Skip to content
HearingTracker
Log in

New member, so many confusions šŸ˜­

12 replies255 viewsLast reply

Link to this topic
Reply

Just found the forum after researching hearing aids.

Iā€™ve suffered hearing loss and tinnitus in one ear for over 12 years and after trying multiple NHS options, decided recently to go private and admit that buying my own is the only resolution.

Iā€™ve no idea what caused my hearing loss or the loss of hearing which Iā€™ve now been identified as having 20% hearing remaining in the one ear. The other ear is generally ok but Iā€™m suspecting itā€™s working overtime doing the job.

I struggle isolating the direction of some sounds. I struggle in noisy environments such as busy pubs, bars or generally large groups of people. I mishear things and can zone out when I struggle to hear. I sometimes have to turn my good ear to the person speaking to hear clearly if they donā€™t talk loud enough and generally get told by my wife to ā€œstop shoutingā€ when I speak sometimes.

Itā€™s frustrating and probably more annoying for others than it is me but Iā€™ve decided I need to address it once and for all.

So I went to my local M&S Optician and Hearing store last week and trialed in-store, the Starkey Omega AI24 aids - cost Ā£4495 pair.

Obviously, compared to the single and huge NHS hearing aids Iā€™ve tried over the years and given up on (they never made that much improvement), the Omega AI24 in both ears made a huge difference to overall hearing and I decided to bite the bullet, but opted for the AI20 as they were Ā£1000 less at Ā£3495 and add my audiologist explained, the only real bonus was the added improvement in noisy environments. As I donā€™t spend THAT much time in these areas, I couldnā€™t justify the extra expense.

Having come home and looked at the tech differences between the Omega Ai20 and Ai24, there is a lot of extra processing in the latter - whether or not Iā€™d benefit from these extra advancements would remain to be seen.

Iā€™ve been on to M&S Customer Services to explain Iā€™d found other retailers selling the AI24 with longer warranty 4-5 years in some cases compared to M&Sā€™s 2 year), and that the prices of the AI24 at the same as theyā€™ve agreed to sell me the AI20. Basically they arenā€™t prepared to reduce, price-match or even budge on price and ā€œlook forward to firing my AI20 next weekā€.

Iā€™ve since found an independent, local outlet with 20 years experience selling the AI24 for less than Ā£2900. So Iā€™ve made an appointment tomorrow to go see them and let them see what they recommend.

Itā€™ll just leave me with the ā€˜can I get my initial payment Iā€™ve paid M&S of Ā£349 back as technically Iā€™ve signed up to but a product I didnā€™t even sample.

please feel free to offer any advice as Iā€™m still a noob when it comes to hearing devices - I just want to be able to hear better than I currently can and donā€™t want to pay the same price as a small used car to do so.

TIA

7 people in this conversation6 min readJump to latest

Welcome to the forum.

You might give Costco a try. They sell top of the line aids and use best practices to fit the aids. Their Soundgear aids are very similar to the Starkey aids you are trying.

Good luck, you have come to a great place to learn about your hearing and aids.

In reply to @yorkshirebikerdan

Just asking for clarification - do you have a hearing aid for each ear? Your right ear is almost completely normal so I am surprised you would be fit with one on that side. The left has a huge loss, so with that asymmetry, it makes a lot of sense that you are going to struggle with sound localization and background noise, even with the best of hearing aids, unfortunately.

@speedy said:

Your right ear is almost completely normal so I am surprised you would be fit with one on that side. The left has a huge loss, so with that

I wondered the same thing. From reading this forum the Phonak Sphere might be a good choice for one hearing aid use. It's ability to function by itself is unique. @Bimodal_user has had good results with one Sphere and his .

The audiologist at M&S (Marks & Spencers) wanted to fit one both ears as he stated ā€œstudies show improving the better ear, even with slight hearing loss, has proven to improve overall hearingā€.

I donā€™t doubt this but thereā€™s always that element of sales pitch mode.

In reply to @yorkshirebikerdan

Ā 

@yorkshirebikerdan said:

studies show improving the better ear, even with slight hearing loss, has proven to improve overall hearingā€.

Good thing you are getting a second opinion from an independent audiologist.
Ā£2900 for a pair of AI24 is good price (ask what the price includes,i.e bundled services: fittings, loss and damage coverage, supplies, etc)

In reply to @yorkshirebikerdan

Also ask for a trial period before you pay for them. A trial period of 2-4 weeks walking around outside in your normal environment gives you a better chance of evaluating the aids. This gives you a better chance of getting adjustments made and seeing if the are really suitable for you. But make sure you return them before the due date or you might well be stuck with them.

Most companies offer trial aids, if they donā€™t give a 2-4 week trial walk away. IMO spending that amount of money for aids that arenā€™t suitable is not much fun for you. Good luck.

Of is very poor, perhaps buying new is not cost efficient and it's better to get a least cochlear implant evaluation.

Ā 

I would be good have that evaluation before spending much money for HA which only role will be acoustic stimulation but probably without contributing much to general speech understanding.

Ā 

Even the best HA with the best fitting won't improve speech understanding if WRS is very poor. Only CI do that.

That sort of hearing asymmetry is very difficult for the brain when it comes to speech in noise. You may find that hearing aids, even at a premium level, are not enough to support you. Outcomes are also more heterogeous, so what works for one person with a similar loss may not work for another. The configuration of loss in the left ear is also tricky. The questions I'm always looking to answer with this kind of loss are:

1) Is a hearing aid even going to help on the bad ear. It sounds like in your case it is helping significantly? If the answer is no, the next consideration would be prior to considering . Sometimes your standard clinician is not a great judge on whether a CI is indicated and going for the CI eval is valuable even if you are ultimately not a candidate.

2) Is a hearing aid going to help on the good ear? I'm not really aware of research showing that it will, although maybe your clinician is stretching some sort of similar research to cover that case. Anecdotally however, there are people who do feel they benefit from that both because of the minor boost on that side and the ear-to-ear processing in hearing aids. I'd wear it for a while and then take it out for a while and see if you miss it?

3) Is technology going to be necessary in noise situations? Would the patient use that effectively given the option? Some patients are very willing to use these solutions and are very good with them, but others aren't. Starkey is not necessarily the best option for these sorts of supportive technology. Is the patient more interested in looking for technological solutions, or strategies for advocating for themselves and adjusting their environments to support better hearing? Do they need to bring in their loved ones so that I can help them talk about what their hearing loss is like for them to help family members understand and beging to try to compensate supportively?

I would expect that sound localization would generally not be restored with hearing aids and a loss like this. There can be small improvements, and those will generally be disrupted with any significant gain changes and then settle in again a bit over time, but it will always be difficult.

Related discussions