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Adjusting to new aids. What’s normal?

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So I just got my new pair of Infinio Spheres replacing my almost 7-year old Widex Beyonds. So far I am hearing much more and generally better than I was. My hearing loss has progressed and it was clear I needed a boost in power in addition to benefiting from advances in technology. However, there are a few issues I am encountering and I am wondering which ones are normal parts of adjusting to new aids (and therefore can expect to diminish as I adapt), and which ones are likely to need actual fitting adjustments. In part this is because a lot of variables have changed since I was initially fit with my last pair (Widex to Phonak, to power domes, M to P receivers, another 20db of loss basically across the board). But also this is only my second pair of hearing aids so I haven’t gone through an adjustment period like this since originally becoming a hearing aid wearer.

  1. I am experiencing significant but intermittent occlusion in my left ear only. This is my first time using power domes (I was in single-vent closed domes in my Widexes) and at times I get significant booming etc. It doesn’t seem consistent and I think the insertion position and depth of the dome seems to influence it, but it is pretty uncomfortable when it occurs. Will I adapt to this? Should I immediately consider a custom mold (which I discussed with my audiologist) because it’s unlikely to improve?

  2. I drove at highway speeds yesterday and my left aid was producing a rather severe roaring noise from the and car noise. Is this just me hearing better or is it due to the occlusion or something else? I could mostly mitigate this by editing the speech in car setting to max noise reduction in the myphonak app but at default settings it was quite unpleasant.

  3. At first fitting I was getting a lot of crackling noises at the start and ends of words. My Audi dropped the high frequencies way down below what and the prescribed fitting called for to address this. We made significant progress but there is still some when the volume goes up, especially with my own voice. Again, will I likely adapt to this or should this require more tuning? My Audi was concerned about dropping the gains much further.

Any advice or input is appreciated!

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  1. No. Yes. You may be able to get rid of it for now just by snipping a bit of venting into the outter flange of the power dome. Often just one straight line snip will do it.

  2. Yes, this is probably the same problem as #1. Especially if you are getting unstable gain from that power dome the low frequency gain might be randomly getting a boost that your clinician did not intend when setting them.

  3. Could your clinician hear the crackling? This could be a few things, but if the clinician can hear it it probably won’t adapt out and if they can’t then in might.

Thanks for the helpful info. Sounds like first step is getting back in for some molds, which I was expecting.

I don’t think my audiologist could hear the crackling and it is much better than it initially was so I’ll see if it gets better and if not mention it when I go back in.

LoonE, I’m delighted that you have made the canyon leap from Widex to Phonak, to power domes and M to P receivers. WOW, that is indeed a significant change that can impact how you’re hearing things.

Neville nailed all the technical points in your 3 observations, so I will only comment as a user of Phonak Lumity Life aids myself, and how I can relate to what you’re experiencing/hearing:

  1. The occlusion could be the fit or seal of the power dome, cuz if I push one of my power domes in TOO far, I get the same sensation. I agree with your sense that it could be related to the position and depth of the dome inside your ear canal. Custom molds won’t have the wiggly play that soft silicone power domes have. This is a plus and minus. You may find the occlusion goes away, but if your ear canals swell UP and DOWN throughout the day, that can also be annoying! I’d get sore ears from shoving my custom molds IN, but later in the day, there could be squeaky feedback from baggy fit. So I like the flexibility of the power dome.

  2. It seems you could not only play around with domes, but how about the bass setting on your aids? They don’t necessarily have to be identical settings for BOTH aids, so maybe your audi could finesse the sound quality in the LEFT aid by tinkering with settings.

  3. Ah, the crackling! I may have had a similar experience when I picked up my new Lumity Life aids right after they were set up following and all the other test indicators per my and word comprehension. They sounded HORRIBLE! But every single pair of aids I’ve ever gotten have had the same “first-date” failure! My audi and the visiting audi who were present at my “reveal” both gaped with disbelief as I described how harsh, flat, utterly lacking in any richness of sound AND how in particular, speech sounded like a crisp SLAP at the end of every single word. Painful to hear and impossible to comprehend.

After a couple more follow-on visits, we ended up copy/pasting the settings from my Phonak Marvel aids to the new Lumity Life. You can probably not do that if it’s cross-brand from Widex to Phonak, but the better you can articulate what you LIKE and what is intolerable about the new Spheres, the better the fitting will be. It’s a process. Typically takes me 4 visits to get things 95+% there. If I was a DIYer, I’d tinker more, but I’m not.

Good luck to you in this new journey with BETTER aids! I hope you get the settings and programs to your nuanced preferences. Keep us posted.

Thanks for those words and thoughts. Very helpful. I’m definitely excited about the positives so far, and optimistic the issues will get worked out!

I went in last week to get the impressions made, so have a follow up visit in 1.5 weeks to get them. Am assuming I will have a small vent given my low frequency loss but am not sure exactly what yet. In the meantime I’ve figured out a few tricks to improve my experience with the power domes, but am still looking forward to trying life with the molds.

It actually was verified again during fitting and at this point corroborates many years of done by many different audiologists (and now my iPhone!) just with a progressive worsening over the years. It is a bit of a strange loss but I guess consistent with otosclerosis (which based on family history is what I have).

It’s complicated… Possibly, although I have some additional “structural” issues in my inner ear that my advised could increase the risk of complication from surgery and has advised against as long as I can manage with hearing aids, or until more research comes out.

@Neville said:

I think there’s something odd going on with the new forum.

I think you are correct.

I just looked in preferences and my and as I don’t have values for 750 Hz and 1500 Hz they are shown as blanks. But when I save and see the graph it shows 0 for those two frequencies. One would hope it would just ignore frequencies with no data or interpolate a value based on the closest frequencies for which there is data.

Yes, so not such a strange hearing loss and very consistent with otosclerosis. Good solid custom tips on power receivers should help.

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