true point. (thankfully I have a birthday in December LOL)
For more info here is link
Reviewing Oticon’s website for Xceed, the company boldly mentions how the new aid deals with whistling and static if someone or something comes close to hearing aid. Well “big deal”. Oticon must think this is a real critical buying factor when deciding to purchases a HA. I thought people bought HA to hear better but Oticon must think they “hit” a home run by making a non-whistling HA. My 2012 Widex HA’s have not whistle once in seven years of use. Why - because I have a good fit HA mold.
Oh well glad to see a new power hearing aid on the market - but please stop with all this side show stuff like static and whistling if I put my hand near my hearing aid. You don’t throw out big bucks for a HA that doesn’t whistle. You throw out big bucks to hear better - period.
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I admit I’m not an expert.
As a musician, I’m taught that anything over 85db (A weighted, slow response) on a SPL for an extended time will damage the hair cells in the inner ear.
I’ve also been taught that 120db is instant damage.
So while I realize someone with profound hearing loss will need more volume to hear, what concerns me is that volumes that loud will damage what hearing that person has left.
Am I thinking wrong? Seems to me that the cure might be making the problem worse, which of course would need a louder cure, which would make the problem even worse, etc.
Like I said, I’m not an audiologist nor am I a hearing aid expert. But I do know a little about loud noise damage.
If I’m wrong, please explain so that I can understand and anyone reading my post won’t misunderstand.
Bob
Your looking at this from the perspective of someone with normal hearing. In that sense you are correct in your assumptions. Someone with normal hearing - normal ear/hair cells needs protection from loud noises short term and long term. But someone with a severe to profound hearing loss is missing so much (incoming sound) already that it’s someone irrelevant what the incoming decibel level is. As long as HA properly controls and processes the above average decibel input. As in “does not distort” what the person hears. At some high decibel level a hearing aid will malfunction, which in turns tells the user it’s of no use and also probably does more harm than good.
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We will have to wait until Oticon updates their hearing aid database. It’s not just full on gain, there are more advanced technologies than the Dynamo older aids. I will be doing a compare review of both the Phonak Naida UP and the Oticon Xceed aids.
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Naida UP has shorter frequency range than Dynamo and Xceed (up to 4 kHz at 120 dB Naida vs up to 6 kHz at 120 dB Xceed)
So I guess it’s a case of “If you want to hear, these devices are going to further damage your hearing, but if you don’t use these, you won’t be able to hear anyway.” A catch 22 situation.
Have I got that right?
What I’ve always learned from the Hearing Experts is the maximum time per different levels of constant volume are:
85db = 8 hrs
88db = 4 hrs
91db = 2 hrs
94db = 1 hr
97db = 30 min
100db = 15 min
106dn = <4 min
109db = <2 min
115db = 30 sec
120db = instant damage
I play music for a living. I run the speakers at 85db so that I don’t hurt the ears of my audience. If they ask me to turn it up I will (the customer is always right) but then it’s not me damaging their ears. And in go my ear plugs (custom molded, high fidelity, musicians ear plugs).
I’m very aware of damaging volumes. I’ve always worn ear plugs when things get loud, but a 3 times misdiagnosed illness got my ears anyway.
You can run but sometimes you can’t hide.
Bob
Me too, I am waiting for the new version of Phonak Naida that will hopefully come with direct Bluetooth connectivity with phones. Then I will try Oticon, Resound and Phonak UP hearing aids and decide which one to go for.
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Excuse me for intervention, but Resound has pretty high battery drain, and Phonak has short frequency range. Of course, you will decide which one to go for/
Sigh! It is as if we can’t get one good package. I am really hoping that Phonak has better frequency range in their latest model. I will be trying Resound, Oticon, and Phonak UP hearing aids and then decide which ones sound better. The only negative I can think of is that the audiologist may get fed up with me for having to adjust all 3 devices for me to try out.
SoundRecover just moves sounds from high frequencies, but it cannot restore lost frequencies
Welcome to the forum.
Posting your audiogram could help us help you.
Thank you, friend! I’ve learned a lot already by the comments @Lostdeaf left. I started wearing hearing aids since I was 5 years old and it seems that even after trying many devices, I still have a lot to learn. Glad to have found this community. You can see my Audiogram attached, it looks really bad so UP devices are the only option I have. I didn’t want to go for implants due to infection/risks and getting locked down to one provider, and most importantly trusting that hearing aids will continue to improve as they have in the past.
Thanks for the audiogram. If you want to enter it into your avatar here is a thread from the admin.
Please take the information you get from members with a grain of salt. Some are incorrect.
For what it’s worth, you don’t need to add gain to frequencies you can not hear at. If you have dead frequencies you don’t need to put gain there, period. You may be able to use less powerful aids when you look at it that way.
I see, so according to my audiogram, the last two frequencies, 4K and 8K are dead frequencies? Or are they so less that perhaps UP hearing aid may be able to pick up a bit and amplify the sound? I am using Siemens Nitro 701 SP hearing aids right now and not very happy with them. I think they have declined in quality after over 5 years of usage.
You should definitely take my comments with a grain of salt, but I think you have a “mixed loss,” involving a conductive component. This has implications for how much gain is needed. I’m basing this opinion on a notable difference between your bone conduction and air conduction readings.
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And possibly 3000 hertz. Your audiogram could use more detail.
Yes, why put gain in areas you can not hear.
I am not familiar with your aids. Do they have frequency lowering?
My hearing is gone in the upper frequencies. I use Phonak Audeo B90 aids right now with aggressive Sound Recover 2 settings. I can hear things I have not heard in many years. My lower frequencies are better than yours so that makes a difference in needed gain.
As MDB has stated, conductive loss could be much of the issue. Zebras is very familiar with this type loss.
Very interesting insights from you and @MDB! I want to take advantage of the 2K and 3K frequencies because I can hear very faint sounds in these frequencies and I think just disable other higher frequencies since they look dead based on your suggestions. Both Audeo B and Audeo Marvel comes with UP receiver but the max dB it goes till is 100 so it’s useless for me. I need a UP hearing aid that goes till 120 or perhaps even a bit more so I can take full advantage of amplifying 2K and 3K frequencies. Until I wait for Phonak to release their latest version of Naida, are there any other hearing aids available right now suitable for me which have direct Bluetooth connectivity?
Interesting tidbit, I noticed that I can hear men better than women, no wonder it’s because my high frequencies are weak and women have higher frequencies when they speak. 