Hearing aids and that hollow sound of voice

There are some choices to deal with own voice issues. One is to simply ask to have the gain turned down. However that has some obvious disadvantages, such as not hearing as well when others are speaking. Another is to ask for a more open fitting if you are using a closed fitting. A more open fitting does not trap the sound in your ear as much and reduces the own voice issues. The downside of that is that more noise gets in and competes with the directionally selected sound that your hearing aids produce. So, again speech recognition goes down. Another option as cvkemp suggests is to just wait it out and hope your mind adjusts to your new voice.

The option that is working for me and is different again is the Signia (Rexton & Kirkland Signature) Own Voice Processing (OVP). The hearing aid is trained to recognize your own voice and turn down gain only when you are speaking. It does really seem to work. I use the Costco Kirkland Signature KS8 version and when the HA’s have been trained and turned on, it does make a difference. The other benefit of having the OVP is that the HA can use it along with your smart phone to detect if you are talking or moving, to assist in the classification of situations that the Automatic system they call 3D Classifier uses to adjust your HA. That does seem to work as well. The good news is that you can get this technology with at a good price at Costco without having to buy the much more expensive Signia and Rexton brand named HA’s. Some links to check out.

Signia Own Voice Processing46

Own Voice Processing II13

Signia 3D Classifier6

Hope that helps some.

I have the fitted closed fittings. I also wear a Cros in one ear. Cros works find.

I’m trying Phonak Audeo B90:10 and trying Widex Evoke 440 Fusion and it has no programs for a Cros, Hum, another dis advantage. So far the Phonak has programs that work good, but still the hollowness sound, maybe I get used to it, but how long?

You need to a hearing tracker that gives you a best quality of sound as according to your ear.

Typically your own voice will normalize over the course of a couple of weeks, that is if you are wearing the hearing aids full time.

There are two things that contribute to this, one is that you are hearing your voice closer to the way it sounded when your hearing was normal.

The second is that digital hearing aids have a processing delay. 12 to 15 thousandths of a second that it takes to get the sound in as an analog signal, convert it to digital, rearrange it in a way that works better for you, then converting it back to analog.

The deeper parts of your voice vibrate the bones in your head and stimulate the inner ear directly with this vibration, then just a split second later, the sound comes through the hearing aid. Most people describe it as an echo sort of effect, but usually it is gone within a couple weeks. It’s still there, your brain just acclimates to it.

Good luck.

Yes, the sound is like ears plugged. Yes, occlusion and I don’t like it one bit. I have to have closed fittings. eric.cobb answered it in detail.

That if interesting that your hearing became profound after wearing them sporadically, good answer.

I was told before getting my first set of hearing aids not to bother if I wasn’t going to wear them all day everyday. So yes I did struggle with them and seemed to live at the Audi office. But as learned to hear the sounds again and the aids were set up correctly I was getting use to them. They were not even bearable at first and I got headaches and was really irritable for up to 6 months. But I managed to keep wearing them. About 15 months after I bought and paid for my first aids. I was given hearing aids by the VA and they were so much better. And didn’t take very long to get adjusted and I adjusted to them fairly quickly.
It takes patience and it takes being really committed to wearing them.

Get cognitive some help. I allude to my hearing loss as now being profound.

Well, when my husband blasts his music that’s when I need a lower volume, Ha. Or I have to leave the room.

I have fit hearing aids for 24 years, and have never met anyone who wore hearing aids part time that was at all happy with them.

If one wears hearing aids part time, every time they put them on, their brain and ears have to start over getting acclimated to them, and that never comes.

More importantly, not wearing hearing aids full time allows one’s speech discrimination to plummet because hearing aids are as much about preserving the ears and the hearing centers of the brain for the future as they are about helping one hear better today.

I fit someone a couple months ago who got hearing aids a little over four years ago, and wore them to church, to the store, and to family gatherings etc. Their data log showed an average of less than an hour daily since they started.

When they were fit four years prior, their speech discrimination was 76%R, 84%L. When I retested to fit with new instruments, 40%R, 44%L Forty percent drop in the ability to distinguish and clearly identify words over four years.

When my audi does speech discrimination it’s always without hearing aids in ears. It sound like you do speech discrimination with hearing aids in ears, did I get that right?

It’s been six weeks on trial with Phonak’s and I’m still not used to the echo sound in my ear, should it take longer? I wear all day. Should I choose another program?