I have had a high frequency hearing loss since childhood. Thus, I am a pretty good lip reader. After wearing the hearing aids for a period of days I noticed that my lip reading ability was not working when I removed the hearing aids. It seems I need some voice along with lip movement to make the lip reading work. I also noticed that I had lost the ability to hear various things that I was used to hearing with my hearing aids removed. For example, riding my bicycle without hearing aids I could usually hear a car approaching from the rear, but now that ability was gone. My brain had scaled back my hearing and thus when removing my hearing aids I was now hearing worst. So, my dilemma was that I do a fair amount of outside activities that do not require hearing aids and having my hearing worst now without the hearing aids was not going to work. It takes a period of time for my hearing to recover if I do not wear the hearing aids for a few days. So, when the Costco audiologist said it will take a period of time for your brain to adjust to the new sounds, that adjustment is still in affect when your hearing aids are removed.
What you are saying here sounds more like very poorly fitted hearing aids. Either not the right aids for your needs, or they aren’t adjusted properly.
Well, the hearing aids worked. My wife and grand kids all said you are not saying “huh” as much. I heard more birds and environmental sounds. I am not sure what adjustment could be done to make them better. I settled on the CIC ones because they had the least wind noise as I am outdoors most of the day. I found this on the web, and I think this captures what I was experiencing:
“When you begin to wear hearing aids, it takes your brain some time to get used to increased environmental sounds to the brain. After wearing them for a while, your brain gets used to the new and improved sound quality that hearing aids provide, and resets your normal or baseline hearing to the higher volume into account. Once you remove your hearing aids, sounds may be more dull or pitchy. This is not due to your hearing having worsened, but rather your brain’s perception of your new ability to hear crisp detail and what is happening in your environment.”
Okay I miss read some of it. I have been wearing aids for 20 years, I not only have my primary set of aids but also backup aids. I can’t understand conversations without my aids, without being able to read lips. I also can’t understand conversations come fully even with aids. I depot lip reading even with my aids. Even with my aids the odds of me knowing someone is speaking to me is 50/50 if they don’t get my attention first.
My aids go in my ears when I wake up and don’t get taken out until I either shower or go to bed. I have to have my hearing aids Bluetooth paired to my phone to hear phone calls, stream audiobooks, or listen to podcasts. Also stream the TV to my aids if there is something I want to watch and hear. I wear Mini Rite aids, receivers in the ear, I also have custom ear molds, I don’t have issues with wind noise, and I spend lots of time outdoors. I hike, and even ride a motorcycle with my aids on and functioning. It all depends on the aids, and how well the audiologist fits them to your needs.
Based on what you wrote, I don’t understand why you returned the Rextons. You seem to agree that your brain would need to adapt to any new HA, you were no longer saying huh, and you heard birds you would not have heard without the Rextons.
I’m curious about the program options on your Rextons compared to my Philips 9040s. I can select up to 4 programs on my Philips. I picked: general, speech in noise, hi-fi music, and classroom t-coil. I think my general is supposed to adapt to different situations and is biased for speech. If I understood my Costco correctly, my HAs mostly compress sound, but the hi-fi program decompresses sound so I can hear all music sounds. Do the Rextons have similar programs? Would selecting hi-fi allow you to better read lips?
The loss of the ability to hear normally without the hearing aids, which I do when I bicycle, hike, and kayak was the reason. Biking to my local coffee shop with no hearing aids I found that I could not understand the cashier as I used to lip read a lot of the conversation. And I was not hearing road noise around me correctly. On these activities I need just peace and quiet and not amplified sound as I am by myself. Then the final straw was that Costco charged me $2500 dollars for the Rexton and later I found out that Sony repackaged the same hearing aid for $1000 OTC. Now Costco did do my hearing test and gave me free domes and ear wax guards(I heard this might be changing now), but not worth $1500 in my opinion. And for $200 dollars I purchased Air-pods Pro 2nd generation and can use them in transparency mode by inputing my audiology graph. Streaming music is a dream with the Air-pods and watching TV and movies is just as good.
The Rexton’s that I got were the bare-bones version because I had already tried a behind the ear hearing aid with all the bells and whistles. None of the high end programming seemed to help me in understanding conversation. i.e. restaurants, driving, noisy environments. And the music streaming to them via Bluetooth was poor quality. And I hardly ever use my phone for voice conversation, always texting.
The price I’ve seen for Rextons at Costco is closer to $1500. For them to charge you $2500 doesn’t seem like something they would do. I’ll ask my local store about this. I reread your reasons and wonder if you have decided it is OK to not hear voices and continue reading lips. If true, you will not be satisfied with any HA, and will continue to say huh.
I don’t stream music, or anything else. When I select the music program, I can hear music better using only my Philips HAs. The first time I tried it on the radio, I heard a lot of static that I could not hear using the general program so for me that confirmed that I could hear a broader sound range. Now I use the hi-fi program only for a better quality of music sound.
This is an enormous hearing loss to let go unaided for so long. Your speech intelligibility indeed for average conversation looks to be about 34%. Your family and friends have probably been raising their voices for you for years, and if you’re still saying “huh” at that level you’re probably missing a lot more.
At the end of the day, your ears your life. But man. Your hearing loss isn’t borderline. It is not a surprise that getting used to hearing aids isn’t easy.
I’m nearly 80 and just this last year was told by my ENT doc that I needed HAs and that he had to raise his voice for me. When I heard this, my concern about my personal hearing loss was increased by my knowing of recent studies that linked hearing loss to dementia in older adults. I believe that not getting HAs to hear conversations and voices is dangerous. Think of what the original poster’s family has told him. Look at this study to confirm my message.
This was what was posted in my Audiologic report:
“Word Recognition Testing (WRS) revealed a score of 84% at 80dBHL in the left ear, and a score of 84% at 80dBHL in the right ear. QuickSIN Speech-In-Noise testing was conducted today and indicated that the patient experiences moderate difficulty hearing in background noise in the left ear and moderate difficulty hearing in background noise in the right ear.” Not sure what you mean by “speech intelligibility” at about 34%.
Yes, my primary health care doctor brought this up. But he was more worried about my use of Nexium for acid reflux: “Prolonged use of acid reflux medications called proton pump inhibitors could increase the risk of dementia, a new study shows.” So, I am working on trying to wean myself off of Nexium.
In March 2023 I paid 1,249.99 each(total 2,499.98) for M-Core IX 80 CIC Rexton. When I returned them at the end of August I did note that the counter prices advertising their base hearing aids had dropped. This could be tied to the over the counter market.
These are the prices now shown on their website for their warehouse stores. Where you will receive personal service, unlike OTC HAs. I think prices vary slightly depending on location, but the price you have indicated you paid is much higher.
STARTING AT
$1,499.99
Includes two premium hearing aids, one standard charger and one travel charger. Travel charger provides an additional three full days of charges without plugging in.
Prices vary by state.If needed, custom earmolds sold separately.
Starting at $1,499.99
Includes two premium rechargeable hearing aids and one charger.
Prices vary by state. If needed, custom earmolds sold separately.
Starting at $1,599.99
Includes two premium rechargeable hearing aids and one charger.
Prices vary by state. If needed, custom earmolds sold separately
Could your primary doc be more concerned about what he is prescribing that contributes to dementia? If you went to a highly credentialed private practice audiologist would he be more likely to emphasize your hearing loss causing dementia? Are both your hearing loss and your prescription cumulative and even more likely to harm you?
No picture of the Rexton, but it has to be a behind the ear type. Mine were completely in the canal using size 10 batteries.
I’m sure you had good reasons for choosing your RIC HAs, but I got BTEs. The attached article makes me think I made the right decision. I put price and hearing correction as my top priority. Streaming into the HAs was never considered.
https://thehearingdoctors.com/ric-vs-bte-hearing-aids-which-is-right-for-you/#:~:text=When%20compared%20to%20RIC%20hearing,to%20damage%20caused%20by%20moisture.
That article is confused and confusing. I hope it doesn’t reflect the quality of The Hearing Doctors’ in-person services.