Sore and pain after "level" increased

Hearing Aids
#1

What does it mean if my ear is sore and eventually painful after the “fitting level” is increased?

When I first got my hearing aid, it was set to level 1. I literally screamed at how loud it was. My audi manually decreased the gain. I went back for a followup and the audi ended up increasing the fitting level, no manual changes to the gain, just the level slider. The volume was tolerable so it was increased from level 1 to level 3. Volume still fine but after 3-4 hours, my ears start feeling sore to painful and then throbbing. I take it out and try an hour later or the next day.

Is this something that involves getting use to new setting or is there something wrong/damaging and I should get it changed asap? The change was made a few days ago.

#2

Sounds unrelated. Physical pain is usually related to a physical fit problem. Take the hearing aid out and rest your ear a bit and try again. If it reoccurs your clinician might need to make some adjustments.

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#3

The pain is deeper than where the aid ends. If I didn’t know any better, I’d think I had an infection.

It goes away after 1-3 hrs after removing but comes back 3-4hrs after putting them back on.

#4

Hmmm… short of getting in to see an ENT to verify any obstruction or infection, I agree with Neville. Physical pain with aids are not uncommon when using a fitted mold. If that mold is pressing ANYWHERE on ANY part of the ear canal, you’ll get a contusion over time. Sadly, our ear canals are NOT like feet. They don’t break in a pair of aids like we do shoes. The pain only gets more constant until you can’t even touch the sore area with a feather, no kidding! Get the ear and aid fit looked at and keep us posted!

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#5

Ugh, still happening consistently. Head hurts, maybe some dizziness, initially just inside canal and quickly spread to my whole ear throbbing hard that I ice my whole side of face. :sob:

Each previous mold with a different physical fit issue but those issues weren’t like this at all; I could identify the contact point and only that point hurt.

#6

It was indeed because it was too loud. Lead to damaging my hearing… hopefully temporarily…

They’ve been reset and back to level 1 but, forgot to adjust it down even more so it’s still too loud leading to throbbing headaches and slight pain (much improved from before reset).

Hearing aids are dangerous! :sob:

#7

Nonsense, HAs are dangerous in the wrong ears maybe, how do you know they damaged your hearing? but honestly you’ll need to find another clinic if you believe they are still to “loud” after informing them of this, did your audiologist check with REM before sending you on your way? Are HAs of any real value with your hearing loss I wonder.

#8

If you’re audiogram correct on the HA as I’m unsure how you’re able to hear on Level 1?

Level 3 is the appropriate gain for your normal to mild hearing loss.

#9

Really not true. Complete nonsense.

#10

It’s known that hearing aids and REMs are not designed for my rare type of loss and there’s a risk, especially given that no one knows the details of the cause of my loss without exploratory surgery.

But I guess y’all medical experts know somehow and my medical exams and tests are fake.

#11

Hi there, I was just looking at your audiogram again and I don’t see anything that could be a “rare type of loss” I mean you only have mild loss on your left, your right is within “normal” hearing anyway, I did ask if HAs would be of any benefit to you because I didn’t think they would, REM would check the HAs match you very mild loss if your so worried about them damaging your hearing, they would of been set with a MPO so this couldn’t happen anyway, with your loss I can’t believe that anyone is proposing exploratory surgery! That sounds unnecessary, no one here is claiming to be medical experts, just offering advice/opinions.

#12

Reverse slope, possibly extreme, conductive loss. I’ve read audiogram isn’t exactly reflective for this, especially in the slope up part. HF (or maybe mid to high) is actually the area I’m having loudness/pain with auto settings. Pre increase in levels, mid to highs were turned all the way down, but I had an incident where I couldn’t understand anyone…

My audiogram after the pain clearly showed a decline when it’s been stable my whole adult life, if not since birth. My own stupidity for keeping on trying hoping it was something else.

#13

We didn’t say fake, we asked if they were accurate as it’s unusual to find them so so loud when at ‘correct gain’! Never once said they were fake.

#14

An audiogram shows the degree of hearing loss at each of a limited set of frequencies. The profession has learned to get a lot of information from them (particularly full audiograms which contain more info than a list of dB thresholds). But they’re not the whole picture, especially in less common cases.

#15

Yup. Even with a full report with the objective measurement of my ear’s response (abnormal) most audiologists still think I’m making it up. Things don’t quite match up to expectations?

On that note, maybe i need to ask the audiologist to study my full report more carefully instead of just the graph that was input into the software? Does it have info that would help? hmm

#16

In my reading about audiology I’ve come across the terms UCL (uncomfortable loudness level) and MCL (most comfortable loudness level). Maybe it’s worth talking to your audiologist about your values for these parameters, how they were determined, and how they’re used.

#17

Thank you!

I looked this up and how the test is conducted as part of 8 step audi evaluation. I’ve never had these two tests before.