I’m relatively new to my ITE, Phonak Virto P 312’s. I have moderate (bordering on severe) equal hearing loss in both ears. What is very frustrating, and certainly off putting, is when having conversations with people the sound of my own distorted voice. I would liken it to someone talking into a microphone and it being amplified through a blown speaker - loud and very distorted. I would rather not talk or be part of the conversation because of it… My HA’s were calibrated by my audiologist. I use the Phonak app and I have tried different settings and reduced the volume but no good. Reducing the set volume is defeating the object because I may as well not have the HA’s in, they are just acting as plugs. Also, I cannot eat with them in, especially something with crunch its just way too loud. Upon taking them out my tinnitus levels are off the scale, especially after suffering my own loud distorted voice. Has anyone else suffered with this?
I always ask this question.
Can you hear the distortion with the hearing aids out?
I do, it’s just not as loud.
If you have a damaged ear that causes distortion the aids magnify it.
I was told I have nerve damage.
Hi freezerman404. Thanks for the response.
No, I don’t hear the distortion with the HA’s out. I’ve changed the batteries, there’s no moisture and the HA’s are clean as well as my ear canals. It’s really puzzling!
Your audiologist should be able to adjust your aids to at least help with this issue. But if you are new to aids this is a problem that normal can be adjusted for and also your brain will learn to tune it out. I have been wearing aids for 20 years and my first aids were very bad at me hearing my own voice. My brain slowly learned to tune it out. For my first few sets of new aids I would have to deal with the issue until I adjusted to the new aids. But as the years have gone by I no longer notice the issue with new aids.
If you have good or ok lower frequency hearing this is a common experience, and yes, it sure sounds like occlusion. Take your aids out and stick fingers in the ears to block them off and talk to see if that is what you are experiencing. You may need to have them remade with better venting.
WH
Unlike anywhere else, posting your audiogram here allows members to actually understand your specific hearing profile and to better advise you.
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Also, “relatively new” lacks the specificity needed to understand the time generally needed to adjust.
Having said that, ITE aids have lots of unique issues. The fit must be 100 percent perfect and the venting also. After that, as with all aids, the fitting is a process that can require lots of visits and adjustments
Wear them turned off. Take the batteries out and put them in your ears. Whatever boomy/loud/crunchy issues are still present are due to occlusion (muffled issues are just because your ears are plugged). If there are no issues with them turned off, then it’s an amplification issue which can be dealt with through a combination of programming and neural adaptation.
Thank you everyone.
Regarding taking the HA’s out and putting my fingers in my ears, I have done that. Yes, I can hear my own voice but it isn’t loud and distorted like when I have HA’s in.
Based on the helpful responses so far, I will go back to the audiologist and discuss. I have lost a lot of high end hearing , so perhaps the custom ITE model is not suitable. I may need to go with an over ear RIC instead.
like a certain body part everyone here has an opinion. Mine is that custom ITE are the best. But getting them set up right can be tricky.
Yes, i experienced some issues when I first started using my Oticon Own ITC hearing aids coming from CIC.
While I managed to find a work around for some these issues you are describing, I’m still working on finding solutions for others. Two changes that made the most significant improvement for me were increasing the ventilation from 0.8 mm to 1 mm to reduce occlusion(Risky but worth it), getting a new earmold that extends deeper into the canal, which improved speech perception and sound quality.
Oticon can be very strict and difficult to work with when it comes to unusual earmold requests, i’m still trying to achieve a tighter fit not only to reduce the amount of feedback caused by jaw and head movements and making sure I don’t have to push the hearing aids back into my ears every ten minutes.
I’ve also had to make some minor adjustments using the Genie software.
Not your fingers, your powered off hearing aids.