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Hearing aid options for reverse slope hearing loss

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Hi everyone,
I am 29 and have been diagnosed with moderate reverse slope hearing loss. I have NHS oticon engage hearing aids, for both ears. I have had them for the past 2.5 years and have had many issues with fitting, servicing and getting appointments. My main issue is lower frequency sounds, for example male voices and being able to distinguish conversation from background noise, it all just seems to blur together.
I recently booked a consultation with a private audiologist, he told me that the hearing aids i was given were not suitable for my hearing loss, as they were set to amplify all low frequency sounds and background noise is considered low frequency. He recommended Oticon Intent 1 hearing aids, when testing them he turned around and was talking to me, i could understand what he was saying clearly, where i couldnt before. They were great, although i only got to test them in a quiet area, im unsure if they would provide any more help in a louder/busier area.
I was wondering if anyone could provide an opinion on what they recommend to be helpful.

Thanks
Niamh

Hm, I think the Oticon Engage are rebranded Oticon Opn or Oticon Opn S aids, which were launched in 2016 and 2019 respectively. Oticon Intent was launched in 2024. I don’t know which tech level your NHS aids have, but if you compare them to an Oticon Intent 1, you will likely experience a significant difference.

HI. I have cochlear Hydrops and also have low frequency loss. For me, in the ear devices, specifically the Phonak Virto infinio titaniums were helpful as they allowed the boosting of low frequency sounds and an increase in volume, which many other hearing aids never managed to quite solve for me.
However, be aware, that hearing aids are really designed for high frequency loss. No matter what the makers or audiologists tell you, what I have found, is that the more you try and boost low frequency sound, the worse the sound in the hearing aid becomes in general. Think about it like trying to add more and more bass to a speaker, eventually that speaker sounds very distorted. Now consider the hearing aid speakers are very very tiny.
I’m not saying hearing aids won’t help, I’m just saying they’re not really designed for low freq boost in quite the same way as high frequency boost.

Another option you might consider is the Phonak sphere, which due to their sphere technology, are very good at blocking out background noise. However, you might consider custom ear molds for these, which would give you that low frequency sound back a bit.

Hope that has helped somewhat.

Edited

It’s all about the programming, so any programmable hearing aid can be programmed to address it. However, what type of programming goes against conventional wisdom.

Basically, high and mid frequencies receive more amplification (10-15 for soft sounds) despite hearing being normal in those frequencies. Low frequencies (500 Hz and lower) would get low-to-no amplification.

Standard prescription targets don’t handle reverse slope well, but gain can be manually adjusted. It is also a balance of closing the ear off so low-frequency amplification works vs. keeping the ear open to allow high-frequency sounds (where you have normal hearing) to reach the ear.

The VAC+ prescription that is part of the Oticon fitting software is one of the best for reverse slope as a starting point.

Read through this article: Complex versus Standard Fittings: Part 2 - Article 2183637

https://hearinglosshelp.com/blog/the-bizarre-world-of-extreme-reverse-slope-hearing-loss/27

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