I saw the audiologist again. I told him about the Phonak Sphere and checked the manufacturer’s website.
According to him, the battery life is too short (18 hours), the gain is insufficient for my hearing loss, and the isn’t suitable for the ear canal and I would have to clean and replace them frequently.
@LouisaCheng
I have an appointment on July 20th with an specialist to ask him to try a bone conduction device.
Signia : The trial is mixed but there is improvement after each appointment (adjustment), I think I need an adaptation period.
I saw the audiologist again. I told him about the Phonak Sphere and checked the manufacturer’s website.
According to him, the battery life is too short (18 hours), the gain is insufficient for my hearing loss, and the RIC isn’t suitable for the ear canal and I would have to clean and replace them frequently.
Time to find a new Audiologist, it’s nonsense and just plain wrong, and good luck with a bone conduction device, I don’t think that’s your answer to your hearing loss tho and yes there’s always a adaptation period, some more then others.
I told him about the Phonak Sphere and checked the manufacturer’s website.
According to him, the battery life is too short (18 hours), the gain is insufficient for my hearing loss, and the RIC isn’t suitable for the ear canal and I would have to clean and replace them frequently.
Amazing. Producing a whole range of nonsense arguments just because they do not sell the Sphere. Stay far away from these dishonest people.
Did you try the three French discounter chains I cited above? They have offices all around France, and in the big cities there is even more competition.
@RicoWave It sounds like you’re working through a thorough process, which is really important, especially with more complex hearing needs. It’s good to see improvement with each adjustment on the Signia trial, adaptation can sometimes take time depending on how new the sound processing is to your brain.
Regarding the appointment, it’s great that you’re exploring a bone conduction option as well. Just as a general note, bone conduction devices and traditional hearing aids tend to approach hearing in different ways, so it can be helpful to clearly understand what part of listening you’re trying to improve most (clarity in noise vs overall amplification, etc.).
If he’s being offered a bone conduction device then that probably means his hearing loss is mixed or conductive. These types of losses require significantly more gain to fit than a sensorineural loss which is what the fitting ranges for devices are representative of.
If its a mixed or conductive loss, there may be ear canal considerations such as surgically-modified canals or frequently discharging ears that contraindicate the use of a receiver in the ear, hence the recommendations.
Audeo Sphere wouldn’t be a suitable recommendation in any of these circumstances. His audiologist would be making appropriate recommendations for -based signal processing devices if the above were true.
RobHooft, please don’t accuse professionals of being dishonest when there may very well be more to the story than just the information you’re being presented with. So many times clinicians make choices based upon a much broader range of information than we have access to and in this case their audiologist could be doing a really good job.
I just don’t know what to think? but all I’m gonna say is thank god you’re not my audiologist!! Are you really in the industry or just doing some kind of trickery on us all, or perhaps a nip or two before posting.
What you could think is: “perhaps I (tenkan) don’t know as much as I think I do.”
Bone conduction thresholds aren’t recorded on the OP’s , so we don’t know what theirs are. If they’re being offered a aid for a sensorineural hearing loss of the degree their thresholds show it would be entirely ineffective and they wouldn’t hear anything with it. We can therefore assume that their loss is therefore mixed or conductive. You can go back to read the rest of my post to understand why that matters and why audeo sphere is probably not going to be suitable for them with a mixed loss and 90dBHL thresholds at 0.5 kHz. I’ll add in the high risk of distortion and limited headroom that would be less likely with a in this case if it were a mixed or conductive loss.
I’m a doctor of audiology and I like teaching people about audiology. You could learn a lot
I’m a doctor of audiology and I like teaching people about audiology. You could learn a lot
Not from you tho, but you’ve just made some very obvious statements that most of us already know, I’m glad you like teaching people audiology as that’s the part you should stick too, not the technical aspects of for which is not the best of source’s.
I looked at your . Phonak Infinio Sphere with UP receivers in a cShell can work well for you. You can give it a try. As always best to deal with an audiologist happy to offer you a trial of a few models to see which one works best.
Note, though, that if you run them in Spheric mode all day, you will only get about 7 hours of battery runtime, meaning that you have to bring your charger with you and recharge for a while during your breaks.
My audiologist replied: Regarding your equipment, only a very powerful BTE type solution is possible.
That isn’t true. You simply need UP embedded in cShells with no vent. You can take titanium cShell for deeper fitting so that you can get additional “free gain” due to the Boyle’s law.
could prove that UP is highly probable sufficient for your loss.
According to him, the battery life is too short (18 hours), the gain is insufficient for my hearing loss, and the RIC isn’t suitable for the ear canal and I would have to clean and replace them frequently.
That’s untrue. In reality I have 30-40 hrs of use on one charge. If more using program - perhaps ~24 h.
Using AI program continuously in manual mode - 9-11 h.
If you have problem with wax - there is Easyguard power dome which also could provide you tight enough fit (only with max P receiver, unfortunately, but you can give a try).
Even with earmold you can get HE3 or smaller HE4 filter instead of standard Cerustop. HE4 and especially HE3 are less problematic with wax.
You need earmold with no vent, so earmold should fit even in narrow ear canals. Unless you have seriousl anatomical candition like underdevelopment of ear canal or so.
EDIT: I just read there are bone conduction problems. Okay that can change some things. You can wait e. g. for Naida Infinio Sphere or try Resound Enzo IA. In serious cases - Cochlear Osia or .
Or ask is there is surgical option to improve air conduction.
@ricowave Yeah, I don’t think a UP receiver can accomodate an air bone gap that large at 0.5 kHz in any but the smallest of ears. Hearing instrument fitting ranges assume a 1/3 gain rule for a sensorineural loss but you need to use a 1/2 gain rule for conductive losses, so the upper limit of the fitting range is going to be much lower for this type of loss. Their audiologist could try infinio sphere with you, but it’s more than likely not going to provide enough gain and will sound very distorted as it’ll be maxing out even if it does provide audibility at 500Hz. They’re doing the right thing by you sticking with an superpower . It’s a shame that Phonak hasn’t released a Naida Infinio, but I guess they haven’t got their rechargeable tech ready for the BTE form factor just yet.
As a french living in Switzerland, keep looking for the right provider. There is a very high level in audiology in France, but 9 out of 10 HIS are bad. You just need to find the right one.
Your hearing loss should be ok for hearing aids, so Oticon Intent 1 (105 micromould, or Phonak Audéo I90-Sphere (UP cShells). Starkey are the most powerful RICs with UP moulds, so Omega 24 mRIC R are also candidates.
Rob’s idea isn’t a very good one, as in France, once you’ve bought your hearing aids, nobody will agree to fine tune them if you didn’t bought them from them.
I don’t know where you live, but check where the members of Collège National d’Audioprothèse work, because they usually are very good professionals.
as in France, once you’ve bought your hearing aids, nobody will agree to fine tune them if you didn’t bought them from them
A. You can pay another audiologist to fine-tune your beyond their original configuration. Many, not “nobody” will do that. B. Alternatively, you (I) can take the route C. Switzerland has an extensive border with France; My audiologist in Annemasse lives a few hundred meter or so from the border with Geneva. D. The price gap between Swiss and French (discount) audiologists is gigantic- about twofold, saving thousands of Euros/Francs. E. Swiss health insurances ( or AVS) reimburse HAs no matter where you buy them.
All excellent reasons to hop across the border to France if you live in Switzerland.
I’m not saying it’s not true in your case (Switzerland to France). In Switzerland we can sell a “service”. In France, that’s not the case, you can’t dissociate the service from the hearing aids, so no audiologist will tune your hearing aids if not bought there.
Sorry I’m replying now because I have a lot of work at the moment.
@RobHooft
I haven’t tried Afflelou and Optical Center because they are primarily opticians, and I prefer specialists who only do audiologist.
I live in Brittany, far from Switzerland and I lived near Geneva in 2009-2011.
@Hearing_Potential @Bimodal_user
I’ve had ear surgeries on my eardrums due to recurring ear infections. The ear canal in my left ear is narrow. I still sometimes experience ear drainage, especially in my left ear.
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@Karva
I have already had hearing aids adjusted by other audiologists.
I will continue the trial with the Signia Motion hearing aids chosen by default and in 4 years I will choose other hearing aids. So maybe there will be Phonak Sphere in .
I can’t waste so much time finding a good audiologist and trying out so many hearing aids.
Geneva, Switzerland
I’m glad there are characters in the world like you.
Poland