If you have an iphone here is a $0.99 SPL Meter. As they say “there’s an app for that”.
The problem with speech understanding may not be in the aids. Many HOH have deteriated hair cells that have lost there tuneing sharpness.
Another problem is that over compression and or over limiting cause a marked decrease in vital speech cues.
Still more bad news is dead hair cells cause little or no response at vital frequencies, or cause buzzey distorted sound,
Some professionals over drive weak cochlea area’s causing masking of the good area’s. Ed
No doubt my hair cells are dead or dying (and not only in my ears), so what am I do do?
If HA’s can’t help speech understanding, whats the point? The most crucial thing about hearing loss is the inability to understand speech. If HA companies can’t help with that why are they claiming they can? I sure would like a little honesty from them.
Maybe you guys need to look into HA with sound recover that can move the sound you can’t hear over to where you can hear.
For that money, she could get stem cells and possibly improve both ears. This will give her better hearing with and without HAs and she may even find she no longer needs HAs! I have a blog on stem cells and am going that route soon.
With your 60db loss, you would not understand any speech without your HAs. You need at least 40db gain across to place your aided thresholds at the 20db level which means being at the top of the speech banana. It sounds(pun intended) like you are being underamplified and thus, normal speech is too quiet. I was able to understand more speech when I got new HAs which made everything louder. I really wish I had only a 60db loss, my speech remains poor but at least I’m great at lipreading.
Do you have any verified information on this? It seems quite a claim for a previously irreversible condition which is subject to atrophy.
I suspect he is a bot, linking to a blog posting from 2009 predicting a solution in 2010. See my poll thread at http://www.hearingaidforums.com/showthread.php?t=10879
Removing HTML from forum signatures would inconvenience users like you, but could help neutralize the spambots.
I Can’t help but chuckle when I read this…I always picture an entire robot made of a can of spam…lol
I’m fairly certain that stem-cell treatment of human hair cell damage that would result in a normally functioning cochlea is years away.
Several others besides Chloe were successful. I will be blogging about another guy who got a 20db improvement. Of course the anti stem cell crowd won’t believe any of this till they see one of their formerly anti stem cell friends able to hear him without his HAs.
Today’s stem cells averages a 20db improvement. I plan to get stem cells in 2-4 years then repeat the process for additional improvement. A partial improvement is possible today, a full improvement will become possible in several years, yes.
I did a little on-line digging and the information I could find said that the only hair-cells that have been grown are in a petri dish, a small quatity, and from a mouse. Many researchers agree that it could easily be a decade or more before this could apply to humans. The one story I found about a little girl that it helped, the link was broken.
I would love to read more on this and you are correct, I won’t believe it until I have some consistent, repeatable scientific proof.
I also have all sorts of questions like what happens when it’s progressive SNHL? Do you get the procedure over and over again? What’s the cost? Would insurance pay for it? What’s the success/failure rate?
These are things anyone seriously considering a procedure such as this would need to know before proceeding.
Tevc32: I sympathize with your vent, and if its any comfort, I can’t understand my grandchildren either.
My research indicates (and at least one audi agrees) that all the new and supposedly sophisticated speech recognition algorithms help folks with moderate loss but aren’t much help for folks with moderate-severe or severe (or, obviously, profound) loss… particularly if they have poor discrimination too. I think pretty much the same is true of supposedly sophisticated directionality algorithms and capabilities.
Also, while this is of course anecdotal, I’ve found that my tests at about the same time by different audis produce similar loss curves but quite different discrimination scores. (I would will be alert for ant audi’s explanation or comment on this.)
I’m currently trying Phonak Audeo S Smart RITEs and recently trialed Oticon Agil Pro RITEs. My conclusion is that neither are that much better than my old Oticon Syncro BTEs, and both Audeo and Agil directionality and speech recognition advertisements are borderline BS (i.e., same category as weight-loss pill ads).
Hz) L(dB) R(dB)
250 40 50
500 55 65
1K 55 60
2K 60 60
4K 70 70
8K 90 100
L: 88% SD@80dB
R: 64% SD@85dB
L&R stapedectomy <!-- / message -->
Hi Folks
I guess I’m kinda lucky in that respect, given the severity of my loss, I have good speech recognition, at least I think I do? I have never actually been tested for this, its not something that’s done much here in the UK… The reason might be that I have always been aided since my initial loss 20 years back, thereby my brain never lost its ability to recognize speech? I read a few items on speech recognition over the years and if my memory serves me correctly, the main thrux of the matter was your brain loses its ability to recognize some speech if you go unaided for a long period of time, apparently this cannot be undone and hence some speech becomes distorted? Maybe one of the Pro’s can give us their take on this?
None of my Audiograms look the same, sometimes the variation can be 20db or more, I have yet to get 2 the same! My hearing can fluctuate quite wildly, this is usually dictated by my Tinnitus and when this is bad then my hearing goes way down!
Cheers Kev.
How do you get the stem cells onto the basilar membrane in the ‘right’ place?
How do you introduce them without perilymph fistula?
How do you re-establish cochlear neural function after system atrophy?
All in an electro-osmotically balanced delicate organ the size of a pea…hmmm.
I see you are a tadge skeptical Steve… I wonder why LOL 
I have say, I believe in the future that “Stem Cells” might be the answer to certain losses, when that will happen, anyone can only guess! It would be nice to think before I depart this mortal coil that perhaps it would be in my lifetime, but as I’m 54… I will most likely miss the boat? To be able to hear silence again and not this horrendous tinnitus, would be a blessing and maybe just to sit for a while and listen to some Folk or Blues would be blissful… Tis but a pipe-dream for the moment, but its nice to dream!
Cheers Kev:D
What I’ve seen on stem cell use have been temporary relief from the ailments they are meant to treat or cure. Several years ago they were implanting stem cells into the Brains of Dementia and Alzheimers patients and they only got several months to years improvement before they began to lose the effects of the stem cells. So I have to agree that I doubt I will see a stem cell cure for hearing loss in my lifetime.
Scott
I also think Deaf 123 is hoping for a cure for his hearing loss though biological means rather than a surgical one and he is shopping his belief in stem cell cures all over the Forum. In the time it will take to perfect the stem cell treatment, who knows what advancement in CI or other treatments will come down the pike?
Read my blog, I have collected lots of information that you overlooked.
Many researchers agree that it could easily be a decade or more before this could apply to humans. The one story I found about a little girl that it helped, the link was broken.
For starters, check here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i_jqPbTc0Ug
I would love to read more on this and you are correct, I won’t believe it until I have some consistent, repeatable scientific proof.
I believe it, but I am still waiting myself for more pioneers to go ahead so I know what to expect. I estimate 2-4 years before I get stem cells.
I also have all sorts of questions like what happens when it’s progressive SNHL? Do you get the procedure over and over again? What’s the cost? Would insurance pay for it? What’s the success/failure rate?
If your loss is progressive, stem cells may still be worthwhile since the cost is about 25% of bilateral CIs and stem cells are far better. I would keep getting stem cells till they come out with a genetic cure for any gene based HL. Two CIs can cost over $100k while stem cells costs around $30k. Insurance sometimes pays for one CI but the real cost is losing your residual hearing, the risk of invasive head surgery and missing out on stem cells in the implanted ear. I am saving both ears. With todays stem cells, it’s about 50-50 for getting a noticeable improvement. But if you do improve, the advantages are numerous over CI and besides, most people have far too much hearing for CI.
Chloe had 600m stem cells administered by IV, 100m at a time and the stem cells travel thruout the body, a small amount migrating into your cochlea and then differentiating into hair cells. A direct transtympanic(eardrum) injection is considered too risky at this time and not recommended. Just inject them by IV and let them find their way.
You can wait for me and others to get stem cells, your chance will come whenever you are ready, be it next year or in a decade. 
I suggest you check out my blog, I have explained everything.
Sorry, you seem to be confusing your congenital deafness with an atrophied sensorineural system. Deafness through birth-defect ‘might’ be treatable in this way. How do you ‘instruct’ the stem-cells to create replacements for the damaged hair cells, if you can’t place them in situ AND the damaged structures are still on the basilar membrane?
As for the placement, you would need to get way beyond the tympanic membrane - you would need to access the bony labyrinth without spilling perilymph everywhere and destroying the vestibular system.
Pumping them into your bloodstream is only going to make them attach to the nearest organ. Isn’t it?
All the stem cell centers treating any disease/disorder are placing the stem cells into the bloodstream. The cells travel everywhere so of course a small number out of 600m end up in the “right” place anyway then they get to work repairing the damage. The stem cells “become” whatever cells the surrounding cells happen to be. In my case, the stem cells would end in my cochlea and the signal would be for those stem cells to become hair cells. This has been proven in numerous animal studies and in dozens of humans. I would suggest you check my blog, nearly all your answers are there.
So the stem cells become ‘dead’ hair cells with no link to the brain. How does the stem cell actually get into this bath of saline fluid? Does it pass through the bone in the wall, does it enter via the calcified or atrophied capillaries or does it pass through the walls of other cells via osmosis to the cavity inside? (apart from the particles being too large)
Unless you have invented a ‘star-trek’ kind of transporter, it seems you have a problem.
Using this site to drive traffic through your blog doesn’t give it scientific veracity.