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Is this as good as it gets?

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I am a 78 y.o. male, and have tried 4 ’s and 4 audiologists over the past 5 or so years. My last reads as thresholds of 50-85 decibels in the 250-2000Hz ranges and 100-110 dbs in the 3000-8000 Hz frequencies. According to the last audiologist’s report I have “moderately severe precipitously sloping to profound sensoneurial hearing loss for both ears.” My word recognition scores were poor for both ears (Right - 36%; Left 62%). My current HA’s (Phonak Audio Yes V) were adjusted and are reported to be “meeting specified targets.” I was in effect told that my speech recognition will continue to be unacceptable except for some possible improvement under special circumstances if a I use an system. I can currently manage to watch the TV with earphones and captions. My question is should I give it one more try by consulting another expert, or is my condition as good as I can reasonably expect, so that I should not waste my time and money? Thanks.

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With your hearing loss and word recognition being that bad, it is going to be very difficult for any to get you to a point that you can accept. Some of the HA will be strong enough to give you improved volume but many times won’t help your word recognition. The only way to find out for sure is to get a strong HA on trial for 30 days. If it doesn’t help, be sure you can return it for no charge.

I am a newbie too in the numbers side of this technology, but it appears to me that when you get into the 100+ db down zone that you are between a rock and a hard place. i.e. if the output enough power to be heard at frequencies from 3000 upward they are by definition dangerous to the remaining sensitivity you have. If you follow. If the HAs are adjusted to safe levels, the higher frequencies outputs are not audible to you.

I’m just not aware of a way around this problem.

TerryB

Welcome to the wonderful world of profound hearing loss and poor speech comprehension. I don’t say that to be funny because i can sympathize with you 100%. The question is, is this as good as it gets, and when it come to hearing aids the answer is in all likelihood, yes.
At least as far as things stand now. Sure you can try systems but I can almost guarantee that the benefits you receive will not justify the cost. you could try speech reading although the success rate with that is not all that impressive. Some are better at it then others. You can make sure that people face you when they talk to you, but very few will ever remember to do so. Some people will tell you that newer digital aids can be set up so that background noise will be reduced thus making speech easier to comprehend. But you know as well as I do that with poor speech comprehension that only helps somewhat, at best. You could look into cohclear implants, but, and with all due respect, at your age i don’t know if you want to go through all the trouble of having it done. So you, like me, struggle, even with our aids. I wish I had a better answer for you, but with technology where it currently is, any aids you wear will in all likelihood leave much to be desired. Try to look on the bright side. Without the aids you would hear or comprehend nothing. Maybe that would be a lot less stressful.

Don’t let age stop you from investigating cochlear implants. If you are healthy enough for the operation - it is worth considering.

How is your sight? Using visual cues can help when speech perception is poor. Ensure you have appropriate vision correction if required.

@doc2x said:

I am a 78 y.o. male, and have tried 4 HA’s and 4 audiologists over the past 5 or so years. My last audiogram reads as thresholds of 50-85 decibels in the 250-2000Hz ranges and 100-110 dbs in the 3000-8000 Hz frequencies…

Forget about 3000Hz on up, you should be able to get a lot of speech at 500, 1000 & 2000Hz where you still have significant residual hearing. 2000Hz is the key here. If your loss is -85dB at 2000Hz, verify with your audi via “real ear” measurements that you’re getting at least 50dB of gain at that level.

Yes, your speech recognition scores are low, and no hearing aid will make your hearing “good”, but you should be able to get by pretty well with properly adjusted, power hearing aids. Which I hope are . Good Luck!

the magic phrase here is getting by. I get by, sometimes I understand what’s being said, a lot of times I don’t. But without the aids it would be a big zero. So the aids will help, it just won’t be to the degree I’m sure you were hoping.

Edited

You’re correct Hask12. With a severe-profound loss, getting by is about the best we can do right now with any hearing aid. No hearing aid will give us “good” hearing. We have to be realistic. :slight_smile:

My 70 something year old friend got a cochlear implant 2 years ago. She loves it. And they are making the external piece much smaller these days. It’s great to be able to speak to her on the phone again. She doesn’t have to fake it anymore.

@doc2x said:

I am a 78 y.o. male, and have tried 4 HA’s and 4 audiologists over the past 5 or so years. My last audiogram reads as thresholds of 50-85 decibels in the 250-2000Hz ranges and 100-110 dbs in the 3000-8000 Hz frequencies. According to the last audiologist’s report I have “moderately severe precipitously sloping to profound sensoneurial hearing loss for both ears.” My word recognition scores were poor for both ears (Right - 36%; Left 62%). My current HA’s (Phonak Audio Yes V) were adjusted and are reported to be “meeting specified targets.” I was in effect told that my speech recognition will continue to be unacceptable except for some possible improvement under special circumstances if a I use an FM system. I can currently manage to watch the TV with earphones and captions. My question is should I give it one more try by consulting another expert, or is my condition as good as I can reasonably expect, so that I should not waste my time and money? Thanks.

Doc2x:

The Audeo Yes cannot fit that range in the highs. It might say it does but it does not, it causes distortion. You need to move to the Phonak Naida IX SP or UP. This will enable the Sound Recover to properly support your loss. I have had a few patients try the Audeo Yes because of vanity issues’ with a loss like yours, but ended up in the Naida’s and very happy. Hope this helps.

Four hearing aids in 5 years…there must be quite a dent in your bank account! I am up in your range of hearing loss, and second the suggestion that you try Phonak Naida IX UP. I have had mine for about two months now, and think they are a significant improvement on my old Phonak Superos. The “sound recover” feature compresses the highest freq down to those you can still hear….which seems to help me with the s and c sounds that are so critical in speech. I tried the Phonak’s system some years ago, but did not see much improvement, as it is still just the hearing aids that pump the sound and the newer hearing aids have all the directional mike type features built in nowadays. I do get significantly better sound from the phone via the icom…but that related to the phone speaker being so small I think. I had an otolaryngologist strongly recommend a cochlear to me, but I am resisting getting my ears reamed out until I cannot live with just amplification…and for now I doing fairly well I think. <?xml:namespace prefix = o ns = “urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:office” /><o:p></o:p>
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125/60, 250/70, 500/75, 750/75, 1500/80, 3000/85, 6000/dead…bilateral
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@doc2x said:

I am a 78 y.o. male, and have tried 4 HA’s and 4 audiologists over the past 5 or so years. My last audiogram reads as thresholds of 50-85 decibels in the 250-2000Hz ranges and 100-110 dbs in the 3000-8000 Hz frequencies.

You should be tested for cochlear dead zones, especially at 3000Hz plus.

According to the last audiologist’s report I have “moderately severe precipitously sloping to profound sensoneurial hearing loss for both ears.” My word recognition scores were poor for both ears (Right - 36%; Left 62%). My current ’s (Phonak Audio Yes V) were adjusted and are reported to be “meeting specified targets.”

What’s your aided hearing in the soundfield like? You probably need more powerful HAs such as the Phonak Naida UP, those HAs will aid you down to 10-20db at frequencies as high as 2000Hz and you have transposition for the 3000Hz plus frequencies. Your WD of 62% is already better than the average and I bet youll see nice improvements with the Phonak Naida UP :slight_smile:

I was in effect told that my speech recognition will continue to be unacceptable

You won’t get to 100% unless you have $30,000 to spend on stem cells and if stem cells gives you a big improvement. But even 62% is quite good, mine is pratically zero!

My question is should I give it one more try by consulting another expert, or is my condition as good as I can reasonably expect, so that I should not waste my time and money? Thanks.

Unless you can try the most powerful HAs, such as the Phonak Naida UP with a 30+ day free trial, don’t bother.

In reply to @willis77019

@willis77019 said:

I am up in your range of hearing loss, and second the suggestion that you try Phonak Naida IX UP. I have had mine for about two months now, and think they are a significant improvement on my old Phonak Superos. The “sound recover” feature compresses the highest freq down to those you can still hear….which seems to help me with the s and c sounds that are so critical in speech.

Just goes to show that wearing proper can give excellent speech unless your hearing is as bad as mine. :frowning:

I had an otolaryngologist strongly recommend a cochlear to me, but I am resisting getting my ears reamed out until I cannot live with just amplification…and for now I doing fairly well I think.

Um, a when your WD is 85% unaided and probably over 90% aided? The average CI gives 55% WD. You should never qualify, youll hear way worse with CI. Those CIs are meant for people with hearing as bad as mine, but even I don’t want a CI as im getting stem cells soon and hopefully I can have hearing as good as yours, that would be amazing! :smiley:

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