possible get your aids and not lose very much of your speech understanding, and your family and friends. Believe me being lonely is being sad and depressed.

#5

Realistically, I don’t think you’ll notice much difference with an aid in your right ear (but you could always try one and see). Your left ear is in the zone where you’ll get benefit.

You’d be surprised how few people will notice you’re wearing hearing aids, especially with the RIC style (which is what I’d recommend for your loss). Since cosmetics are important to you, if you do decide to go with iPhone capabilities I’d go with LiNX vs Halo since they’re thinner and smaller.

#6

Thank you all for your responses!

My concern regarding cosmetics is with regard to any issues that folks have experienced in the workplace regarding discrimination, etc. For example, In my industry there is a perception that younger programmers are somehow more knowledgeable regarding newer technologies and that older programmers are somehow just “old school” and don’t know as much about the newer technologies. Even false perceptions such as this can definitely have an impact on one’s employment in my industry, either with regard to promotions/retention or with regard to assignments. (At 49, I’m probably around 95 in programmer years, using Don’s estimation above!) That’s why I have some caution about adding in any variables that could skew perceptions.

The same test I took a month ago recorded my word recognition at 100% at 70 DB for both ears. (SRT of 25 for both ears, whatever that is.) However, my impression is that I don’t want to wait until it does drop below 100% before I get aids.

Several of you mentioned that you thought that I’d benefit from the left ear, but not the right ear. I’m confused. Looking at my exam results, it looks like the right ear is worse:

Freq: 250/500/1000/2000/4000/8000
Left db: 20/20/25/30/20/40
Right db: 15/20/30/35/45/55

What am I missing? (Or did I read the chart wrong. I just wrote the numbers of where they marked on the graph for each ear.)

#7

can you please put your audigoram in your signature? looking at it you can make do without aids but that dip at the high frequency for your right ear between 4k-8kHz is probably giving you the most problems. 6.4k seems really high. you really should shop around and go to somebody who sells multiple brands so you can try at least 2. ask them if you can try a pair and return one aid if you decide that you don’t need it. ask about their trial period (30 days) and penalty for not buying (around 300).

direct bluetooth connection is not worth putting up with at best an average aid.

#8

This may sound like an over-simplification. … but grow your hair just a bit, and it will hide your HAs.

I am a management consultant (former developer :wink: ) and have to have the appropriate corporate appearance. With just a slightly thicker mop, I can carry off the"look", yet my HAs are completely out of sight, and almost no one knows I wear them.

#9

How youthful and professional do you think not understanding your coworkers or asking them to repeat things makes you look?

#10

I must have mixed up your ears. Your right is the one that may benefit from an aid, the left ear is borderline.

#11

About working in our field, even with my severe hearing loss, with my aids I hear everything in every meeting and phone conference. The hearing aids completely take that handicap away for normal office interaction. I still can’t hear whispers very well but luckily that doesn’t happen very often. I agree that not hearing or understanding everything has much more of a stigma than small electronic devices in the ears.

For your loss, if you went with aids for both ears, you would probably be able to hear perfectly well. You could do a trial with two and then just use one for a couple of weeks, then two for a couple of weeks and see what the difference is. Just make sure you are clear on the terms of the trial/return period and any costs for a return.

— Updated —

About working in our field, even with my severe hearing loss, with my aids I hear everything in every meeting and phone conference. The hearing aids completely take that handicap away for normal office interaction. I still can’t hear whispers very well but luckily that doesn’t happen very often. I agree that not hearing or understanding everything has much more of a stigma than small electronic devices in the ears.

For your loss, if you went with aids for both ears, you would probably be able to hear perfectly well. You could do a trial with two and then just use one for a couple of weeks, then two for a couple of weeks and see what the difference is. Just make sure you are clear on the terms of the trial/return period and any costs for a return.

#12

Thank you again for your responses!

Yes, appearance is a concern, but for the reasons that I gave in my previous responses, not just out of simple vanity. I could probably keep my hair long to cover them, but I’ve been just starting to think about cutting it shorter to look more respectable! :slight_smile:

In general work and non-work situations, I’m not really having any noticeable lack of understanding or hearing. This correlates to the fact that several folks have observed in this thread that my left ear probably wouldn’t benefit much from an aid. Even my right seems to be a bit borderline given my word recognition. Where I am having trouble at the moment, though, is with situations where someone needs to whisper to me. That’s when my current loss has a definite impact. That’s not an everyday event, but it does happen from time to time, and so it has me questioning whether to buy aids yet.

I know that I’m going to need to get aids eventually, so it’s really a question of whether it’s time yet or not.

From what I saw in another thread on this site, it sounds like Costco is going to get their own housebranded aid that is iphone compatible sometime this year. Anyone have any insight on when that might be?

#13

You want to be careful. I kept putting it off until I started having real trouble hearing (several years). I finally went to an audiologist with the intent of buying. The test showed my word recognition had decreased drastically. In fact, hearing in my right ear was very distorted even when amplified. This caused my word recognition to go down when using both ears.

I was told that buying a aid for my right ear might make my overall hearing worse than just using one in my left ear. I did some research and figured out that part of my problem was what was described as “auditory deprivation”. I will let the experts describe what this is or you can look it up. In a few words it amounts to “use it or lose it”.

I went ahead and bought two aids. I used the right one even though it had brought my word recognition score down. In fact, while watching TV, I would raise the volume in my right ear and lower the volume in my left ear. It took a long time but my word recognition in my right ear has increased. Now when I put the right aid in at normal volume, my overall hearing improves.

I was told that it was very difficult to recover from the effect of auditory deprivation but I have done it to some extent and I hope for even more improvement. I will admit that it took over a year but it was worth it as I can now understand amplified sound in my right ear as well as in my left ear.

Maybe my experience is unusual but I thought it worth mentioning.

#14

While I can’t really comment on whether you “need” hearing aids or not, I can share some experiences/thoughts about potential workplace discrimination. First and foremost: Very, very few people even notice hearing aids - I keep my hair clipper cut around the ears and sometimes wear contacts instead of glasses, despite of this I usually have to point out my BTE HAs in order for people to notice them. I often inform people in work contexts that I wear HAs - particularly important for me to inform students, so I’m not perceived as ignoring them - and I’ve never had any negative reactions. If anything, people are interested. Or more commonly, they couldn’t care less. Weird reaction have included people apologizing or telling me how impressed they are that I do so well professionally despite having hearing loss.

#15

Thank you all for your advice! I finally decided to bite the bullet and go ahead with it. I went to my local Costco and couldn’t have been happier with the professional service that I received there. The gentleman who helped me had been in the industry for over 30 years and it showed. He even did a few additional tests on top of the ones that the independent audiologist had performed. In the end he recommended that I only get a single aid as he didn’t feel that I’d get enough benefit out of the second aid for the cost. I ended up getting a single, top of the line, bernafon aid for $1300. That’s a lot less than the $6400 for two aids that the independent audiologist was pushing. I can’t recommend Costco enough to folks trying to decide.

So far, so good with the aid. The first few days had a bit of sensory overload as I wasn’t used to hearing sounds at that frequency. That’s starting to fade now as my brain adjusts to the new signals.

#16

congrats on taking the first step.

but please do not be that person who goes to the car dealership and tries out only one model. for the money you are paying you can try the phonak brio r, don’t get the cic or any in the ear model. I bet they got one behind the counter you can wear in the store. this will allow you to hear what a premium hearing aid sounds like. and please encourage all others to try 2 brands at least.

— Updated —

congrats on taking the first step.

but please do not be that person who goes to the car dealership and tries out only one model. for the money you are paying you can try the phonak brio r, don’t get the cic or any in the ear model. I bet they got one behind the counter you can wear in the store. this will allow you to hear what a premium hearing aid sounds like. and please encourage all others to try 2 brands at least.