Frequent buzzing in hearing aids

I’m new to hearing aids, but what you are describing sounds like my tinnitus. I have ringing sometimes accompanied by buzzing that follows certain frequencies in speech or other sounds, including music. It’s possible that the Elehears are aggravating tinnitus. Do you hear ringing or other sounds in a quiet room?

Also, if you are still in the return window then maybe you should send them back and try something else. Wish I could have helped you more.

I have seen an audiologist, and while they said the same, that my audiogram is quite mild, however I struggle significantly with speech comprehension, most especially in noise. This is why my audiologist and ENT both suggested I might benefit from hearing aids. My ENT referred me to the hearing aid provider my insurance works with, but I cannot afford prescription hearing aids right now, not even close.

The way these tune is with a slider based on tone, and in the lower settings I do notice significant improvement with speech comprehension. I couldn’t find any details on exactly what the frequency curve looks like, but I find on the very lowest tone settings, I can understand speech significantly better. Its made a noticable improvement, and even those around me have commented that I’m needing people to repeat themselves a lot less, so I’m reasonably confident they’re helping to some degree.

I have given them my formal audiogram as well, they provided an adjustment from it, though I find it provides else clarity than what I found for myself, and regardless doesn’t fix the buzzing.

The buzzing still occurs even on very very low volume, which I suspect would resolve any issues of amplification I don’t need, as its so low I can barely hear it, and the buzzing persists, just very quiet.

I appreciate your comment. Regardless I suspect these may just not work for me. I’ll try harder to find details on what each setting does, but I suspect I may just be out of luck.

I was not. My audiologist mentioned it, however my insurance provider very explicitly will not test for or diagnose it, so if I want to pursue that I need to find a clinic and do it out of pocket.

My symptoms do overlap what I can find about it, but similarly too with hidden hearing loss.

Short of doing another hearing test in a year, my ENT and audiogist both seem fully unwilling to pursue anything to do with my hearing any further, and with my current insurance I have little choice to pursue it otherwise. They both said based on my functional difficulties that hearing aids would be worth trying, but like I said beforethat’s a limited avenue as well for now, due to financial limitations.

Either way, the hearing aids have absolutely helped, and the buzzing isnt always there. As I write this I’m sitting in a restaurant with zero of the buzzing. But it was happening the entire drive here and most of the morning. The intermittent nature is quite bizarre.

Does the buzz happen in silence? Does it seem to buzz while a sound is being made and during that sound? I am wondering if the compression is possibly raising the noise floor level when there is noise, either ambient or dynamic. Might the restaurant be creating a noise floor above the level that the compressor would feel a need to kick in and raise the volume of the background?

It does not happen in silence at all, it exclusively overlays other sounds. I think I notice it more on noises that are considerably louder than the background noise level. My own voice naturally fits this often, but so do other voices often enough. I’ve definitely noticed it on noises that don’t fit that criteria, but far less often.

I had a similar thought, but it isnt a constant tone buzz, the buzz matches the noises its present with, varying in pitch and volume to match the noises.

I originally thought it was a mic defect that was causing the noise processing to go a little nuts, but given its present on the replacement unit I figure the likelihood of a defect is near 0. Thought maybe it was the mics distorting higher volume sounds, but it also occurs on quieter sounds. I also thought maybe it was my glasses vibrating against the hearing aids in a bizarre way, but it occurs without my glasses on as well.

Is it possible, you think, there’s a weird noise floor issue even with the behavior where the buzzing matches the noises it appears with? I’m quite technically inclined but sound processing is pretty far outside my area of experience.

I guess my next question is, if its a noise floor issue, is there even anything I can do?

I appreciate the feedback, guys. Sounds like we’re largely on the same page, with returning them being likely the only reasonable option I’ve got.

I intend to pursue further testing, but my hands are pretty tied at the moment, the trying these aids was basically me doing the one thing I could at the moment. They help a ton, so I’m reasonably confident another more appropriate pair would as well, but it seems like that will have to wait until I can afford a higher end pair.

Upside, I may have a change of insurance in the near future, which could open my options a bit, at the very least in terms of being able to see other providers, to potentially find someone more interested in helping me. Kaiser doesn’t particularly care to look deeper once they’ve ruled out the easy causes, has been my experience.

Appreciate it it a ton, guys

You may run into the same issue with other insurances. I think any insurance that sees your audiogram will most likely not approve your aids and may require a PA request. That said, I am not a fan of KP Audiology in my town – my experience with them was terrible (I wrote about this in another thread in this forum).

The trick you will need is to find someone that will make a case (a PA request) to get them approved. With KP, you may have to start with your PCP).

I have a family member who has ADHD and perfect audiogram. She ran into the same issue you did at KP NorCal. The PCP had to jump in so that she could get the help she needed.(KP approved aids + therapy).

Best of luck , navigating KP can be frustrating at times.

Yeah, I don’t expect insurance will cover hearing aids for me at all. My current insurance has coverage, but they won’t even entertain the idea until your PTA is 40dB or worse.

I mostly mean I may have access to audiologists that will consider testing for APD and similar. KP outright refuses to test it, will not allow their audiologists to even discuss such a diagnosis, same for ADHD in adults and most other similar diagnoses. As is I barely got a single audiologist who even acknowledged my functional difficulties. The rest have just said “your hearing is fine, your loss can’t affect speech comprehension, have a good day”. My most recent wrote me a referral as a hearing aid candidate based on my functional issues, but that paper doesn’t help me much until I can afford that route.

Either way, I deeply appreciate the advice, hopefully soon I can at least get some answers.

Just joined the forum...
The Horizon IX offers what's called a "Tinnitus" program in addition to their 5 others (Universal, Noisy Environment, TV, Outdoor Sport, Reverberant Rooms). The Tinnitus program was something my consultant activated on my aids, so ... perhaps it's active on yours?
Here's how it was explained to me:
The Tinnitus program generates a consistent quiet buzzing or whooshing. The premise is that the brain expects input, and if the cilia in the cochlea are damaged, it doesn't get it. So the brain generates it's own stimulus -- the ringing/tinnitus we hear.

The programs are switched either with the app (via bluetooth connection) or **with the buttons on the right-side aid. It seems possible that with use, that button might have been triggered into the tinnitus mode. (The left ear buttons are for volume control.)

If this doesn't work, log into your hear-dot-com account (or create an account), and head to https://support.hear.com/dashboard.
One of the options there is to talk to a specialist.

Just saw this: the OP’s loss is a reverse slope/cookie bite mix which none of the OTC aids will really work with ‘out of the box’ as it’s a non-standard loss shape.

Put simply, the aids need to be properly tuned and ideally fitted with a volume control to allow the wearer achieve their optimal ’loudness’, (especially important for LF losses), while maintaining the loss profile.

FWIW, even with the most basic ‘tuning’ it would be possible to wind down the high frequency portion to eliminate feedback (OTC or not). This is really a failure of the delivery mode for this product.