When to get Hearing Aids with mild loss?

[Tmrsuz]

Some say your brain forgets to process the sounds.

For me it was that I could understand most of what people were saying but sometimes my brain would fill in the blanks for what I THOUGHT I heard based on the other words in the sentence in the past and what I expected the word should be. Also I found as soon as I got used to them that it was a lot less tiring to converse. I had been working awfully hard watching peoples faces and trying to process what they said or asking them to repeat themselves.

Finally it became a great joy to hear little things I forgot I was missing like birds chirping that made taking a walk more colorful and enjoyable.
Suz

[NeilFJ]

Why is it better to get them while the loss is mild?

It is my understanding that adapting to hearing aids is easier if the amplification is lower such as in a mild loss. I have also heard that your brain will “forget” how to comprehend speach if it is not exposed to it as in a moderate to profound loss. You hear with your brain more than your ears. Imagine the program Dragon speach (not an endorsement), you can have the finest most sensative microphone, but if the processor isn’t working you get gibberish on the screen.

[rob43215]

My 2 cents from someone with a cookie bite type loss is I would wait. My loss is down 60db in the middle frequencies although my high frequency is perfect. I don’t have the graph in front of me but it literally just has a big drop in the middle while the very low and very high are fine. I don’t hear things as well as I should and I have to turn the TV up a bit, but honestly I could get along fine without aids for probably quite a few years yet. With aids I don’t have to turn the TV up as loud which makes the wife happy and I do hear better, but the aids are a relative pain, they aren’t super comfortable, you have to worry about getting them wet, the sound is decent, but not quite the same, etc. My insurance company pays fully for my aids which is why I got them, I would never have done it if they weren’t paid for. They do help me at work and when watching TV, but I wouldn’t be spending 7K out of pocket on them at this juncture for sure.

[seb]

I was hoping some of you could share some insights based on your own experiences. A little background on myself. I am 41 and I suspected that I might have hearing loss several years ago. I finally got tested about 3 years ago. I was diagnosed with mild cookie bite SNHL. I also have mild tinnitus in my right ear. I usually only notice the tinnitus in quiet environments, or when I focus on it. I can usally ignore it. The ENT said let’s just wait and check it every couple of years. I got tested again this past summer, as I thought it was getting worse. It was only slightly worse, but enough for me to notice I guess. Below are my results.

Here are a few of the ways it has affected me. I can no longer hear the shower running when I am downstairs. So I can’t use that when getting the children off to bed. I have to call up or run upstairs to check on their progress. I also watch the TV on the loud side. It seems loud to me (as well as my wife), but I need it that loud sometimes to hear/understand the conversations. I don’t always hear the microwave finish beeps if I am not in the kitchen. So my tea cup sometimes sits in the microwave until my wife finds it sometime later! My work around is to set the stove timer as well, since it is louder and beeps until you turn it off. I don’t always understand what people are saying to me. Cupping my ear helps, because they repeat themselves louder, and cupping helps me hear much better. Music is important to me as well, and I play the classical guitar. I find cupping my ears adds presence and “fill” to music that I do not hear without cupping.

Would getting hearing aids help preserve or improve my current level of hearing/understanding?

Would aids improve my musical experience?

For those with mild loss, what finally led to you deciding to get aids and has it helped?

—250–500–1k—2k—3k—4k—6k—8k
L -15—20----25—35—25–15—15—10
R -15—20----25—35—30–15—20—20

SRT L=20, R=25
WR L=100@45, R=100@45

Bottom line is only you will be able to tell if they are worth getting right now. Go to a Costco (if one is close enough) where you can get a 90 day trial and all of your money back if you decide you don’t need them right now. Then you have nothing to lose.

[Tmrsuz]

Yes it’s quite individual. I never know I have them on so have a different experience. Other than ears itchy the first 2 weeks I have been so comfortable with mine. Try and see is all. I paid for mine out of pocket so it was a big investment but for me better than the vacation we didn’t take

[sortofcookiebiter]

My two cents: I think you should try HAs either when you’re feeling irritated/upset at not hearing what people are saying, or when you yourself are irritating/upsetting other people by not hearing what they’re saying. I decided to get mine the day I asked someone to repeat himself and I did not hear what he said the second time. Let me warn you, though, unconventional audiograms are challenging and I have often been very frustrated. I’ve come to think of HAs like prescription medicine – they help with some things, some of the time, and they cause a whole slew of annoying side effects. I rarely wear mine in the house, the place you want to wear yours, due to the annoyance of persistent noise from the heater, the fridge, etc. If you decide to try them, I’d recommend finding an audiologist who is very skilled and very patient. If your main thing is the TV, I’d either try the ZVOX speaker that has a dialog emphasis setting or a bluetooth speaker that you can put close to your head. I actually find those two methods more helpful than wearing my HAs while watching TV.

[rob43215]

My hearing aid does a decent job of hearing the TV and I sit quite a ways further back then most people because I watch a big projector screen. Its not perfect but its definately stopped the wife from yelling turn the TV down on weekends when I’m watching late at night.

[Whadyousay]

I want to thank you all for your input and experiences. Particularly those with mild loss similar to mine. I also found the following particularly interesting and persuasive:

1. If by your “current level of hearing” you’re referring to your threshold hearing sensitivity, then hearing aids won’t help to preserve this. However, your hearing loss is worst at 2kHz and the speech sounds in the octave band either side of this contribute more to speech intelligibility than any other octave band within the speech spectrum range. As a result, hearing aids should contribute to improved speech understanding, particularly for more challenging difficult to understand talkers and complex listening situations.

So combining the above quote with the idea that you have to use it or lose it when it comes to the body, (like muscular atrophy, the brain becoming less adept at dealing with certain frequencies), I have been persuaded that perhaps sooner is better than later. I do have a Costco within 10 or so miles of me, and their prices seem to fit with what I would be comfortable with. So I think I will be paying them a visit sometime within the next few months or so. Do you have to purchase a membership to get tested and trial hearing aids?

[seb]

I want to thank you all for your input and experiences. Particularly those with mild loss similar to mine. I also found the following particularly interesting and persuasive:

So combining the above quote with the idea that you have to use it or lose it when it comes to the body, (like muscular atrophy, the brain becoming less adept at dealing with certain frequencies), I have been persuaded that perhaps sooner is better than later. I do have a Costco within 10 or so miles of me, and their prices seem to fit with what I would be comfortable with. So I think I will be paying them a visit sometime within the next few months or so. Do you have to purchase a membership to get tested and trial hearing aids?

You don’t need a membership to be tested, but you will have to join to buy hearing aids. With Costco’s trial and return policy being 90 days and you get all your money back if you decide now is not the time, you really have nothing to lose. Good luck!

[dstraight]

Hi Whadyousay,

I’ve got mild hearing loss and have recently tried a demo pair of hearing aids. The benefits are clear during the short time I’ve used hearing aids (four weeks at the time of this post). I am able to hear my girlfriend during conversations without any trouble now. Without hearing aids I was constantly having to decipher what she said to me. The same is true for meetings at work. In general, I find my need for hearing aids depends on the person speaking. Some people I can hear without any trouble at all and therefore without any need for hearing aids, but for other people I find it necessary to wear hearing aids in order to hear them. I usually cannot hear people speaking softly without assistance from hearing aids. My hearing aids have also been useful with conference phone calls and my laptop speakers. I have noticed that when I’m wearing hearing aids around the house I hear many more incidental noises, such as sounds coming from the downstairs, cars outside, the cats puttering around, etc. In my case I don’t really have a need to hear all these extra noises and rather enjoy the quiet I get without aids.

I take my hearing aids out when listening to music. These are digital hearing aids designed for speech, not music. Music doesn’t sound so great with hearing aids if you ask me. Besides, it is trivial to turn up the volume.

Because I have mild hearing loss I simply do not need hearing aids for all situations and prefer wearing them only for conversations in quiet settings. Most of the time I’m not wearing them and put them on only when I need that extra boost.

Hope that helps,

David

I was hoping some of you could share some insights based on your own experiences.

Would getting hearing aids help preserve or improve my current level of hearing/understanding?

Would aids improve my musical experience?

For those with mild loss, what finally led to you deciding to get aids and has it helped?

[Don]

So I think I will be paying them a visit sometime within the next few months or so. Do you have to purchase a membership to get tested and trial hearing aids?

You will have to get a membership to buy. You would have to buy the hearing aids and then you have 90 days to return them and get all your money back. Costco does not charge a restocking or any other kind of return fee.

Check the details but I believe when I got mine it worked out that with the Executive membership and their American Express card I got more benefits than the Costco/American Express card costs. You get the most rebate bucks that way and with purchasing hearing aids the rebate benefits were more than the membership cost. I get an annual rebate certificate that is more than my membership cost for the Executive membership.

[hearingguy]

Thw info on Costco is correct. Extremely liberal policies and the quality is there. That being said, I work for them and I am a hearing impaired audiologist. Make an appointment. Go see them. get a feel about whether or not you can work with them. It is set up so that you truly have nothing to lose. As far as fitting a mild loss? Is your hearing causing you problems? If so, make a move. If those of us that do this as a profession are doing what we need to do, we help people hear better as opposed to fitting audiograms. The whole psychosocial component is really more important to you than a bunch of numbers on a chart. If you are asking the questions, it is quite likely that you are asking for help as well. Due diligence.

[Whadyousay]

Really great feedback and information. If they only helped with conversations I think that would be fine. It is not necessarily quiet voices that are a problem either. Just certain voice types or environmental noise interference. Breathy or hissy voices are particularly problematic. Hopefully this thread helps other mild fence sitters :).

[Um_bongo]

Thw info on Costco is correct. Extremely liberal policies and the quality is there. That being said, I work for them and I am a hearing impaired audiologist. Make an appointment. Go see them. get a feel about whether or not you can work with them. It is set up so that you truly have nothing to lose. As far as fitting a mild loss? Is your hearing causing you problems? If so, make a move. If those of us that do this as a profession are doing what we need to do, we help people hear better as opposed to fitting audiograms. The whole psychosocial component is really more important to you than a bunch of numbers on a chart. If you are asking the questions, it is quite likely that you are asking for help as well. Due diligence.

Completely agree with this. The degree of ‘loss’ often has very little to do with the numbers and lots to do with the social/work/relaxing activities of the client. My range goes from a Hermit to a High Court Judge: everyone sits somewhere on that scale.

[Amitie1]

I’m a high school teacher in my 60’s, with mild/moderate high-frequency hearing loss. I’ve been having trouble understanding student speech in the classroom from distances of 8 or so feet and beyond; in addition, my husband complains that sometimes I have the TV too loud. I have no trouble in one-on-one conversations (except in noisy restaurants) and no trouble on the telephone.

The audiologist initially fitted me with a Starkey IIC. My own voice sounded booming, the occlusion was uncomfortable, and background noise in restaurants was absolutely deafening - even using the Starkey iPhone “app” for restaurants! This was all bad enough, but the real clincher was that due to the sound distortion (is this a “given” with digital devices?), student speech was more difficult to hear than without wearing aids!

So…my next “test drive” was the much-touted Oticon Intiga RIC (behind the ear). With the Oticon, my voice sounded normal to me, and the sense of occlusion was much less. But all the other problems remained, in particular the deafening noise in restaurants, and distortion of speech of everyone - even people in close-up conversations in quiet settings! My audiologist conceded that HA’s do not replicate normal speech or restore normal hearing: okay, got that. But if they distort speech to the extent that it makes words more difficult to decode, then what is the point of the HA?

So I rejected the Oticons. My audiologist then remarked that “Maybe this just isn’t the right time for you to get hearing aids,” and offered to refund my money (which was a fortune). So actually, I guess it was she who fired me!

Bottom line: I have no hearing aids (and no audiologist), but many questions! Is it possible that indeed, as my audiologist suggested, I’m just not yet at the point where I can benefit from HA’s? And was she correct that distortion of sound with HAs is just something you have to accept? She also said that HAs cannot block out restaurant noise; is this correct?

And finally, has anyone had experience with the HAs I tried (Starkey IIC and Oticon Intiga RIC)?

I would be so grateful from insight of others with similar experiences - or for any advice!

[seb]

I would give a different audiologist a try, it sounds like the audiologist you went with didn’t know how to correctly set up or adjust the hearing aids you tried. Good luck!

[ICaptionTV]

I have mild hearing loss as well, but with terrible tinnitus. I was not happy with my first audiologist, found another, and had a complete different experience. Try doing some research (healthgrades.com or angieslist.com if you’re a member) or maybe word of mouth. Best of luck. The right audiologist makes a world of difference regardless of what hearing aid is in your ear.

[Amitie1]

Thanks so much for the replies to my post, “Fired my audiologist!” But I would still like to hear from people regarding their experiences of sound quality (as opposed to volume, which is the easy part) of any digital HAs.

Specifically, is sound distortion inevitable with digital aids? I experienced distortion of speech with both the Starkey IIC and Oticon Intiga RIC, to the extent that rather than improving my ability to hear speech, the aids were actually a detriment. So discouraging!

Thanks again; all feedback from is priceless!

Amitie (French for “friendship”)

[seasonedears]

Dear Amitie,

Here is my experience with getting HA’s for the first time. It does not completely mirror yours, but maybe you can still use some of it.
I have had HA’s for 8 month now, so I am well used to them. At first it was kind a wondrous experience, because I heard so many new things or so much more of things that had been kind of muffled (without really realizing it). Next I got kind of disappointed with how poorly I sometimes understood speech, especially in movies and fast paced environments. I sometimes think to myself - did I even understand speech this poorly before my HA’s? But if I am compltely honest with myself, i think that before HA’s I did not fully register how much I missed, I kind of thought that other people couldn’t hear what they were saying in the movie either - which is of course ridiculous! I also avoided the phone without realizing what my problem was. So now that I have recognized my hearing problem, gotten HA’s my expectations have changed and I expect to hear everything. Sometimes I still don’t, but it may still be better than before.
I also had the issue with all other noises being terribly loud in the beginning, but after a few months that is rarely an issue.
Understanding speech from a distance is always a challenge, because HA’s pick up sound the best with in a few feet. That you can only remedy with either getting closer to the speaker or getting a remote mic.

[seb]

Thanks so much for the replies to my post, “Fired my audiologist!” But I would still like to hear from people regarding their experiences of sound quality (as opposed to volume, which is the easy part) of any digital HAs.

Specifically, is sound distortion inevitable with digital aids? I experienced distortion of speech with both the Starkey IIC and Oticon Intiga RIC, to the extent that rather than improving my ability to hear speech, the aids were actually a detriment. So discouraging!

Thanks again; all feedback from is priceless!

Amitie (French for “friendship”)

What does your audiogram look like and what are your discrimination scores. I’ve never experienced distortion of speech. Of the HA’s I tried Phonak, Resound and Oticon; I found Phonak to sound too mechanical for me and found Oticon and Resound to sound very natural and went with the Oticon. The two variables in your situation is your audiologist and your ears and without having your audiogram numbers up, the pro’s on this site would be taking a shot in the dark.