I am new to all things hearing aid…I am 40 years old and have otosclerosis. Had a stapedectomy in my right ear 7 years ago and never felt I received much benefit. Fast forward to this summer and started experiencing a full, stuffy feeling in my left ear. Tadaaaa, more hearing loss. Decided to pursue the hearing aid route as I am so tired of feeling like my hearing loss affects me at work and in my personal life. My audiologist started me in Resound hearing aids but the static noise from my hair and the crisp sounds drive me crazy and sometimes overpower people’s voices which puts me right back at square one. He is now having some Phonak fitted for me from molds and I will get a 30 day trial with that style. What are the advantages/disadvantages of each? I have done some research but it is so hard to find information that isn’t put out by the manufacturer. Please help - I am so green to this and it’s a huge expense so I want to make the best educated choice possible!
I plan to post my as soon as I go for my next appointment! I wish I had joined this forum earlier to hear the response about Resound! I am guessing my issues are common with them? My insurance will pay on one pair every 5 years so I am stressed out about getting stuck with something that I don’t like.
There are a lot of people on here that will disagree with me about Resound, but I have 5-10 people every week come in wearing brand new Resounds who are dissatisfied with them and want me to make them better. Universally, they tell me “They sound good, but I am still struggling to hear my spouse… my tv… on the telephone… in noise…” Your issues are VERY common with them.
I am new to all things hearing aid…I am 40 years old and have otosclerosis. Had a stapedectomy in my right ear 7 years ago and never felt I received much benefit. Fast forward to this summer and started experiencing a full, stuffy feeling in my left ear. Tadaaaa, more hearing loss. Decided to pursue the hearing aid route as I am so tired of feeling like my hearing loss affects me at work and in my personal life. My audiologist started me in Resound BTE hearing aids but the static noise from my hair and the crisp sounds drive me crazy and sometimes overpower people’s voices which puts me right back at square one. He is now having some Phonak CIC fitted for me from molds and I will get a 30 day trial with that style. What are the advantages/disadvantages of each? I have done some research but it is so hard to find information that isn’t put out by the manufacturer. Please help - I am so green to this and it’s a huge expense so I want to make the best educated choice possible!
Everything can be adjusted and sometimes it takes a few sessions to get everything just right. For example, I think the Resounds come set up very mild in the noise reduction and once that is cranked up they really are amazing in filtering out background noise. I’ve tried several different brands and I like the way Resound does it. Some pros are just not good at making adjustments so they can’t get the best out of the Resounds.
If this is your first time with hearing aids there will be an adjustment phase for your brain as well, so how it sounds to you subjectively now is not always indicative of how good it will be for you in a few months. Are the “crisp sounds” things like clanking dishes, water running, things like that? If so we all deal with that and it does get much better when your brain learns to hear those sounds again and has its own way of filtering out the unpleasant crispness. It has nothing to do with the brand or how they are set up. If you ask them to reduce that you are also reducing the sounds you do want to hear.
If this is your first time with hearing aids there will be an adjustment phase for your brain as well, so how it sounds to you subjectively now is not always indicative of how good it will be for you in a few months.
Seen that posted before…and I hate that. Makes it impossible to evaluate hearing aids. Trust in an audi or that you have meet for the first time getting fitted for , puts everything out of my control. Try another brand…can’t, since YOU can’t judge it
Seen that posted before…and I hate that. Makes it impossible to evaluate hearing aids. Trust in an audi or HIS that you have meet for the first time getting fitted for HAs, puts everything out of my control. Try another brand…can’t, since YOU can’t judge it
Not really. Starting to get use to the new sounds is fairly brief. In 4-5 weeks, you should be fully acclimated. If you trial an aid for a period, you can then reasonably compare aids subjectively. There isn’t an aid that, fitted properly, should give you the start needed to better evaluate another.
Seen that posted before…and I hate that. Makes it impossible to evaluate hearing aids. Trust in an audi or HIS that you have meet for the first time getting fitted for HAs, puts everything out of my control. Try another brand…can’t, since YOU can’t judge it
I know. I would almost recommend getting a cheap pair for the first 6 months, then evaluating and buying the better aids. But, if there are no obvious problems like feedback, and the level is good and the word comprehension is starting to improve by the end of the return period you will “probably” be OK.
I went 25 years with hearing loss before I got hearing aids so I was probably an extreme case, but I continued to adjust for about the first year. The distorted sounds of the high frequencies smoothed out during the first 6 months but the levels were uncomfortable for a while longer.
I know. I would almost recommend getting a cheap pair for the first 6 months, then evaluating and buying the better aids. But, if there are no obvious problems like feedback, and the level is good and the word comprehension is starting to improve by the end of the return period you will “probably” be OK.
I went 25 years with hearing loss before I got hearing aids so I was probably an extreme case, but I continued to adjust for about the first year. The distorted sounds of the high frequencies smoothed out during the first 6 months but the levels were uncomfortable for a while longer.
Don your is very slightly better than mine, but from this lay person, they are very similar.
Did your trial different brands from Costco? How/why did you end up with Kirkland…or is it Resound? Specifically did you trial trax 42?
Don your audiogram is very slightly better than mine, but from this lay person, they are very similar.
Did your trial different brands from Costco? How/why did you end up with Kirkland…or is it Resound? Specifically did you trial trax 42?
My first one was a Starkey Destiny (400 I think) from an audiologist practice. They did fine although they were really not up on the latest things. I told them I had read that a could have a vent and she told me no, that was impossible. But then out of curiosity she called her Starkey rep and they said yes, of course. It was $2700 so I had to get the one and I was going to save up for a year and get the other one. In the meantime I saw where Costco had a Hearing Aid shop so I talked to them and bought a Rexton Insite, CIC for the other ear. So I had a Starkey in one ear and a Rexton in the other (not a good plan). The Rexton Insite was not really powerful enough so they eventually took it back and sold me the Kirkland 4 (I think), the Rexton Cobalt. We could never get those adjusted right so I brought them back right at the end of the trial and bought the Resound “Future” in the style (Resound Alera). Man, those were great. Really like those. Then last year my father passed away. He had bought new Kirkland 5 hearing aids, the Resound Verso 9. After he passed I talked to my audiologist at Costco, who was his audiologist also, and she agreed to re-case those and set them up for me. They are still in warranty.
I like these better than the Alera (Future) because they have volume and program change buttons on the hearing aid, and they are synchronized so when I turn the volume up (or change program) on one the other follows. The background limiting on both has been great, once we learned the little trick. There is a screen of slider adjustments and you can turn speech and soft speech up and background noise down, so for the Restaurant program we crank those up and down (respectively) almost all the way. When I hit the Restaurant program in a loud background situation I can hear the background melt away and I can hear those at my table.
If your hair creates noise from hitting the or (which resembles BTE) then trying a different option might be better.
But there are more options than , which is the smallest and fits down inside the canal. They are the least obvious, but if your hair has them covered that won’t make any difference.
Disadvantages of CIC:
Smaller battery (usually size 10) - shorter battery life
Can’t make them as powerful
More prone to feedback
No space on the aid for a volume control or feature button
I had aids for awhile. (In the canal). Similar to CIC but a bit larger made them more noticable. (I’m bald, so no help there!) But they used the larger 312 battery and had space for a volume control and (for telephone) button.
So if the CIC fixes the hair issue but you don’t like some of those other things, you might consider ITC or .
