Please help me get used to hearing aids!

@Xonic83 said:

If you want to try them out in a noisy place that’s fine, but do it in a situation where you maybe don’t have to talk to anyone so you don’t have that double stress. Go to a noisy cafe on your own, sit there and play with the HA’s. What settings help you? does the speech in noise help you? does turning them down a bit help you? just get a nice piece of cake and have some private time with the HA’s without anyone else bothering you.
Think of them as noisy children if it helps. You can’t just dum

Not necessarily. I have moderate to sever hearing loss in the higher frequencies, and I wear open domes. When I was fitted, I kept saying, “It sounds like I’m in barrel” until the audiologist switched to open domes. Much better. I don’t feel like I’m missing any of the high frequency gain I need. And she did real ear measurements. She actually turned down the gain slightly later on, as I complained about staticky noise in some situations. I’ve never had interference, except when I force it by cupping my hand over my ear.

The Jabra/ReSound app’s documentation is basically worthless. For example, in the “All Around” card there’s a button that is labeled, “Speech clarity”, What does that mean? Or there is a button for “Noise filter”, in both the “All Around” card and in the “Hear in Noise card”, are they the same function or different? I have played around with these for some time, and they don’t make any sense. The only thing they seem to do is adjust the tone controls.

Unfortunately, same with their partner CI company - Cochlear.

I had the custom ear molds, but everything sounded muffled like i was wearing ear plugs. I have another weird thing. If i push my hearing aid in all the way, my left Hearing aid, my upper jaw hurts on that side. Went to dentist and said everything looks good. So I’m at a loss why this’s happening. I have to pull my left HA out till it stops hurting my jaw…

I had similar issues with my first hearing aids recently, also the same brand and model you have. For me, the solution was a different make and model. I fired my audiologist because she insisted on fitting me with closed and I hate occlusion. Found a new audiologist and switched to Widex with open cones. They are much more gentle on my ears. The sound never hurts. Everybody has different needs and solutions but hopefully your audiologist can make some changes to help you. Just get used to it is a frustrating solution.

I kept going back until they got it almost right. Tried several types of ear pieces. even the one molded to my ear was not right and too occlusive,and I am using another type that works a bit better. I am beginning to think that no hearing aid yet will drown out the “noise” in a crowded room. I have to take my h.a.(s) out when I eat because they make my ears itch at that time. I’ve tried adjusting the app for my h.a.(s) but there is little change. They do work well for bluetooth listening to talk radio and I can now hear over the phone. I’ve been wearing h.a. for over 10 years and still waiting for that breakthrough when they work in noise. But do keep going back to audiology til it gets somewhat better or try a different audiologist. they are not all the same.

My wife and I both use HA. For TV use a TV adapter (Resound) and this is an excelent solution. My expereince is, that if two people both have hearing loss and only one have HA, then it is never going to work.

Although I’m far from a hearing expert, I have indeed wore hearing aids for many years. When I first started wearing them, I had forgotten what the sound of crickets and car turn signals was. This annoyed me and caused headaches and anxiety. Then, after many trials and tribulations, I finally found the right brand that worked for me (Phonak) throughout the years. Indeed, there’s been many adjustments along the way. Today, it’s still not perfect, but I’ll never forget what my audiologist told me a while back: “You wear hearing aids, but you’ve not been properly counseled / educated. Today, we will do that! It’s common for audiologists not to sit down and train their patients on proper wearing.”

Keep at it and ask your audi for counseling on wearing & proper programming.

@tlkraus1965 said:

a toilet flush would sound like Niagra Falls.

I went full strength day one. Toilets, sinks, a hundred other sounds were shocking. But I hung in there, and it paid off mostly in the first couple days. Some things took 6 months to a year to learn to ID, but I recommend taking the plunge and getting through it. Don’t pretend you know better how things should sound. Unless your hearing was normal until very recently and you suffered a sudden loss, your brain has been lying to you and you need to learn again.

WH

This is really powerful stuff. I’ve read a few posts describing some sounds as “tinny” or overbearing. I just got my first HA’s a month ago, and many sounds are unpleasant, while others give me a lot of satisfaction. The sweet chirping of birds, even plastic bags being wadded up in perfect clarity, makes me smile a bit. I only have mild hearing loss, but the sounds I have missed for 40 years will take time for me to get used to. Thank you for the reassurance that it’s normal to feel uncomfortable and sometimes overwhelmed with these new or newly sharp, clear sounds.

Have you considered trying another hearing aid like Oticon?

I used to wear Resound a decade ago and was wearing them for 7 years. I never got used to them being too loud and too noisy. I also couldn’t hear in noisy environments etc. They made fatigued at the end of the day and I was only too happy to rip them out at the end of the working day!

I then went onto Oticon and wore the Oticon Opn 1 for the last 7 years. The difference is unbelievable. I did have some issues with the Oticons - more to do with volume imbalance between the ears (right always sounded louder than left) etc.

As I need to replace my Oticon aids as they are 7 years old now, I have gone with a new audio this time (who is considerably better than the one that prescribed my old Oticon aids). I was trialing both the Oticon Intent and the Widex Allure. I am handing back the Widex Allure as to a large extent they seem very similar (albeit improved) to my old Resound. Everything (especially unwanted noise) is too loud, I couldn’t hear well in basically any environment, never mind noisy environments. I am keeping the Oticon, but will have some more tweaking done.

The Oticons are brilliant for clarity of speech, whilst allowing you to hear sound around you, but it’s not too loud and doesn’t intrude on speech - in the same way the Widex and my old Resounds did. The major downside of Oticon is that you lose the naturalness of sound (which Widex and Resound offer), because Oticon focus on the mid to high frequencies which are necessary for clarity of speech. I can hear amazingly well with Oticon even in a very noisy environment. Resound and Widex don’t hold a candle! Oticon have somehow managed to make it possible to hear all the background noises, but they don’t seem to intrude in the same way as other aids do. Largely I believe, because they are very conservative with boosting low frequencies.

If you are still in trial, I would recommend Oticon if lots of noise gives you trouble. I never could get used to Resound when I wore them. They were just too loud and too noisy.

I get a lot of value out of the diffs btwn these two programs. All-Around is just what it says. Designed for general situations, mostly at home. “Hear-in-Noise” narrows the ‘cone’ of pickup to right in front of you, dampening the side and back pickup. The two programs feel quite different–to me–and they should. I use the Hear-in-Noise to great advantage in a store–talking to a checkout person, etc. You should notice a real distinction. If you don’t, you need adjustment by your technician.
I wear Jabra/ReSounds.

I am wearing the Jabra Enhanced Pro 30s and find them an improvement over the 20s which I wore from December 2024 until May 2025. These are my first hearing aids so my observations are very limited. I sent an inquiry to Jabra’s support department, asking them if the DNN, (Deep Neural Network), function works when selecting any of the, “Hear in Noise”, card selections are selected, such as the button that says, “Noise filter, speech focus, or Hear everyone,” or selecting the focus cone in the “Sound Enhacer” area. Their and Resound’s documentation for the app, is essentially useless. Unfortunately, except for how to clean the hearing aids, all of their video and written documentation just sucks. Besides the issue of the patient documentation being horrible, the information they give the Hesring Aid specialists at Costco is just as bad. They get the same lousy documentation.

Additionally, The fact that my hearing aids can’t connect to my Windows PC, through Bluetooth is criminal. This morning, for example. I couldn’t get the audio from my laptop speakers to work. I had an MS Teams meeting coming up so I had to remove my hearing aids, plug in a $1.25 USD headset with microphone to attend the meeting. My $1,600 USD hearing aids can’t connect to Bluetooth. Microsoft is just as stupid, that they don’t include Bluetooth LE and Auracast in Windows 11, so my hearing aids couldn’t connect to my dumb PC while a very cheap headset can via an old headset plug. Also, while on the connectivity issue, Why do I have to turn off Bluetooth on my iPhone, and reconnect to the Jabra app, when going from my iPhone to my iPad? My former AirPods could do it seamlessly. Maybe Apple left that functionality out of MFi on purpose.

@Flyboybob said:

Microsoft is just as stupid, that they don’t include Bluetooth LE and Auracast in Windows 11,

IIRC, Windows 11 supports Bluetooth LE, after particular updates. There may be another topic about Bluetooth LE in Windows 11. For what I know, the PC must support LE from the hardware side, perhaps, your doesn’t have this.

The only hearing aids who supports TWO active Bluetooth (Classic) connections are Phonak’s from Paradise line to now. Maybe tha last generation of Signia too, but I’m not sure.