When to get Hearing Aids with mild loss?

Really great feedback and information. If they only helped with conversations I think that would be fine. It is not necessarily quiet voices that are a problem either. Just certain voice types or environmental noise interference. Breathy or hissy voices are particularly problematic. Hopefully this thread helps other mild fence sitters :).

@hearingguy said:

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 audiograms. 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.

Completely agree with this. The degree of ‘loss’ often has very little to do with the numbers and lots to do with the social/work/relaxing activities of the client. My range goes from a Hermit to a High Court Judge: everyone sits somewhere on that scale.

I’m a high school teacher in my 60’s, with mild/moderate high-frequency hearing loss. I’ve been having trouble understanding student speech in the classroom from distances of 8 or so feet and beyond; in addition, my husband complains that sometimes I have the TV too loud. I have no trouble in one-on-one conversations (except in noisy restaurants) and no trouble on the telephone.

The audiologist initially fitted me with a Starkey IIC. My own voice sounded booming, the occlusion was uncomfortable, and background noise in restaurants was absolutely deafening - even using the Starkey iPhone “app” for restaurants! This was all bad enough, but the real clincher was that due to the sound distortion (is this a “given” with digital devices?), student speech was more difficult to hear than without wearing aids!

So…my next “test drive” was the much-touted Oticon Intiga RIC (behind the ear). With the Oticon, my voice sounded normal to me, and the sense of occlusion was much less. But all the other problems remained, in particular the deafening noise in restaurants, and distortion of speech of everyone - even people in close-up conversations in quiet settings! My audiologist conceded that HA’s do not replicate normal speech or restore normal hearing: okay, got that. But if they distort speech to the extent that it makes words more difficult to decode, then what is the point of the HA?

So I rejected the Oticons. My audiologist then remarked that “Maybe this just isn’t the right time for you to get hearing aids,” and offered to refund my money (which was a fortune). So actually, I guess it was she who fired me!

Bottom line: I have no hearing aids (and no audiologist), but many questions! Is it possible that indeed, as my audiologist suggested, I’m just not yet at the point where I can benefit from HA’s? And was she correct that distortion of sound with HAs is just something you have to accept? She also said that HAs cannot block out restaurant noise; is this correct?

And finally, has anyone had experience with the HAs I tried (Starkey IIC and Oticon Intiga RIC)?

I would be so grateful from insight of others with similar experiences - or for any advice!

I would give a different audiologist a try, it sounds like the audiologist you went with didn’t know how to correctly set up or adjust the hearing aids you tried. Good luck!

Dear Amitie,

Here is my experience with getting HA’s for the first time. It does not completely mirror yours, but maybe you can still use some of it.
I have had HA’s for 8 month now, so I am well used to them. At first it was kind a wondrous experience, because I heard so many new things or so much more of things that had been kind of muffled (without really realizing it). Next I got kind of disappointed with how poorly I sometimes understood speech, especially in movies and fast paced environments. I sometimes think to myself - did I even understand speech this poorly before my HA’s? But if I am compltely honest with myself, i think that before HA’s I did not fully register how much I missed, I kind of thought that other people couldn’t hear what they were saying in the movie either - which is of course ridiculous! I also avoided the phone without realizing what my problem was. So now that I have recognized my hearing problem, gotten HA’s my expectations have changed and I expect to hear everything. Sometimes I still don’t, but it may still be better than before.
I also had the issue with all other noises being terribly loud in the beginning, but after a few months that is rarely an issue.
Understanding speech from a distance is always a challenge, because HA’s pick up sound the best with in a few feet. That you can only remedy with either getting closer to the speaker or getting a remote mic.

@Amitie1 said:

Thanks so much for the replies to my post, “Fired my audiologist!” But I would still like to hear from people regarding their experiences of sound quality (as opposed to volume, which is the easy part) of any digital HAs.

Specifically, is sound distortion inevitable with digital aids? I experienced distortion of speech with both the Starkey IIC and Oticon Intiga RIC, to the extent that rather than improving my ability to hear speech, the aids were actually a detriment. So discouraging!

Thanks again; all feedback from is priceless!

Amitie (French for “friendship”)

What does your audiogram look like and what are your discrimination scores. I’ve never experienced distortion of speech. Of the HA’s I tried Phonak, Resound and Oticon; I found Phonak to sound too mechanical for me and found Oticon and Resound to sound very natural and went with the Oticon. The two variables in your situation is your audiologist and your ears and without having your audiogram numbers up, the pro’s on this site would be taking a shot in the dark.

Dear Seb,

I am looking at my audiogram, but do not see a neat list of numbers for each ear, like so many people display on this website! My audiogram consists of a chart with x’s and o’s, which range from 25 to 65 on the chart, if that means anything. My WRS (word recognition score) was 92% right ear, and 88% left ear.

Believe me, I will insist that my next audiologist provide a comprehensible audiogram, along with explanation. Once I have a set of numbers, I will post it!

Thanks,

Amitie

Amitie1;

You’re welcome! I wasn’t sure if what I had written made sense. Glad to know that it did. There are others who are much more experienced than me on this board who could probably explain things better, so hopefully someone else will “speak up”, too.

I’m wearing an Oticon Alta (not the Alta Pro, which is the next step up). It’s a mini-RITE/RIC, so it is very, very small. When I first started this journey of getting a hearing aid last summer, I really wanted an IIC aid because I didn’t want anyone to know I had it. However, none of the four audiologists I saw recommended that. They all essentially said the same thing, which was “If your hearing loss fits a RIC, that will provide the best hearing.” As far as the sound quality goes, it’s maybe a tiny bit tinny. I compare what I’m hearing in my aided ear to my “normal-ish” ear, so of course any hearing aid would sound more tinny than what is heard through an unaided ear. I have very young children, ages 1 and 3, and their voices sound pretty much the same in my aided ear as they do in my unaided ear. (I was worried their voices would sound shrill and harsh. They don’t sound any more harsh than they do in my unaided ear.) My husband’s voice sounds the same in both ears as well. The only real difference I notice is that higher-pitched female voices and cartoon character voices on TV are very difficult to understand with my aided ear. I’m not sure what that’s about, but I’m not going to obsess about it right now, because I hear those voices fine using both ears, which is ultimately what matters.

Honestly, I think my hearing aid could be tuned a bit better, but I’m content for right now and believe I’m hearing what I ought to be. I think the key is finding the right audiologist. I love mine!!! She’s a bilateral hearing aid user herself since she was a toddler, so she gets it. Even when I don’t know how to describe what I’m hearing in technical terms, she usually at least has some idea what I mean, which is helpful.

Anyway, I wish you luck finding a good audiologist! Ask around. Your local hearing association might be able to recommend someone. Or, if you see someone wearing a hearing aid, you can always ask them who they see. As near as I can tell, it’s all about the audiologist! You can have the best hearing aid on the market, but if the audi doesn’t know how to program it to fit your loss, you won’t have a good experience.

Kerry

I’m new to this forum and the world of hearing loss. I’m suffering mild hearing problems which seem to get worse the last years. I’m now testing my first HA, but as it is quite an investment, I’m in constant doubt. When looking into my audiogram, would you recommend to wait of go for it now. I’m 49 years old.
Thanks for the advice.

I’d go for it now. You have a moderate to moderate severe loss in the 1500hz to 3000hz range. Improving that should improve your speech understanding.

Thank you all for the advice. I’m getting convinced that it might be the appropriate time to start. I’m now in my second week of trying it out (oticon opn 2). How many devices should be tried before knowing these are ok?

If they solve your hearing problems then go for it. There is no rule that says you have to trial more brands. Have a read up on what features are available and what you might like to try. If you find that the current ones meet all your needs then they are a good choice. Ask lots of questions of your audiologist and try the aids out in lots of different situations and soundscapes. Go out to a crowded place or restaurant and really see how they perform. Make sure you try all the places and situations where you have had the most trouble hearing. A good audiologist can get things pretty close the first time so you may have just picked the right person to fit them also.