When to get Hearing Aids with mild loss?

Hearing Loss
#16

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?

#17

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!

#18

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

#19

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.

#20

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.

#21

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 :).

#22

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.

#23

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!

#24

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!

#25

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.

#26

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”)

1 Like
#27

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.

#28

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.

#29

Dear Seb,

I am looking at my audiogram, but do not see a neat list of numbers for each ear, like so many people display on this website! My audiogram consists of a chart with x’s and o’s, which range from 25 to 65 on the chart, if that means anything. My WRS (word recognition score) was 92% right ear, and 88% left ear.

Believe me, I will insist that my next audiologist provide a comprehensible audiogram, along with explanation. Once I have a set of numbers, I will post it!

Thanks,

Amitie

#30

Amitie;

The chart with x’s and o’s IS the standard format for an audiogram. That’s what my audiogram looks like.
Once you learn how to read it, you will be able to figure out how to post your results.

Here’s how to read it:
At the top, there should be numbers: 250, 500, 1,000, etc. These numbers represent the frequencies of hearing.
Along the left side you should see numbers ranging from -10 at the top to 120 at the bottom. These numbers represent the dB (loudness) of what you can hear.
O’s usually represent the the right ear, x’s usually represent the left ear. Wherever there is an x or an o on the graph, that is the point at which the Hz (numbers on the top line) intersect with the dB (numbers on the left hand side of the graph), and that represents the quietest sound your ear can hear for that particular frequency. Essentially, the higher up/closer to the top the x’s and o’s are, the better your hearing; the lower down/closer to the bottom the x’s and o’s are, the worse your hearing is (meaning you can only hear things that are higher decibels or louder). So when you say your numbers are from 25 to 65, know that “normal” hearing for an adult is considered to be 25dB or lower. Mild hearing loss ranges from 25-40 dB, moderate hearing loss ranges from 41-70 dB, severe hearing loss ranges from 71-90 dB, and profound hearing loss is anything that is below 90 dB. Your hearing loss would be considered a mild-to-moderate loss. (My hearing loss is none to mild in my left ear, and mild to moderate in my right, as indicated by the numbers in my signature below.)

There are many websites which explain how to read an audiogram. I personally like this one: http://ahearingloss.com/reading-your-audiogram/
That should get you started. I’m sure there are others who can explain this far better than I can, but at least this is a start:)

Kerry

#31

Thanks Kerry, for your excellent explanation! That does support my audiologist’s description of “mild to moderate” hearing loss.

I notice you are wearing an Oticon; is it a RIC, an IIC, or what? And how is the sound quality? I trialed the Oticon Intiga RIC, but voice distortion (among other issues) caused me to turn it back in. So currently I am without an aid (as described in my earlier posts) and without an audiologist. Other people on this site have encouraged me to seek out a new audiologist, which I am eager to do. I just hope I can find an individual with technical competence, patience, and of course integrity! Thanks again for taking the time to explain the graph!

#32

Amitie1;

You’re welcome! I wasn’t sure if what I had written made sense. Glad to know that it did. There are others who are much more experienced than me on this board who could probably explain things better, so hopefully someone else will “speak up”, too.

I’m wearing an Oticon Alta (not the Alta Pro, which is the next step up). It’s a mini-RITE/RIC, so it is very, very small. When I first started this journey of getting a hearing aid last summer, I really wanted an IIC aid because I didn’t want anyone to know I had it. However, none of the four audiologists I saw recommended that. They all essentially said the same thing, which was “If your hearing loss fits a RIC, that will provide the best hearing.” As far as the sound quality goes, it’s maybe a tiny bit tinny. I compare what I’m hearing in my aided ear to my “normal-ish” ear, so of course any hearing aid would sound more tinny than what is heard through an unaided ear. I have very young children, ages 1 and 3, and their voices sound pretty much the same in my aided ear as they do in my unaided ear. (I was worried their voices would sound shrill and harsh. They don’t sound any more harsh than they do in my unaided ear.) My husband’s voice sounds the same in both ears as well. The only real difference I notice is that higher-pitched female voices and cartoon character voices on TV are very difficult to understand with my aided ear. I’m not sure what that’s about, but I’m not going to obsess about it right now, because I hear those voices fine using both ears, which is ultimately what matters.

Honestly, I think my hearing aid could be tuned a bit better, but I’m content for right now and believe I’m hearing what I ought to be. I think the key is finding the right audiologist. I love mine!!! She’s a bilateral hearing aid user herself since she was a toddler, so she gets it. Even when I don’t know how to describe what I’m hearing in technical terms, she usually at least has some idea what I mean, which is helpful.

Anyway, I wish you luck finding a good audiologist! Ask around. Your local hearing association might be able to recommend someone. Or, if you see someone wearing a hearing aid, you can always ask them who they see. As near as I can tell, it’s all about the audiologist! You can have the best hearing aid on the market, but if the audi doesn’t know how to program it to fit your loss, you won’t have a good experience.

Kerry

#33

I’m new to this forum and the world of hearing loss. I’m suffering mild hearing problems which seem to get worse the last years. I’m now testing my first HA, but as it is quite an investment, I’m in constant doubt. When looking into my audiogram, would you recommend to wait of go for it now. I’m 49 years old.
Thanks for the advice.

#34

I’d go for it now. You have a moderate to moderate severe loss in the 1500hz to 3000hz range. Improving that should improve your speech understanding.

#35

Your main loss is in the meat of speech and understanding.