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When to get Hearing Aids with mild loss?

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I was hoping some of you could share some insights based on your own experiences. A little background on myself. I am 41 and I suspected that I might have hearing loss several years ago. I finally got tested about 3 years ago. I was diagnosed with mild cookie bite . I also have mild tinnitus in my right ear. I usually only notice the tinnitus in quiet environments, or when I focus on it. I can usally ignore it. The said let’s just wait and check it every couple of years. I got tested again this past summer, as I thought it was getting worse. It was only slightly worse, but enough for me to notice I guess. Below are my results.

Here are a few of the ways it has affected me. I can no longer hear the shower running when I am downstairs. So I can’t use that when getting the children off to bed. I have to call up or run upstairs to check on their progress. I also watch the TV on the loud side. It seems loud to me (as well as my wife), but I need it that loud sometimes to hear/understand the conversations. I don’t always hear the microwave finish beeps if I am not in the kitchen. So my tea cup sometimes sits in the microwave until my wife finds it sometime later! My work around is to set the stove timer as well, since it is louder and beeps until you turn it off. I don’t always understand what people are saying to me. Cupping my ear helps, because they repeat themselves louder, and cupping helps me hear much better. Music is important to me as well, and I play the classical guitar. I find cupping my ears adds presence and “fill” to music that I do not hear without cupping.

Would getting hearing aids help preserve or improve my current level of hearing/understanding?

Would aids improve my musical experience?

For those with mild loss, what finally led to you deciding to get aids and has it helped?

—250–500–1k—2k—3k—4k—6k—8k
L -15—20----25—35—25–15—15—10
R -15—20----25—35—30–15—20—20

L=20, R=25
WR L=100@45, R=100@45

20 people in this conversation21 min readJump to latest

You could always try a pair and return them if you thought they were not helping. Many places offer a return period with no restocking fee but many do charge a restocking fee. Costco, for example, has a 90 day return period and no restocking.

If it was me I probably would not get them. I would compensate in other ways until it was just too inconvenient to do so. You can get wireless headphones for TV watching and the sound from those is very good.

But, it is your choice and you have options to try them and see if you do better with aids. It is fairly common to buy a pair and then return them if they don’t work out (after a few adjustment sessions).

With modern hearing aids there are usually 3 to 5 “programs” that are for specific situations so you can have a music program and that might sound good to you but you also might do just as well with your loss if you used an equalizer on your music system and set it for your hearing loss.

Thanks for taking the time to post guys, and thanks for your insights! Noisy situation conversations [my house is loud! :slight_smile: ], and TV are the primary reasons I was considering it. But the return on the monetary investment might not be worth it just yet.

@Whadyousay said:

  1. Would getting hearing aids help preserve or improve my current level of hearing/understanding?

  2. Would aids improve my musical experience?

—250–500–1k—2k—3k—4k—6k—8k
L -15—20----25—35—25–15—15—10
R -15—20----25—35—30–15—20—20

SRT L=20, R=25
WR L=100@45, R=100@45

  1. If by your “current level of hearing” you’re referring to your threshold hearing sensitivity, then hearing aids won’t help to preserve this. However, your hearing loss is worst at 2kHz and the speech sounds in the octave band either side of this contribute more to speech intelligibility than any other octave band within the speech spectrum range. As a result, hearing aids should contribute to improved speech understanding, particularly for more challenging difficult to understand talkers and complex listening situations.

  2. Aids are less likely to improve your music listening experience. Their primary function is to improve speech perception and that has been the focus of the majority of research and technologies built into hearing aids. However, it’s a subjective thing. For you personally music might sound better. You won’t know until you try, but have realistic expectations.

I also have a mild loss, and I just received my first ’s last month. Even though I have a mild loss and could mostly function without hearing aids, they have made a huge improvement in my life. I am no longer asking my wife to repeat her self, we can have a quieter conversation(so the kids can’t overhear)and I can undersand what she is saying. I have noticed that I can hold conversations in noisy areas and not strain to understand. It is interesting to hear all the sounds I have been missing like the sound clothes make, or clocks ticking, or even water running. Also consider that if you have a hearing loss it is better to get hearing aids when it is a mild loss rather than waiting to get them if and when your loss becomes moderate or severe.

I am with Neil. My said I could wait, but now I wait until the last possible minute before bedtime to take them off. I was having a lot if issues with the consonants like th and f sounds. SOOO glad I got them. Nothing to lose with a trial.

Suz

In reply to @NeilFJ

Thank you Neil and Suz for sharing your perspectives. You certainly have given me more to consider.

@NeilFJ said:

Also consider that if you have a hearing loss it is better to get hearing aids when it is a mild loss rather than waiting to get them if and when your loss becomes moderate or severe.

Why is it better to get them while the loss is mild?

Some say your brain forgets to process the sounds.

For me it was that I could understand most of what people were saying but sometimes my brain would fill in the blanks for what I THOUGHT I heard based on the other words in the sentence in the past and what I expected the word should be. Also I found as soon as I got used to them that it was a lot less tiring to converse. I had been working awfully hard watching peoples faces and trying to process what they said or asking them to repeat themselves.

Finally it became a great joy to hear little things I forgot I was missing like birds chirping that made taking a walk more colorful and enjoyable.
Suz

In reply to @Whadyousay

Why is it better to get them while the loss is mild?

It is my understanding that adapting to hearing aids is easier if the amplification is lower such as in a mild loss. I have also heard that your brain will “forget” how to comprehend speach if it is not exposed to it as in a moderate to profound loss. You hear with your brain more than your ears. Imagine the program Dragon speach (not an endorsement), you can have the finest most sensative microphone, but if the processor isn’t working you get gibberish on the screen.

My 2 cents from someone with a cookie bite type loss is I would wait. My loss is down 60db in the middle frequencies although my high frequency is perfect. I don’t have the graph in front of me but it literally just has a big drop in the middle while the very low and very high are fine. I don’t hear things as well as I should and I have to turn the TV up a bit, but honestly I could get along fine without aids for probably quite a few years yet. With aids I don’t have to turn the TV up as loud which makes the wife happy and I do hear better, but the aids are a relative pain, they aren’t super comfortable, you have to worry about getting them wet, the sound is decent, but not quite the same, etc. My insurance company pays fully for my aids which is why I got them, I would never have done it if they weren’t paid for. They do help me at work and when watching TV, but I wouldn’t be spending 7K out of pocket on them at this juncture for sure.

@Whadyousay said:

I was hoping some of you could share some insights based on your own experiences. A little background on myself. I am 41 and I suspected that I might have hearing loss several years ago. I finally got tested about 3 years ago. I was diagnosed with mild cookie bite SNHL. I also have mild tinnitus in my right ear. I usually only notice the tinnitus in quiet environments, or when I focus on it. I can usally ignore it. The ENT said let’s just wait and check it every couple of years. I got tested again this past summer, as I thought it was getting worse. It was only slightly worse, but enough for me to notice I guess. Below are my results.

Here are a few of the ways it has affected me. I can no longer hear the shower running when I am downstairs. So I can’t use that when getting the children off to bed. I have to call up or run upstairs to check on their progress. I also watch the TV on the loud side. It seems loud to me (as well as my wife), but I need it that loud sometimes to hear/understand the conversations. I don’t always hear the microwave finish beeps if I am not in the kitchen. So my tea cup sometimes sits in the microwave until my wife finds it sometime later! My work around is to set the stove timer as well, since it is louder and beeps until you turn it off. I don’t always understand what people are saying to me. Cupping my ear helps, because they repeat themselves louder, and cupping helps me hear much better. Music is important to me as well, and I play the classical guitar. I find cupping my ears adds presence and “fill” to music that I do not hear without cupping.

Would getting hearing aids help preserve or improve my current level of hearing/understanding?

Would aids improve my musical experience?

For those with mild loss, what finally led to you deciding to get aids and has it helped?

—250–500–1k—2k—3k—4k—6k—8k
L -15—20----25—35—25–15—15—10
R -15—20----25—35—30–15—20—20

SRT L=20, R=25
WR L=100@45, R=100@45

Bottom line is only you will be able to tell if they are worth getting right now. Go to a Costco (if one is close enough) where you can get a 90 day trial and all of your money back if you decide you don’t need them right now. Then you have nothing to lose.

Yes it’s quite individual. I never know I have them on so have a different experience. Other than ears itchy the first 2 weeks I have been so comfortable with mine. Try and see is all. I paid for mine out of pocket so it was a big investment but for me better than the vacation we didn’t take

My two cents: I think you should try either when you’re feeling irritated/upset at not hearing what people are saying, or when you yourself are irritating/upsetting other people by not hearing what they’re saying. I decided to get mine the day I asked someone to repeat himself and I did not hear what he said the second time. Let me warn you, though, unconventional are challenging and I have often been very frustrated. I’ve come to think of HAs like prescription medicine – they help with some things, some of the time, and they cause a whole slew of annoying side effects. I rarely wear mine in the house, the place you want to wear yours, due to the annoyance of persistent noise from the heater, the fridge, etc. If you decide to try them, I’d recommend finding an audiologist who is very skilled and very patient. If your main thing is the TV, I’d either try the ZVOX speaker that has a dialog emphasis setting or a bluetooth speaker that you can put close to your head. I actually find those two methods more helpful than wearing my HAs while watching TV.

Edited

My hearing aid does a decent job of hearing the TV and I sit quite a ways further back then most people because I watch a big projector screen. Its not perfect but its definately stopped the wife from yelling turn the TV down on weekends when I’m watching late at night.

In reply to @xresolutionx

I want to thank you all for your input and experiences. Particularly those with mild loss similar to mine. I also found the following particularly interesting and persuasive:

@xresolutionx said:
  1. If by your “current level of hearing” you’re referring to your threshold hearing sensitivity, then hearing aids won’t help to preserve this. However, your hearing loss is worst at 2kHz and the speech sounds in the octave band either side of this contribute more to speech intelligibility than any other octave band within the speech spectrum range. As a result, hearing aids should contribute to improved speech understanding, particularly for more challenging difficult to understand talkers and complex listening situations.

So combining the above quote with the idea that you have to use it or lose it when it comes to the body, (like muscular atrophy, the brain becoming less adept at dealing with certain frequencies), I have been persuaded that perhaps sooner is better than later. I do have a Costco within 10 or so miles of me, and their prices seem to fit with what I would be comfortable with. So I think I will be paying them a visit sometime within the next few months or so. Do you have to purchase a membership to get tested and trial hearing aids?

@Whadyousay said:

I want to thank you all for your input and experiences. Particularly those with mild loss similar to mine. I also found the following particularly interesting and persuasive:

So combining the above quote with the idea that you have to use it or lose it when it comes to the body, (like muscular atrophy, the brain becoming less adept at dealing with certain frequencies), I have been persuaded that perhaps sooner is better than later. I do have a Costco within 10 or so miles of me, and their prices seem to fit with what I would be comfortable with. So I think I will be paying them a visit sometime within the next few months or so. Do you have to purchase a membership to get tested and trial hearing aids?

You don’t need a membership to be tested, but you will have to join to buy hearing aids. With Costco’s trial and return policy being 90 days and you get all your money back if you decide now is not the time, you really have nothing to lose. Good luck!

Hi Whadyousay,

I’ve got mild hearing loss and have recently tried a demo pair of hearing aids. The benefits are clear during the short time I’ve used hearing aids (four weeks at the time of this post). I am able to hear my girlfriend during conversations without any trouble now. Without hearing aids I was constantly having to decipher what she said to me. The same is true for meetings at work. In general, I find my need for hearing aids depends on the person speaking. Some people I can hear without any trouble at all and therefore without any need for hearing aids, but for other people I find it necessary to wear hearing aids in order to hear them. I usually cannot hear people speaking softly without assistance from hearing aids. My hearing aids have also been useful with conference phone calls and my laptop speakers. I have noticed that when I’m wearing hearing aids around the house I hear many more incidental noises, such as sounds coming from the downstairs, cars outside, the cats puttering around, etc. In my case I don’t really have a need to hear all these extra noises and rather enjoy the quiet I get without aids.

I take my hearing aids out when listening to music. These are digital hearing aids designed for speech, not music. Music doesn’t sound so great with hearing aids if you ask me. Besides, it is trivial to turn up the volume.

Because I have mild hearing loss I simply do not need hearing aids for all situations and prefer wearing them only for conversations in quiet settings. Most of the time I’m not wearing them and put them on only when I need that extra boost.

Hope that helps,

David

@Whadyousay said:

I was hoping some of you could share some insights based on your own experiences.

Would getting hearing aids help preserve or improve my current level of hearing/understanding?

Would aids improve my musical experience?

For those with mild loss, what finally led to you deciding to get aids and has it helped?

In reply to @Whadyousay

@Whadyousay said:

So I think I will be paying them a visit sometime within the next few months or so. Do you have to purchase a membership to get tested and trial hearing aids?

You will have to get a membership to buy. You would have to buy the hearing aids and then you have 90 days to return them and get all your money back. Costco does not charge a restocking or any other kind of return fee.

Check the details but I believe when I got mine it worked out that with the Executive membership and their American Express card I got more benefits than the Costco/American Express card costs. You get the most rebate bucks that way and with purchasing hearing aids the rebate benefits were more than the membership cost. I get an annual rebate certificate that is more than my membership cost for the Executive membership.

Thw info on Costco is correct. Extremely liberal policies and the quality is there. That being said, I work for them and I am a hearing impaired audiologist. Make an appointment. Go see them. get a feel about whether or not you can work with them. It is set up so that you truly have nothing to lose. As far as fitting a mild loss? Is your hearing causing you problems? If so, make a move. If those of us that do this as a profession are doing what we need to do, we help people hear better as opposed to fitting . The whole psychosocial component is really more important to you than a bunch of numbers on a chart. If you are asking the questions, it is quite likely that you are asking for help as well. Due diligence.

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