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Newly diagnosed cookie-biter seeking hearing aid advice

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Edited

Hi! Happy to be here and learn from this community. I was recently diagnosed with mild-moderate cookie-bite loss and will be fitted for my first in two weeks. I teach for a living, so clarity and improved speech-recognition are very important. I do have some insurance coverage ($3k). I’d welcome suggestions of which HAs to consider. Thanks!

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Edited

Welcome to the forum.

You have a bit of a reverse slope as well as a cookie bite loss. IMO that would be a hard loss to fit well for you.

Hearing aids are a very personal thing, what sound you like to hear the next person might dislike immensely. It’s trial and error until you find an aid that suits you. So make sure you get a free trial of a few pairs of aids so you can choose what gives you the best hearing and clarity. So make sure your audiologist sells a few different brands of aids. Not just one! Make sure they follow best practices and fit with .

Perhaps think about the system they use at your school for the hearing impaired students. Then purchase aids that can be connected to that system easily. With whatever gadgets might be required to give you good hearing and excellent clarity.

Good luck to you on your hearing journey.

With a cookie bite type of loss like this, I would recommend your focus in doing research on this forum be a couple of things → 1. Find members on this forum who have a similar type of cookie bite loss like yours and try to get them to share their experience with you. 2. Try to do some research and see if any particular mfg(s) may have their proprietary fitting rationale designed to address the need of cookie bite patients.

For item 1, the first person that came to my mind is Tony (@Abarsanti). Since I tag him here, maybe he’ll pop up and chime in to help you out. If I remember correctly, he used to wear the Oticon OPN 1, then he switched to the Costco Philips HearLink 9030 for a short stint before he settled with the Oticon More 1 now.

For item 2, I don’t know much about HA mfgs other than Oticon because my current pair of HAs is the Oticon OPN 1. Thus I’ve done research on Oticon technologies a lot, and I remember coming across an Audiology Online presentation by Donald Schum (who used to be VP at Oticon but is now with Whisper), and in this article, he addressed the issue of the cookie bite type of loss and how Oticon researched and came up with and incorporated into their VAC+ fitting rationale measures to support cookie bite loss patients better. I don’t know if the Philips HearLink 9030 sold at Costco has a fitting rationale similar to the VAC+ or not, but it’s likely that they do because they license HA technologies from William Demant who is the parent company of Oticon, Sonic and Bernafon.

That is not to say that other HA mfgs don’t address and support the cookie bite type loss patients. I just don’t know enough about non-Oticon fitting rationales to be able to say anything helpful about them.

Many thanks for the replies and good wishes! I don’t have a Costco nearby (it’s over an hour away), so I’ll stick with the audiologist’s recommendations or use their recommendation to buy online. I hope to try the Phonak Audeo Lumity for its enhanced speech-recognition. At school, I’ve worn a Roger pen to assist a student, so Phonak seems like a good option. Expensive, though. I’m also interested in Oticon, but not sure which model. So many choices!

Hi, I saw this thread because of your recent reply. Their recommendation is important, but their experience and expertise is worth the real value. That goes for whoever you purchase from or work with. With your hearing loss (and most hearing losses in general), a recommendation should only be made after knowing certain things about you and how the loss affects you. At a minumum, I would want to know: how you rate your hearing; have you tried any sort of hearing aid, and what did you like or dislike; what specific situations do you want help to hear better? I think that’s a good starter list. Probably a good list or any person posting here looking for other opinions in general. If you post those things, you will get some really insightful feedback.

Teachers are not only very sensitive to their own hearing loss, but very empathetic to other people’s difficulty communicating with them. That can also effect the fitting and programming of the hearing aids. I think people underestimate the value of lifestyle and mindset on how to fit a hearing aid, and also how to counsel about the why of a hearing aid. Why is it so annoying being the #1. Most people do a lot better with it being annoying when they understand why it is annoying for them.

In reply to @user62

@user62 said:

I don’t have a Costco nearby (it’s over an hour away)

Well that’s not far in the grand scheme of things, you get premium models to choose from with a 180 day trial period, and you won’t beat the prices, it could possibly save you thousands over all.
Your hearing loss isn’t anything unique and can be fit with just about any available on the market today.

@user62 said:

I hope to try the Phonak Audeo Lumity for its enhanced speech-recognition

Well that’s a pretty subjective opinion there, obviously you won’t know that until you actually try them, one thing to remember when choosing HAs is you should trial more then one brand if possible,as you mentioned Oticon, they to are another well liked brand here on the forum with plenty of opinions.
Phonak has the Roger accessories which have been around a very long time in the classroom, use the search button from right here on hearingtracker to find out more information on how they work for your situation, we have quite a few forum members using Roger. @Zebras @kevels55 @Psych1 are a few.

https://forum.hearingtracker.com/search?q=Phonak%20Roger

In reply to @user62

@user62 said:

At school, I’ve worn a Roger pen to assist a student, so Phonak seems like a good option.

Roger is so good! You can buy second hand Roger Microphones on eBay to make it cheaper.

You’ll just have to buy a brand new Roger iN Microphone to transfer the licenses into your Aids so the Roger works with your Aids.

Sometimes you can get Roger iN Microphones on eBay but most do not have the licenses installed back into the Roger iN Microphone so do confirm before you buy a second hand Roger iN Mic.

Phonak PDF on how to install and uninstall the receivers / licenses in to / out from a hearing aid from a Roger iN Microphone
Here’s a PDF which explains and shows clearly how to install and uninstall the receivers / licenses from a Roger iN Microphone. Also includes a You Tube Video of how to do it with a Roger On iN Microphone. [ - YouTube]

In reply to @tenkan

@tenkan said:

Well that’s not far in the grand scheme of things, you get premium models to choose from with a 180 day trial period, and you won’t beat the prices, it could possibly save you thousands over all.

@tenkan: I couldn’t agree more. An hour is nothing (unless you’re too decrepit to drive yourself safely and comfortably).

In reply to @SpudGunner

Hey Jim, the way I read this is that it’s not the audi who recommends buying online. My interpretation is that the poster will take the audi’s recommendation of the hearing aid choice (intended to be bought from the audi) but instead will use that recommendation and buy online instead to save money.

Edited

@Volusiano: Yes - I see that possibility now … Doh!(… I guess I was looking for in order to buy online. This hasn’t been a good week for me and semantics, MrV!))

My hearing loss started out very similar to yours about 18 years ago and since I have lost my high frequencies more than anything else. My recommendation is stay away from online hearing aid ordering, I did an online order for my first set of aids and it was a disaster. My recommendation is somehow find an audiologist with a doctors degree that you can trust and listen to the person. A cookie bite loss can be extremely difficult to work with. I have had aids about 18 years and it took almost two thirds of that time to get aids that truly worked for my needs.

Thanks for these further suggestions! I am working with a local audiologist, and I’ll see her again next week for the fitting. She has a degree and 20 years of experience. She’s also an alumna of the school where I teach, and she seemed really nice when she gave me the diagnosis. I believe she plans to use , but if not, I will ask for it.

As for my interest in Phonak, I watched a Dr. Cliff video reviewing the Phonak Lumity, and it appears to have improved speech recognition capability. That said, I’m open to all possibilities. And yes, I plan to try out several to find the best one for me before I buy. (I would buy online only to save money.) I would prefer a pair that has smartphone controls. I’m only GenX, with half of my career ahead of me.

I’ll definitely look into the Roger microphone. I believe that my school would be responsible for buying assistive devices for classroom use; I’ll ask HR.

Earlier today I called Costco; the nearest hearing aid center (about 70 minutes’ drive) has a single audiologist and the earliest available appointment is at the end of March. I wish it were otherwise, but this doesn’t seem like the best option. There are at least a dozen audiologists within a 15-20 minute drive.

I’ll do some more searching for cookie-biters on this forum. I only know two people with this type of hearing loss, and they’re family members. One of them delayed getting HAs until late in life and lost quite a bit of hearing. The other is going through this process with me but lives halfway across the country.

Again, many thanks for the feedback, suggestions, and links! I really appreciate feeling less isolated on this journey!

Keep in mind when you’re ordering online, that then you’ll need to purchase all services separately from your local audiologist and it’s possible that the price will end up the same at the end of the day.

Yeah @Neville, There are still places in the world where the odd freebe is common though, one of my local A.uD’s never charges me a dime, for programming, and fitting aids, aids bought elsewhere, I offer to pay, but they always refuse… So I give them artwork, by way of thanks. Messaging someone on here, they reliably informed me their local A.uD in the far east charges them the princely sum of 11$ an hour, for fitting aids not purchased with them, so there are heroes out there in the world, trying to help folks with a hearing disability, not every Audioligist is looking to make more money, some, probably thousands, are genuinely there to help… You do that with your time on here @Neville, for which I believe the vast majority of regulars are most grateful for your intelligent, and thoughtful input, I salute you sir :grin:… Cheers Kev :wink: A small anecdote here, some folks outside Scotland may wonder why I end my posts with the word cheers, the Gaelic words for Cheers, is “do dheagh shlainte” (usually followed by a large “Dram”of the water of life, whiskey) literal translation meaning is “to your good health”, I use the English abbreviation “Cheers”, but what I am actually saying is, to your good health… I hope that makes sense, Cheers Kev :grin:

In reply to @kevels55

Yes, my preference would be that all hearing aids services were covered by universal healthcare along with other necessary healthcare.

In so far as they are not, I think it’s inconsiderate for people to expect them for free, or to expect them for less than what they pay their chiropractor, contractor, or hair dresser.

Yeah @Neville, I am for my sins a dyed in the wool socialist… Unfortunately, socialism like capitalism doesn’t work, there is too much inequality, and greed in either system, but it is what it is… It would indeed be a beautiful world if all healthcare provision was free at point of service, it could be done, but there is an inherent “need for greed” in human nature, we always want more, even if we have plenty, perhaps a sad indictment to mankind, it is always the poor, the less fortunate, the sick, and those whom are afflicted with disabilities, who pay the price… I recall a former President of the USA saying, many years prior to his Presidency, “Taxes are for the poor”… He got that one right! Cheers Kev :wink:
My apologies in advance, rant over… :upside_down_face:

@kevels55 said:

Yeah @Neville, I am for my sins a dyed in the wool socialist…

Ha. Me too. Even though America is Canada’s nearest and dearest neighbour, this is an ideological area where I think Canada is really much closer to the UK.

Hello, how it is going with hearing aid? I’m in same situation like you, teacher too with very similar . I have bernafon zerena on trail, I don’t have a feeling they help me much with speech understanding.

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