SSHL - Advice for a newbie - ITE vs BTE

[AlexE]

I’m very new (unilateral SSHL overnight) to hearing loss so I’ve got a lot to learn and I’ve found people here to be supportive and helpful.

I’ve got an urgent referral (next month) for NHS hearing aids, so I can keep working (even though my hearing loss is only moderate to severe as you move up the frequencies, but nothing like the severity of some of the audiograms I’ve seen here) I’m finding it very hard to hear what anyone is saying if there is any background noise, so I cannot here my kids when I’m cooking, when I’m out and about with them and I cannot participate at work in our open plan office or when on site with clients (which is a challenge as I’m a project manager).

I’m trying to find a sensible solution so I’m asking your advice.

I’ve been for a hearing test at Boots (UK high street chain) and the hearing test there matched that of the three I’ve had (while we tried steroid treatments) over the last three weeks. The audiologist there recommended pair of Phonak Audéo Lumity L90 and I’m currently wearing these on a 90 day return policy, so I can continue with some semblance of normality.

These are behind the ear ones which seem to work pretty well, just clash a bit with both my glasses and my confcall headset (I spend a lot of time on MS Teams every day).

So a couple of questions, do I need to have two hearing aids, is there any point in wearing two if my right ear is mostly fine?

In terms of speech differentiation, is there much of a difference between BTE and ITE (I’m learning!) hearing aids? I’ve seen Sony have some off the shelf ones with dual microphones and Phonak have just announced some new rechargeable Infinio(?) in ear aids.

Bluetooth connectivity is very important to me as I live with audiobooks and podcasts when running or commuting, and I spend a lot of time one the phone and teams. If I can get away with either one aid I could use an earbud in the other or if I use an ITE aid I could go back to using my bone conduction headset.

What do you use and does it work for you? Do you have any advice for someone is very new to hearing loss (roughly 5 weeks).

[MDB]

I’d think you could use the Lumitys with MS Teams and skip the headset. Bluetooth is somewhat complicated. Currently Phonak is the only aid that offers universal access to Bluetooth because it uses Bluetooth Classic. There are newer standards but things are still in a bit of flux. Phonak has a new aid just coming out (Audeo Sphere Infinio) that sounds promising. If I were considering Lumity I’d ask Boots when the Sphere would be available and what the price difference was.
BTE tends to refer to bigger hearing aids that have the speakers (receivers) in the aid itself instead of in the ear. Audeo Lumity would be more typically called a RIC (Receiver in Canal) The latest aids tend to come out in RIC and have the most features compared to ITE. You also have considerable flexibility with an RIC regarding what actually goes in the ear (open dome, closed dome, power dome and a variety of custom molds) whereas with an ITE you get what you get.
Regarding advice. Be patient. Hearing aids take awhile to get used to. Try not to focus on sound “quality,” but on your ability to understand speech. Work with your audiologist. Posting your audiogram would help us understand your hearing loss a bit more. (Top of page, click on FORUM and My Hearing Tests) Keep us posted.

[Neville]

Unilateral sudden loss can be tricky. What’s the clarity like in that ear? Sometimes with sudden loss the thresholds aren’t that bad but the clarity is awful, but other times not. There’s some evidence that with early consistent hearing aid use the clarity will improve over some months, but usually it’s not in the realm of %5–>80% so much as 45%–>65%. Depending on clarity, streaming audio into the damaged ear may not be desired and then you’re fine just using something else for audio on the good ear, but if you want to stream bilaterally sometimes two hearing aids is an easier solution.

Additionally, unilateral loss can really kill speech in noise situations and if the clarity in the damaged ear is poor, you might get more benefit from a remote mic that sends audio to the good ear.

But it’s very individual. Some people end up with an implant in the damaged ear, some do fine with just that one hearing aid.

Not much difference between RIC and ITE so long as the ITE isn’t causing intolerable physical occlusion problems.