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Time to call it a day?

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I’ve been thinking a lot about my hearing loss and as various audiologists have not been able to make improvements with regard to the metallic/harsh sound of the Phonak Sphere hearing aids for a long time now, I am beginning to wonder if it is time to give up. I have lost count of the number of times that my domes have been changed from vented to closed neither of which has made any kind of improvement. Despite trying the various programmes on the MyPhonak app, this remains a real problem for me; my experience today in a restaurant has made me start thinking seriously about this. I have moderate hearing loss and the speech in noise test rated this as severe. I have invested a great deal of time, effort and money on hearing aids etc and I haven’t got much out of this; today’s experience was almost the final straw and I have now seriously started thinking about whether it is worth carrying on with this. Are the audiologists taking me for a ride and what do people think?

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What about custom ear molds. I wear the Spheres and they sound great. I have been wearing aids for 20 years. The Spheres are my first time wearing Phonak aids. I have always worn aids with custom ear molds, as I found domes to be terrible sounding.

Hi Judi, are you able to post your to the forum? This is a graphical picture of your hearing loss in each ear that your audiologist can supply to you when requested. Once this is posted to this forum, readers will have an assessment of the characteristics of your hearing loss and can give advice.

In reply to @Judi_L

@Judi_L said:

By the way how do I attach the audiogram ?

Select your avatar icon.

The list of icons down the right side of the page, select the person looking icon on the bottom.

Then select preferences.

There you will see my . There you can add your hearing loss for each ear and each frequency.

This is on my android phone. It might be a little different on other devices.

In reply to @Judi_L

@Judi_L said:

. By the way how do I attach the audiogram

click on your green J at the top of the screen, then on profile (last icon at the bottom) then preferences then on the Green button and enter the audiogram numbers

You shouldn’t give up, but it may be near time to consider switching audiologists. What is your return period? If it’s getting close, express your frustration to the audiologist and say that unless they can extend the return period you’d like to return them.

@Judi_L, didn’t you see my last response for you several days ago ? IIRC, you have written you didn’t have after last changing of of acoustic coupling?

It seem, that after changing, your fitting haven’t been verified and properly adjusted according to it.

Phonak Sphere I90, constant tinny, sharpness sound
That may be a source of problem. Closed earmolds are generally narrower (because no vent takes space), ao it probably fit deeper in ear canal, so less volume of it remains between earmold tip amd the eardrum. Due to the Boyle’s law, less volume adds additional few dB of “free” gains. Perhaps there is a source of problem You simply require new REM after changing of acoustic coupling, e. g. earmolds.

Thanks Bimodal_user,

When I saw the audiologist last week, and she changed the vented domes for the closed ones, I asked for a test which she carried out.

In reply to @MDB

Thank you MDB. The return period has passed and I will see what the audiologist suggests about custom molds.
I am in the UK and don’t want to go down the NHS route, as the waiting list is probably horrendous. I suppose that it is an option though. I think as someone has suggested it might be time to find a new audiologist, but it all seems a bit hit or miss.

Depending on your hearing loss you might also benefit from ActiveVent receivers. I would ask the audiologist about them.

In reply to @Judi_L

@Judi_L said:

What difference did custom made domes make for you?

Custom molds (they aren’t domes, mine are metal pieces shaped like the inside of part of my ear canal) help block out what you don’t want to hear (like restaurant noise) while allowing maximum amplification because feedback is reduced. The venting can be sized just to what you need to get both the amplification you need while avoiding the sense of occlusion. They are more comfortable than domes. Mine are less likely to come out. I also use activevents that someone else has mentioned. Some love them, some hate them. They open in some programs to let lower freqs in, while closing in other programs like streaming and loud noise to keep the noise out.

Hope this helps!

WH

You are in a position we see too often on the forum. Too bad you didn’t get here a little sooner to get ahead of the return period. Lots of good help here.

As mentioned, don’t give up. You have lots of options still open. Start taking notes on what you learn here. Also take notes on your hearing experience with those new aids. Include the environment you are in at the time you describe. Take these notes to your fitter. Hopefully this will help you two become a team to work things out.

Good luck with this. Hang in there

In reply to @Judi_L

I live in Portugal and share your frustration with getting good help for aids. I finally got an on my new Oticon Intent purchased last June, and it was their first time doing the test, it was terrible experience and I had to them put back to original settings. Then there were all kinds of strange warblings and odd vibration sounds, so they had another audiologist come in from Lisbon, plus changed receivers…she did another REM which was incredibly painful, and we could hardly finish it. The aids are still strange - I have worn aids for 25 years….My new plan is to go to a hearing clinic in London. Once i get established there I can work remotely with them (assuming they are as good as their web pages make then out to be)…It might be worth it for you to go to another city.

Thank you marf for your response. I am sorry to hear that your experience was so bad and that you have so many problems with your aids. In my experience the REM should not be painful at all, I see that you are planning to go to a hearing clinic in London - I know we can’t advertise but have you found one yet? I live in London and am currently with one there but am having some doubts about them as you may have seen from my earlier posts. As you say, it all depends on how glossy etc their web pages are. It’s incredible that your aids still feel strange, especially after 25 years. I’m beginning to realise how difficult it is to get good hearing aids help. I didn’t expect to spend my life running around after audiologists to fix a problem only to find that they haven’t.

In reply to @Raudrive

Hi Raudrive, Yes, it was a pity that I didn’t take more notice of the timing, but lesson well learned. I’ve started taking notes on what I read here, and what happens in different environments. I’ve learned from here that the Roger ON3 which I have, doesn’t work in noisy environments; now it is very likely that I haven’t really sorted out the tecchie for speech in restaurants on the MyPhone app. I really don’t want to have to spend time, when meeting with friends to be constantly fiddling about with the MyPhone app. Given my experience to date, I can fully sympathise with people who just put their hearing aids into the back of a drawer and forget about them. Not saying that I am there yet, but coming close :disappointed_face:

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