Question on behalf of someone i know

No complaints, I lost one of my aids, and it was replaced free of charge. If the NHS did supply smart aids, I think the demand would be too high, and something would have to give.

Not the case . You’ve won the post code lottery for service and lost for quality of aids supplied.
Members on here have had quality aids made by Phonak and Oticon supplied by the NHS.

I would think it depends on each individual NHS Trust. I don’t know where in the UK LRav lives, but her friend has the same aids as me. Can you tell me what aids you have Michael?

In truth, it is basically down to the NHS Audiologist, it all depends on your level of loss… Some Audi’s will get you aids, out of catalog, meaning outside their procurement list, if they believe these will be of benefit…I recall about 30 years ago, a brilliant NHS Audiologist buying me a set of CIC aids out of his own pocket, I wasn’t working at the time, nobody would employ me, he was giving me a leg up… Cheers Kev

@kevels55

I concur on the importance of the Audiologist. I had 2 fittings with the same NHS Audiologist, and I’m pretty zoned in, and observant. She said I was due new aids, so I was quite excited. I was happy with the Phonak Ventures (Nathos Auto), and only went in to get new impressions, as one of our dogs had eaten one! Thankfully, they’ve grown out of it now.

She did the standard hearing test + bone conduction, sat in the chair… no sound booth, but it was quiet. She then said, I’ll go and get your new aids and asked if I wanted battery or rechargeable. I’d bought Compilot II accessories for the Ventures, which included a streamer that went round my neck. She said “you’ll need the battery version then, as they have a telecoil”. While she was getting the aids, I took my old earmoulds off the others and put the aids on my pocket. She didn’t ask for them .

In conclusion, after 3 fitting appointments

The main Audiologist clearly had “some” product knowledge, and told me about the App and the 3 connections. She assumed the Compilot II worked via telecoil… it doesn’t. The Compilot system ended when Marvel was launched. She tried to palm me off with closed domes, rather than take impressions. I said I’ve had moulds since 2009. She said, these aids are “so much better now”. Just too many red flags for a decent fit. It’s such a shame, as Marvel M70 are an excellent aid.

Wow Kev, an Audiologist put up for some aids? That’s great, and he was right. You needed that leg up at the time. Your stories of the attempted glassings sounded scary. I prefer rough pubs, as the banter can be more real. Luckily, apart from a couple of slaps, I’ve avoided anything serious.

Cheers to you sir
Peter

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@Baltazard
On the 2nd visit, when I said I couldn’t hear words in the pub, they attempted a REM, but it wouldn’t connect, so the guy gave me an increase of 3dB across the board, which (as we all know) defeats the object.

@kevels55
My private Audiologist did a Word Recognition thing, which was interesting. I had headphones on and had to pick out the words of a woman talking in front of me, while 2 others were rabbiting on, on each side. He kept stopping and asking what the lady had said. It was like the pub, only with American women . I thought I’d done dreadfully, but he said it was near 80%.

Peter

Yes the 77 is for mild to severe.

77 would be okay if the Ambio has frequency lowering technology then it would be suitable for moderate to profound.

The person i know is now saying that after over a month or so of having this hearing aid that they are not finding it so helpful in a noisy situation anymore. They are saying it is sounding kind of fussy and hard to understand what is being said by who they are with if there are multiple sounds going on and if they turn the volume up it is to loud. Could it be the hearing aid is not quite right for there loss or if the set up is wrong and need’s adjusting? It’s fine in non noisy situations when there is minimal background noise. Also they have tinnitus and they say sometimes after wearing the hearing aid it makes their tinnitus louder. They were told that the place they first went to did not have the ability to do the tinnitus management so are waiting for an appointment at the tinnitus management clinic to help with that issue. If anyone could let me know what they think so as i can help advise them on what they need to do to get this sorted. Also forgot to mention that they where only given one hearing aid when going to the audiologist as they felt the other ear wasn’t bad enough to need aiding as it is a mild to moderately severe hearing loss and that it was up to them if they wanted a second hearing aid. Could it be they now are needing two hearing aids and that is why they have lost clarity? Or doe’s the hearing aid they have for the left ear need replacing with a different model or just adjusting to make things easier without having to adjust the volume?

A few things here:
Depending on the manufacturer (that info would help here), many use some form of beamforming to help in speech in noise environments. This won’t work with a single hearing aid. Moderately severe, especially if in the Tinnitus range would be definitely beneficial to have a second hearing aid, in my opinion.

If your friend has been turing the aids up a lot, the perceived increase in Tinnitus could be either real or just that wearing the aid masks some of it. Not sure on that, but I find turning them up doesn’t help as it turns ALL the frequencies up, not just what’s needed. Upwards masking can overpower the higher frequences.

Peter

Yeah @LRav as @Um_bongo says, that is a difficult hearing loss to fit… Because of the asymmetry! Personally, although my loss is totally different, I immediately notice if my poorer ear, (left) if the aid isn’t working or switched on, it will make a very noticeable difference to my word comprehension, 2 aids, in most instances, will always be better than one…Cheers Kev

They do, it’s called Sound Shaper on these.

Does it work well though?
I’ve got pretty severe loss myself and never felt the need to turn it on.

@LRav said:

They have been recently been turning the volume up to try and see if that helps with the lack of clarity but it’s just been two loud just turning it up a small amount
Moderate to profound hearing loss in the aided ear but the hearing aid they have been given is for mild to severe hearing loss. The unaided ear that they were told it didn’t need aiding at this point and left to decide if they want to be aided at some point down the line has a mild to moderately severe hearing loss.

Hi @LRav

I’ve worn hearing aids for 20 years now nearly and for a long time just kind of accepted what the audiologists did and said.

It was only 7 years ago when I moved to South Wales and ended up meeting the Chief Audiologist/Cochlear Expert as I have Otosclerosis in both ears so not your typical loss.

He did a lot more and set the aids up to suit my particular loss and after I had my stapadectomy, I had a terrible time with occlusion and he was the only one who could solve it.

South Wales also fit Danalogic hearing aids so I’ve learnt a lot about them over the years through him and self learning so hopefully I can help.

I’m assuming your acquaintance has had a REM performed when the NHS fitted the aids?

This is only a baseline to get started on though so it’s okay to deviate now based on performance.

Ignoring clarity for now, how does she find the overall volume and her own voice?

If it’s too loud in loud places then the loud gain (G80) may need reducing a bit.

Does she have more than one program mode on it?

There is a “Hear in Noise” mode where it changes the mics directional modes and will help in noisy environments

Check the level of noise reduction is set on her hearing aid?
This will have an impact on clarity if its too high.

She’ll need to ask as you can’t adjust this, however a DFS Feedback calibration should have been performed before fitment so in theory it should be fine.

But check that DFS II Manger isn’t set too high as in the past one audiologist insisted on turning it on max which just kills so much clarity as opposed to setting it to the minimum setting that you can comfortably get away with.

The audiologist I learnt a lot from generally shy’d away from the Sound Shaper (frequency compression) but some do find it useful where it compresses the higher frequencies into the lower ones.

If I think of anything else then I’ll let you know.

If they only have the Ambio and not Ambio Smart then I find it is far inferior aid in quality to the smart despite the similar specs beyond the bluetooth streaming and MFI functions.

Hope this helps.

@Urquell88 from what i know there was No REM carried out as it was done at a place called Scriven’s that operate a bit like Specsavers with NHS referrals. The person they saw did take a lot of time adjusting settings at the initial set up and fitting according to what was needed as the original set up was found to be way to loud and mould needed to have bits taken off for a comfortable fitting. They have one other program for when in restaurants no other program apart from the standard. Not sure about hear in noise mode or noise reduction i believe feedback has never been an issue and is fine. Just a general lack of clarity in noisy situations where voices become hard to make out what is said