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HA's for Dummies?

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Hi All,

I’ve been lurking, and found the forums pretty helpful.

What I haven’t found is “Hearing Aids for Dummies” anywhere. The Au.D who did my hearing test said that my hearing loss wasn’t bad enough that she’d recommend aids, but that they could be of benefit. Like many of you, my loss is higher frequencies. More loss on the right. I have trouble understanding speech in noisy environments, and it makes it harder to play my sport.

Based on their survey (asking what I expected from the aids, and how sensitive I was to what they looked like) they’re recommending Oticon Intiga . Since seeing the , I’m a little less sensitive to size. You are all responsible for that – I’ve read many posts here about how people just don’t notice. The wire to the receiver isn’t that obvious. I’ve also learned that a good specialist is probably more important than brand. I think I’ve got one. I’m fortunate. I can afford the top-of-the-line instruments, but once I buy, I’m going to need to stay with them.

… and hearing my Skip’s voice 150 feet down the ice is important to me. It’s worth the price difference if I can hear better. I’d prefer smaller aids, but given a choice between between tiny aids, and larger, but awesome aids, I’ll go bigger. Still, there is an almost dizzying number of things to learn to make an intelligent choice.

I appreciate the HIS saying “these” based on what I told her. Hence the need for a “Hearing Aids for Dummies” article.

Thanks for reading, and thanks in advance for any comments, links, etc.

– Lynn

9 people in this conversation10 min readJump to latest

The most complaints you’ll see here about is the “problem” with hearing in crowds. Make sure you have a trial period so if one model doesn’t work well for you, you can try another. IMO, it may turn out that for your situation there won’t be a solution that works.

Edited

Thanks Mike.

I’ve had two hearing professionals tell me that my loss may not justify hearing aids.

On the other hand, I’m frequently standing next to someone who can hear and understand what’s going on, and I can’t.

I’m motivated to try.

One of the reasons I’m asking about a “For Dummies” article is the daunting number of options. In theory (40 years of computers, and a background in radio) it should be possible to process out some of the noise, and give me back the highs in my right ear.

Manufacturers have these wonderful marketing names for features, but it leaves the question “what works, and what’s it worth.”

Any comments are appreciated.

– Lynn

@lwt42 said:

Hi All,

I’ve been lurking, and found the forums pretty helpful. What I haven’t found is “Hearing Aids for Dummies” anywhere.

The Au.D who did my hearing test said that my hearing loss wasn’t bad enough that she’d recommend aids, but that they could be of benefit.

Like many of you, my loss is higher frequencies. More loss on the right. I have trouble understanding speech in noisy environments, and it makes it harder to play my sport.

Based on their survey (asking what I expected from the aids, and how sensitive I was to what they looked like) they’re recommending Oticon Intiga RITEs. Since seeing the HIS, I’m a little less sensitive to size.

You are all responsible for that – I’ve read many posts here about how people just don’t notice. The wire to the receiver isn’t that obvious.

I’ve also learned that a good specialist is probably more important than brand. I think I’ve got one.

I’m fortunate. I can afford the top-of-the-line instruments, but once I buy, I’m going to need to stay with them.

… and hearing my Skip’s voice 150 feet down the ice is important to me. It’s worth the price difference if I can hear better. I’d prefer smaller aids, but given a choice between between tiny aids, and larger, but awesome aids, I’ll go bigger.

Still, there is an almost dizzying number of things to learn to make an intelligent choice. I appreciate the HIS saying “these” based on what I told her.

Hence the need for a “Hearing Aids for Dummies” article.

Thanks for reading, and thanks in advance for any comments, links, etc.

– Lynn

Lynn,

You say sport and mention ice, are we talking ice hockey or curling? You mention hearing your skip from 150 feet down the ice which makes it sound like curling. If it’s ice hockey forget about wearing your ’s on the ice, you will sweat to much and aids don’t take to that much moisture. If it’s curling I don’t think it would be a problem although ice rinks humidity can be pretty high and going from a very cold to very warm environment can cause problems. Talk to your about this and see what they say. Good luck!

@seb said:

Lynn, You say sport and mention ice, are we talking ice hockey or curling? You mention hearing your skip from 150 feet down the ice which makes it sound like curling. If it’s ice hockey forget about wearing your HA’s on the ice, you will sweat to much and aids don’t take to that much moisture. If it’s curling I don’t think it would be a problem although ice rinks humidity can be pretty high and going from a very cold to very warm environment can cause problems. Talk to your HIS about this and see what they say. Good luck!

Good point. It’s Curling. As a general rule, Ice Rinks try to keep the humidity down. If the humidity is high, the moisture condenses on the light fixtures and the building structure and then rains down. The resulting drips make hockey pucks fly and curling stones pick. Curling is vigorous. I do work up a sweat during a game – but no helmets to hold the sweat in. Thanks – Lynn I’ll definitely talk to the about moisture, though.

In reply to @seb

I wonder why they said Oticon Intiga instead of Alta if you’re looking for the best. Both of the independent audiologists I’ve seen locally strongly recommended the Alta (the newest product from Oticon). I need to update my thread about it, but I’ve been very impressed with it, now that I have most of my issues worked out.

Someone earlier mentioned sweat, and I’ve been wearing the Alta’s to karate class and getting myself drenched with sweat and so far they’ve been fine. I’ve only had this particular pair a little less than 3 weeks though and I do put them in a dryer at night.

You are correct that how it sounds and a good audiologist is far more important than how it looks, especially with modern designs that are nearly impossible to see unless you know what you’re looking for anyway.

One of the audiologists on the board mentioned once that the “wow” factor for hearing aids was somewhere around 20-30dB loss at 2K, so you might not have as much of a “wow” factor for day-to-day life, but if you can go from not understanding to understanding in a certain situation, then it can be huge. For me, it was hearing my daughter in the back seat of the car. Also, most hearing aids give you the possibility to pump up the volume if you ask for it, so if you’re in a sports situation you can give yourself super-human hearing as needed.

–Beth

@cheeselover said:

I wonder why they said Oticon Intiga instead of Alta if you’re looking for the best.

Because I think she listened to her customer. I ranked “nearly invisible” near the top of my wants, and I think she recommended the smallest she had. From comments here, I’m now convinced that people aren’t that observant.

Thought of one more thing… I don’t know if the range on any of the “spouse” microphones is as long as 150 ft, but if it is, that could be a good option for your sporting troubles.
–Beth

@cheeselover said:

Thought of one more thing… I don’t know if the range on any of the “spouse” microphones is as long as 150 ft, but if it is, that could be a good option for your sporting troubles. --Beth

It’s a wonderful idea. It’s also against the rules – and the only rule that was added to the official rules of Curling in the middle of a competition. A team tried wireless headsets, and it was a huge advantage for them. We can’t text each other during a game either.

In reply to @cheeselover

Lynn, I dream of writing a Dummies book. We are all Dummies, sometimes, with Hearing Aids!

if you search for nader you’ll find a few of my observations.

The resound Unite Mini mic spouse mike works very well for me. Hang one on your Captain, and wear a Resound Forza from Costco? worth a try. Love their refund policy!

elijah

Beth,
What I’ve seen regarding range of various Bluetooth accessories is about 10 meters, but Phonak’s is better, they say that it will work up to 100 Feet and my wife has used her ICom on and been able to hear the TV from at least 75-80 feet away. I don’t know if Phonak’s mic will work that far though.

Thanks again to everyone who responded. I see that my posts finally made it through moderation.

The Intiga is great for size, but the streamer/remote would be essential. I think I’m going with the Alta Pro.

I’m probably waiting a month – we have a break between leagues, if I trial now I won’t be doing the one activity that is the most important to me. I’m hoping the gain in processor power and newer software helps with the noisy environments as well.

Let us know how it goes! Too bad the “spouse mic” is against the rules, but if you wear hearing aids all the time hopefully there won’t be any problems.
–Beth

In reply to @cheeselover

@cheeselover said:

One of the audiologists on the board mentioned once that the “wow” factor for hearing aids was somewhere around 20-30dB loss at 2K, so you might not have as much of a “wow” factor for day-to-day life, but if you can go from not understanding to understanding in a certain situation, then it can be huge. For me, it was hearing my daughter in the back seat of the car.

Bingo.

I got my Alta’s on Tuesday afternoon.

Thursday was the long drive from SoCal to Sacramento for a Bonspeil (Curling Tournament). I wore my new aids from 5:00am well into the evening. Enjoyed the conversations much more during the trip.

After was a pre-spiel meet and greet in a very noisy bar. I enjoyed the conversation very much – without them all I would have been able to hear was noise.

We played five games. My skip said she could relax a bit because she knew that I could hear her as well as see the hand signals.

For one of those games, we had an olympic-caliber “sub” which was the most amazing lesson in how to curl – basically a two hour master class.

Four out of the five professionals I consulted either felt the aids would be ineffective, or the effect would be marginal.

They were wrong.

– Lynn

@lwt42 said:

Four out of the five professionals I consulted either felt the aids would be ineffective, or the effect would be marginal.

They were wrong.

– Lynn

Awesome! Good aids do make such a difference in challenging situations.

–Beth

You’re mentioning coming from cold to warm and humidity … my glasses fog up when I come in the house during some of our extreme cold (Nebraska). Are there any precautions I should take this winter?

In reply to @cheeselover

@cheeselover said:

You are correct that how it sounds and a good audiologist is far more important than how it looks, especially with modern designs that are nearly impossible to see unless you know what you’re looking for anyway.

Saw one of my teammates who has been away for a bit, and knew I was seriously contemplating hearing aids.

He didn’t know I had them until I pointed out the little wire sneaking around the top of my ear.

Also saw my M.D. and didn’t tell him. I let him find them for himself – he didn’t notice until he looked inside my ear.

I have Mini-. They’re obviously just about invisible.

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