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Distorted Speech

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Hi As you can see from my I have ssd. Right ear worsened in last 5 year. Had Tinnitus in right ear for 28 years 3 spells 10 years apart but constant for last 5 years. Tinnitus varying from day to day and I’ve learned to deal with it. The hearing loss is more of a worry socialising has virtually become impossible . My social life is now mainly on the golf course. Anyway like most people with hearing loss life is a struggle but not life threatening. When the tinnitus is in the background not really bothering me speech clarity is horrendous, people 's voices are so distorted. When tinnitus is quite loud like a constant humming my hearing is actually much better speech clarity is good. The distortion affect first started in May this year following microsuction which was extremely loud and actually hurt. I think I suffered acoustic trauma. Not sure if it’s getting better or worse as not 2 days the same. I’d prefer to have the humming tinnitus and good speech recognition as opposed to the quiet tinnitus and horrendous speech recognition. Is anyone else experiencing similar symtoms. I’ve tried explaining to audiologist to no avail. I currently have the oticon intent 1 which I’m fairly satisfied with. Also have bi cross signia Nx but they aren’t powerful enough.

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I have tinnitus and distortion in my left ear.

I was told I have nerve damage in my left ear. I was also told there is nothing that can be done about it.

You may have a different problem.

I have had the same experience as you when telling my audiologist and .

It’s the variations that I don’t understand. Some days speech clarity is fine other days it’s terrible. Unfortunately the latter is more often. I think it may have something to do with the tinnitus.

Hope there’s some expert reading this who can give me an explanation.

Left eat is always distorted.

Right never. Anything into my left ear is distorted. If there’s enough volume I can generally understand it.

If speech comes at me from the front, into both aids, I understand it.

In reply to @PaulS63

Hello @PaulS63, that’s quite a profound loss on the left, and severe to profound on the right! I suffered with distortion for approximately 8 years, but that was a symptom of Meniers Disease, the distortion usually coincided with severe tinnitus, which alerted me that a vertigo attack was imminent, usually the louder the tinnitus was, the more severe the vertigo would be, which also coincided with visual distortion… My Meniers Disease was fairly classic, once it had destroyed my vestibular (Balance) and most of my residual hearing, I experienced “Burnout”… Vertigo attacks disappeared, along with the distortion! It could be your hearing aids, are set too high, and they need to be turned down slightly or adjusted? Hopefully 2 of our resident experts might come along, and perhaps kindly give you an educated guess as to what the problem might be @Um_bongo or @Neville are both excellent Audiologists, with a wealth of experience… Good Luck, Cheers Kev :wink:

When I read your post I thought of @kevels55 and meniere’s. He is a wealth of knowledge concerning this.

He has guided you in the right direction.

Good luck

In reply to @kevels55

For some reason I never even thought of connecting this to my menieres! I’ve got a new set of Intents on order with the . Making notes of things to discuss when I go to pick them up. This group has always been a great place to learn.

@PaulS63 said:

I’ve tried explaining to audiologist to no avail.

It’s because they don’t want to say, “I don’t know what is happening to your ear or why, and I don’t know what to do about it and it’s not just that I don’t know–no one knows.” There is a lot about the inner ear and damage to the inner ear that is still a mystery.

How long has that left ear been like that? Could it be implanted?

Left ear from birth (nerve damage) apparently. No one has suggested a . Got up this morning hearing 10% better hardly any distortion. Just to explain distortion in detail people in close proximity sound like robots or have seriously bad chests, same with my own voice, People talking more than 3m aways sounds like a couple of dj’s scratching records. Thought it could be but swapped for older HA and still the same. If the damage from the microsuction was permanent why do I have good days ??? Is it possibly to do with tinnitus??

In reply to @kevels55

Cheers Kev

I have no symptoms of vertigo unless driving at altitude but very mild.

I think these auditory issues are complex and we have to learn to cope. Fortunately technology is improving which makes our lives more manageable.

:+1:

As for listening to tv I have to use Bluetooth connection via my oticon connectclip, otherwise again sounds bloody horrible.

I’ve had this problem for years. Can understand speech with left ear just fine, the right ear is garbled, and perceived volume in right ear has been lower than left ever since my first hearing. Hearing tests never showed that but dispensers turned up volume in right ear at my request. That just made speech understanding worse. I’ve been trying to get Infinio Spheres fitted three times now by hearing aid specialists and got no improvement so I temporarily gave up. Decided to give it one more try and this time after much researching I found an Audiologist who figured it out. Nerve damage in right auditory nerve, possibly caused by neuropathy. I’d never heard of that. I’m 81 and have neuropathy in legs and feet, so I wasn’t shocked. He fit me with Spheres which worked better than the Marvels I’ve had for years. Speech was still garbled in right ear. I changed settings in the app to mono instead of stereo which helped but not enough improvement. I’m getting an Infinio fitted this week which really might help with no amplification on the bad side. Really hope it helps, and since I finally found an AUDIOLOGIST who did tests involving static sounds no one had done before I think it will. I’ll know in a couple of weeks.

I have bilateral tinnitus; at two different high frequencies, right vs. left. Luckily, it rarely bothers me for some reason (likely since I have had this issue for so many years). My father had the same problem(s) most of his life and continually complained and complained about it.

Regardless, I feel the tinnitus makes my ability to understand any high-pitched spoken word almost nill. My two granddaughters talk and talk, and I rarely understand a word they say. I’m currently using Jabra Enhance Pro 20s. I also get a quizzed look on my ’s face when I bring up the tinnitus as a significant impediment to my ability to hear.

I, like you, am beginning to avoid many typical social settings due to my inability to hold and interact while in a convo within a group setting or with my two granddaughters for that matter.

Tinnitus also makes my hearing test almost unbearable, especially in the high frequencies (am I hearing the tone or the damn ringing!). Still searching for some remedy.

In reply to @WhiteHat

There is info in descriptions of microsuction on the websites of some of its providers, saying theres a chance of “temporary” hearing loss due to the noise produced by the equipment. They call it Temporary Threshold Shift () and don’t specify exactly how long it can last. I agree with you - although I’ve never had it done - I am not interested in the risk having my hearing made worse by this procedure.

In reply to @jimboknows

Have no grandkids yet, but no doubt will have the same problem, depending on the tone (frequency of the tinnitus). Aud said to me tinnitus doesn’t affect your ability to hear, well normally it doesn’t but on some rare occasions it’s been that loud that I can’t even hear the person speaking to me never mind understanding them. Fortunately this is only temporary and is triggered by something. The day after I had the microsuction and then couple of months after following an 11 hr flight, the lack of sleep didn’t help.

If my tinnitus is bothering me, I mask it with various gentle sounds using my Bluetooth and various apps on my mobile, i find this is a great help.

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