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Lyric hearing aids and my experience with them

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In reply to @scififan

After such a great account and the many after comments, I hope this inquiry will not get lost in the shuffle. I had been seriously considering the Lyric replacement but then came across one review which flatly said they were not useable by diabetics or those using blood thinner ( baby aspirin one a day). I am 94 started using a pair of Unitron E8M in 2007 but never really obtaned much improvement over my gradual loss of speech comprehension in TV and Movie programs, or conversations with those of lower register and “sotto voce” comments and dialog. They stayed in the drawer much of the time and now I’ve lost the one for the better ear. Have you heard anything about the above limitation or know on what basis it was stated? My diabeties is border line and has been easily managed without much inconvenience or ill effects., and I am basically in generally good health otherwise. Would your audiologist know anything about this?
Many thanks
Bodkr

We have audiologists onboard here (not me), but I’m not sure whether any of them are Lyric-certified dispensers. If so, they’ll likely see this and comment.

I don’t find any support online for the idea that Lyrics are specifically not for diabetics or patients taking aspirin daily, but it’s possible. I do see online that Lyrics are not for patients with bleeding disorders, which daily-aspirin takers can be prone to. Diabetics can also be prone to immunity disorders, but they aren’t necessarily considered immunosuppresed.

from Invisible Hearing Aids - Lyric | Phonak3 :
What are the contraindications?
Lyric is not appropriate for all patients. At this time, approximately 50% of patients are contraindicated for the following reasons:

  • Degree/configuration of hearing loss
  • Lifestyle (e.g., lap swimmers)
  • Certain medical conditions (e.g., compromised immune system, bleeding disorders)
  • Geometry/anatomy of the ear canal
The degree or configuration of hearing loss is probably the most limiting factor. See this graph: http://www.lyrichearing.com/is-lyric-hearing-aid-for-me/hearing-loss-and-lyric-fitting-range If you have more than 90 of loss at the high end, it's not for you. If you have more than 80 dB at the high end, it's marginal. At the low end, the fitting range is marginal at 50 dB of loss, rule out at 60 dB. http://www.insoundmedical.com/medical-professionals/who-can-wear-lyric/

They’re in the process of solving the swimming issue at or very close to surface level, they believe, and Lyrics are now considered safe to wear in the shower.

If you consult with a Lyric-certified audiologist (which you can find on Lyric’s website), that person may have access to more detailed information about diabetes and baby aspirin, and they can call Lyric for a consult on it if you ask them to. Neither Lyric nor an audiologist is going to want to put you into Lyrics if they’re not for you. Lyric-certified audiologists generally sell one or more other lines of hearing aids, so they’re not wedded to them.

Educate me<G> What is there about this that makes it inappropriate for the above mentioned conditions? Are other brands/types also inappropriate?

In reply to @BellaMia

@BellaMia said:

It’s been about a month - how are the Lyric hearing aids working for you?

I know you weren’t directing your question to me, but I can tell you that I tried the Lyrics back in November of last year. They were a cinch to put in, maybe just a bit of pressure as my audi placed them up close to the eardrum. My left ear was between sizes, so the smaller size caused feedback and we had no choice to go with the larger size, which cause an occlusion-feeling. I thought maybe I’d try and get used to it.

The discomfort started within a few hours. Nothing unbearable, but just a dull, throbbing ache in both ears. I had to take Tylenol for two days. Sleeping was especially difficult because putting pressure on either ear caused more pain.

The Lyrics in my canals were NOT invisible. You could see them if you looked. Maybe because I’m a woman with shorter canals, I’m not sure.

The sound was just okay. I never got used to the occlusion effect in the left ear, and on the fifth day I took that one out. Itchiness was also a problem, as was the psychological “ick” factor which for me was knowing I couldn’t clean my ears out for several months.

About two days after I removed the left Lyric, the right one started to get static-y. So I had no choice but to remove it–I need at least one ear to hear! Anyway…when I removed it I found the device (and my ear) to be full of moisture and just generally disgusting…and this was only after one week. I don’t swim and I was careful in the shower, even though they’re supposed to be water resistant.

Lyrics were not for me. Expensive, rather uncomfortable/painful, and icky.

In reply to @miket

@miket said:

Educate me<G> What is there about this HA that makes it inappropriate for the above mentioned conditions? Are other brands/types also inappropriate?

You can read up on Lyrics on their website:

Invisible Hearing Aids - Lyric | Phonak

Lyric hearing aids are designed to remain out of sight and out of mind. Lyric is invisible in the ear canal and can be worn 24 hours per day.

It’s a totally different approach to hearing aids as compared to traditional behind-the-ear aids and a totally different business model.

The aid: goes totally in the ear canal. In most cases, they’re invisible or nearly invisible to other people. They’re completely self-contained including the batteries that last 2-4 months. When the aids die, you go back to the audiologist, who removes them and replaces them with another pair for no extra charge beyond what you’ve already paid. These aids can be programmed to a degree but they are analog hearing aids, so the programming is more limited. You wear them 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. You are given a remote control to control the volume within a limited range and to power them off at night or in loud situations. When powered off or when the batteries die, they act as strong earplugs; you really can’t hear much at all. You’re given a tool that you can try to use to remove them yourself in an emergency, though some have trouble getting them out. An audiologist or MD can remove them quickly. Once removed, you have to go back to a Lyric audiologist to get them replaced. No one else should try to reinsert them.

Business model: A hearing aid dispenser has to be certified for Lyric. Their website helps you find Lyric audiologists. With Lyrics, you get a free 30 day trial. If at the end of that period, you’re not liking them, you give them back and owe nothing. If you like them, your subscription started the first day you wore them. You pay an annual subscription fee of about $3500, give or take 10% typically depending on the dispenser. You just keep paying that as long as you’re happy. You can quit Lyric at any time, but there’s no refund on the annual fee partway through a year. You get new hearing aids as needed with no extra fees.

Who can’t wear them and why: Every hearing aid has a specific hearing-loss range it’s designed for. Lyrics are not as powerful as some so they’re not for people with severe losses. When subjected to water pressure (not usually when taking a daily shower, but when swimming underwater or diving), they tend to short-circuit and die and need replacement. (You don’t wear other hearing aids underwater, either. The difference here is: you’d take those off before getting in the water. You can’t do that with Lyrics.) The immunity issue is probably related to increased risk of ear infections. People are more subject to ear infections with Lyrics because of limited air circulation inside the ear. You can’t wear them when your ears are infected. Lyrics come in a few sizes but don’t fit every ear canal well.

As you see if you read through this thread, some people love them. They like that other people can’t tell they’re wearing hearing aids. They like the convenience of not having to mess with batteries, cleaning them, and keeping track of them. They like that they can’t misplace their hearing aids, unlike behind-the-ear aids. Lyrics don’t work well if you don’t live near a Lyric audiologist, because you have to keep going back to the office for replacement every two to four months. Lyrics don’t work well if money is a big concern because of the ongoing subscription cost which makes them more expensive than most other aids long-term. Some who try them, including me, reject Lyrics because of comfort and/or performance issues.

Miket, I’m not a pro but I believe taking aspirin or blood thinners precludes one from wearing Lyrics because of the vascularity of the bony portion of the ear canal. When I was fit with the Lyrics my Audi said it’s not unusual for the deep placement to cause an abrasion and subsequent bleeding in the canal. Blood thinners would increase that possibility. When I removed my Lyrics, both had some dried blood on them from when they were inserted. You wouldn’t want a bleed going on while wearing a Lyric because you might not know it, which would possibly cause device failure or some kind of infection.

Hi to all,

This is my first post. I hope this is the right place for my comments.

I’m 69 and noticed serious hearing loss in my right ear four years ago when I switched my cell phone from my right to my left. It was shock to hear the difference.

Since then both ears have steadily declined. Started the behind the ear hearing aids right away, getting very expensive Siemens aids.

They worked, but what a pain they were. They whistled, they came out when I combed my hair or took off my sunglasses.

The batteries ran down so fast. And I had to have them repaired more than once for various reasons.

My audiologist told me about Lyric when they were still in clinical trials. I kept checking the website to see where I could be fitted, but we were never within 200 miles.

i was delighted when we recently moved to NC and there is a Lyric fitting audiologist in our town!

I got the set I’m wearing now on February 1. The first week they did hurt a bit, as the audiologist had warned me. Then that stopped. If it hadn’t, I would have had to remove them, however.

I love them!

Sound is now ‘normal’!! I hear myself ‘normally’. I am so thankful I can wear them.

I do water aerobics, take showers and after both activities I dry my out ear carefully and use the hair dryer set on low to dry my ears.

It’s April 11, and the first pair are still working!

My ears do itch once in a while, but they always have, and now I just massage in front of my ear and figure if that’s the worst I have to put it with, so be it.

I pay my audiologist on a monthly basis, through a medical credit system she offers.

I would like to share experiences and questions with other Lyric users.

For example, I often carefully press my aids a little bit into my ear canal, especially on the right since it tends to move out a bit.

I also clean the wax with a soft Q-Tip in the part of my ear above the Lyric.

So far I’m assuming this will all turn out ok!

But i don’t know.

Has anyone else done these things?

I always push the envelope a bit with everything!

Hugs

miamax

I was just curious if any of the audiologists have seen people with the lyrics having an increased incidence of otitis externa(canal infection) due to the fact these sit in the ear canal all the time. Thanks.

I don’t know if we have any Lyric audiologists here, but as I recall, yes, even the Lyric people in their literature concede a higher statistical risk of ear infections for patients who wear Lyrics. The company warns of it much the way drug companies warn about side effects.

In reply to @bill750

@bill750 said:

I’m really glad you posted this excellent review of your experience with the Lyric - mainly because I started my 30-day trial just this past Monday! I’m 66, and my hearing loss started when I was in the Army (artillery) in my late teens. In the last few years it has become a real annoyance to me and most everyone around me, but I resisted the idea of hearing aids mostly because of the “stigma”. I’ve also known a number of people that have spent thousands of dollars on hearing aids and the things ended up in a dresser drawer. I first read about the Lyric a couple of years ago and became quite interested, but they only began selling them in my area (Dallas, TX) a couple of months ago.

So here I am trying these things out, and having most of the same minor issues you had and hoping I can last it out and be able to use the Lyrics for the rest of my life. I’m going back for a follow-up this coming Monday and I think there’s some fine tuning to do.

When the audiologist turned the Lyrics on after inserting them, I was shocked with the sheer avalanche of sound that I was oblivious to for so many years. I told her that there was probably something wrong with the aids because I could hear a regular clicking sound; she laughed and told me it was the clock on the wall ticking. I’m not making this up. When she subsequently tested my hearing, my results were similar to yours - far better than before and actually better than “normal” at many frequencies. We left the volume set on “3”, but I turned it down to “2” later that evening and finally last night I turned it down to its lowest setting. Many things sound kind of harsh to me, but I think she can adjust the frequency and gain to compensate for that. I also expect that my brain will adapt over the next few weeks to compensate. The ultimate test was yesterday at lunch in a very noisy restaurant where I’ve been virtually unable to carry on a conversation because of the background noise, etc. It was still very noisy with the Lyrics in my ears, but I could hear every word spoken by the three people I dined with. I also discovered that I no longer needed to speak very loudly myself. All this and the units are completely invisible. If the slight discomfort goes away and the audiologist is able to make a few minor adjustments, I’ll be totally satisfied. I’ll post the results of my follow-up here next week if there is any interest by forum members. Again, thanks for your thorough and extremely well-written post.

How is it going with your Lyrics? Also. I’m concerned about ear canal bleeding or infections that are supposed to be some degree of issue with the Lyrics. I have no special issues that would cause a problem.

I have never tried hearing aids before. I had my pair of Lyrics fitted August 26 2011. The battery in my right ear died today, Jan 25 2012. So 5 months of contant wear, and almost constant power-on state. I turned them off only in noisy situations. Though I often wore them in transparent mode (soft-off) in which they try to approximate my actual hearing, with a little boost in the high range since that’s where most of my hearing loss is.

The left aid was sized perfectly and it became physically unnoticeable after the first month. The audiologist’s matching right aid was actually out of batteries straight from the package. So the right aid was a slightly different fit. It too became physically unnoticeable after the first month, but by the third month it had wiggled itself outward, into a somewhat-noticeable position.

[scary warning on]
During the use of the Lyric aids, I noticed that my daily post-shower cotton swab would show normal ear wax colour from my left ear, and rust coloured ear wax from my right. This was not obvious until about 3 months of use. My initial guess was blood. Upon removal of the right aid at 5 months of wear, my guess was confirmed. The outermost yellow foam had been completely saturated with blood. Please note that there was no blood at all on the innermost section near the eardrum, so my biggest concern (that of an injured eardrum) was never validated (yay!). I am not adverse to bleeding, in that my activities cause me abrasions rather more often than I would prefer. But I will say that having bleeding in the ear is rather alarming. I am impressed that despite all the contact to my head/ear/jaw in the past 5 months, that the aids did not injure my hearing. There was no bleeding from the ear itself upon removal, just blood soaked into the aid. Had I know at month 3 that it was causing this amount of bleeding, I would have asked my audiologist to refit the device in my ear canal. I have made an appointment with my audiologist to inspect the ear canal. Will update post-haste.
Picture of removed bloody Lyric aid is available at bottom.
[scary warning off]

Adjusting to having these aids was troublesome for the first two weeks. I had constant pain in both ears, similar to an earache without the intensity. Occasionally certain jaw movements would ramp the pain up to a very high level but it would immediately subside. Sometime during the third week my brain decided to ignore the feeling of the aids, and they became unnoticeable. Really quite amazing the difference after becoming accustomed, but it’s clear that a month trial is necessary.

For the Lyric aids, the audiologist can set the lowest of four volume levels, and it seems that the next 3 are simply the 3 next loudest volumes. My audiologist originally set the lowest volume at level 2, and I had him lower the lowest volume to level 1 before I had left the clinic that day. If you’ve never used aids, the power of new sounds can be quite shocking. Normal events like the click of a door latch were shockingly loud, even offering the cringe response. Within a couple of weeks I worked up to and grew accustomed to level 2 as my normal setting. I believe that my battery lasted for 5 months due to the lowest-possible settings that had been chosen. A person with more profound amplification would go through the battery more quickly.

Showering with the Lyrics is fine, but don’t direct the stream of water into either ear and always cotton swab the water droplets out afterwards. I did not try using silicone plugs, and I did not swim for the 5 months of Lyric use. Depending on your lifestyle, this one restriction (of not swimming) will make or break your decision to use Lyrics. Others on the forum do report success using waterproof ear plugs, I was not willing to risk damaging the aids.

Things I have noticed:
In loud situations (i.e. live music) the transparent mode is actually much louder than any of the “on” settings. My guess is that the aids have active high-volume hearing protection circuits that are inactive in transparent mode.

In troublesome situations (soft speakers using complex dialog in large unquiet rooms i.e. courtroom) having the aids turned up to 4 was just awesome compared to my pre-aid life. They really did seem like futuristic cybergenic implants to improve my hearing beyong what was biologically possible.

The referee’s whistle was piercing, and I would always hear it, whether playing or in the middle of a huge crowd at a stadium.

I could feel the sweat in the foam of the aids after a workout, making the aids feel like they were more liable to slip out (but they did not).

My parting thougts:
The Lyric aids trial has convinced me to maintain hearing aids for my life. The limitation of not being able to remove Lyric aids will steer me away from a subscription to the Lyric aids, and toward a more traditional aid. Experience with traditional aids might steer me back to the Lyric, but that is a discussion for the future.

How they communicate with you:
POWER NOTIFICATION
off-off four beeps
transparent two beeps (also called soft-off)
on vol 1 1st single beep (low volume)
on vol 2 2nd single beep (regular usage)
on vol 3 3rd single beep (powered)
on vol 4 4th single beep (maximum amp)
low batt beeps altered to sound like boops (2-3 days of battery remaining)

In reply to @scififan

I really enjoyed reading this thread! There is some great information here. I work for Phonak the company who distribute Lyric Hearing aids. We have a website and an expert blog, where you can ask any questions or share your story with others. It would be great to see you there soon…:slight_smile:

Edited

Welcome to our forum.

We value the hearing professionals here who are a great help, without actively pushing their business. Thise who are too pushy, trying to use this forum as a marketing tool are frowned upon.

I think promoting a competing forum for asking questions is way beyond the level of acceptability here.

@prodigyplace said:

Welcome to our forum.

We value the hearing professionals here who are a great help, without actively pushing their business. Thise who are too pushy, trying to use this forum as a marketing tool are frowned upon.

I think promoting a competing forum for asking questions is way beyond the level of acceptability here.

Quite. Really poor form.

Edit; and nothing to do with the new Lyric coming out in a short period of time…:wink:

In reply to @bill750

Hi Bill,

Thanks for your excellent post. I also have hearing loss from my days in the military. Mine is not quite severe enough yet to seriously consider hearing aids (10% disability), but it’s probably not too far away (or maybe I’m just fighting it?). I assume you have also gotten a service-connected disability determination from the ? Do you know if the VA is, or will be, providing Lyrics for service-connected hearing loss? Thanks.

  • Kyle

I tired these hearing aids twice by a hearing aid dispenser here in my town. He was for some reason unable to get the hearing aids to connect, and all I heard was a strange buzzing sound. There shouldn’t have been any problems because my hearing loss fits within the Lyric fitting range and the aids were new. But he came off as a wacko, so I won’t be going back to him. Maybe I could try with another specialist or audiologist, though I would have to go out of town for this since there isn’t anyone in my town available.

The Lyric sounds like what I am looking for; it’s just the annual cost of 1800 that drives me away but I still want to try it for a month.

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