Why I returned my Costco Rexton CIC hearing aids

Well, the hearing aids worked. My wife and grand kids all said you are not saying “huh” as much. I heard more birds and environmental sounds. I am not sure what adjustment could be done to make them better. I settled on the CIC ones because they had the least wind noise as I am outdoors most of the day. I found this on the web, and I think this captures what I was experiencing:

“When you begin to wear hearing aids, it takes your brain some time to get used to increased environmental sounds to the brain. After wearing them for a while, your brain gets used to the new and improved sound quality that hearing aids provide, and resets your normal or baseline hearing to the higher volume into account. Once you remove your hearing aids, sounds may be more dull or pitchy. This is not due to your hearing having worsened, but rather your brain’s perception of your new ability to hear crisp detail and what is happening in your environment.”

Okay I miss read some of it. I have been wearing aids for 20 years, I not only have my primary set of aids but also backup aids. I can’t understand conversations without my aids, without being able to read lips. I also can’t understand conversations come fully even with aids. I depot lip reading even with my aids. Even with my aids the odds of me knowing someone is speaking to me is 50/50 if they don’t get my attention first.
My aids go in my ears when I wake up and don’t get taken out until I either shower or go to bed. I have to have my hearing aids Bluetooth paired to my phone to hear phone calls, stream audiobooks, or listen to podcasts. Also stream the TV to my aids if there is something I want to watch and hear. I wear Mini Rite aids, receivers in the ear, I also have custom ear molds, I don’t have issues with wind noise, and I spend lots of time outdoors. I hike, and even ride a motorcycle with my aids on and functioning. It all depends on the aids, and how well the audiologist fits them to your needs.

The loss of the ability to hear normally without the hearing aids, which I do when I bicycle, hike, and kayak was the reason. Biking to my local coffee shop with no hearing aids I found that I could not understand the cashier as I used to lip read a lot of the conversation. And I was not hearing road noise around me correctly. On these activities I need just peace and quiet and not amplified sound as I am by myself. Then the final straw was that Costco charged me $2500 dollars for the Rexton and later I found out that Sony repackaged the same hearing aid for $1000 OTC. Now Costco did do my hearing test and gave me free domes and ear wax guards(I heard this might be changing now), but not worth $1500 in my opinion. And for $200 dollars I purchased Air-pods Pro 2nd generation and can use them in transparency mode by inputing my audiology graph. Streaming music is a dream with the Air-pods and watching TV and movies is just as good.

The Rexton’s that I got were the bare-bones version because I had already tried a behind the ear hearing aid with all the bells and whistles. None of the high end programming seemed to help me in understanding conversation. i.e. restaurants, driving, noisy environments. And the music streaming to them via Bluetooth was poor quality. And I hardly ever use my phone for voice conversation, always texting.

The price I’ve seen for Rextons at Costco is closer to $1500. For them to charge you $2500 doesn’t seem like something they would do. I’ll ask my local store about this. I reread your reasons and wonder if you have decided it is OK to not hear voices and continue reading lips. If true, you will not be satisfied with any HA, and will continue to say huh.

I’m nearly 80 and just this last year was told by my ENT doc that I needed HAs and that he had to raise his voice for me. When I heard this, my concern about my personal hearing loss was increased by my knowing of recent studies that linked hearing loss to dementia in older adults. I believe that not getting HAs to hear conversations and voices is dangerous. Think of what the original poster’s family has told him. Look at this study to confirm my message.

New Study Links Hearing Loss With Dementia in Older Adults | Johns Hopkins...11

Findings consistent with prior studies and highlight potential benefit of hearing aid use

This was what was posted in my Audiologic report:

“Word Recognition Testing (WRS) revealed a score of 84% at 80dBHL in the left ear, and a score of 84% at 80dBHL in the right ear. QuickSIN Speech-In-Noise testing was conducted today and indicated that the patient experiences moderate difficulty hearing in background noise in the left ear and moderate difficulty hearing in background noise in the right ear.” Not sure what you mean by “speech intelligibility” at about 34%.

Yes, my primary health care doctor brought this up. But he was more worried about my use of Nexium for acid reflux: “Prolonged use of acid reflux medications called proton pump inhibitors could increase the risk of dementia, a new study shows.” So, I am working on trying to wean myself off of Nexium.

Could your primary doc be more concerned about what he is prescribing that contributes to dementia? If you went to a highly credentialed private practice audiologist would he be more likely to emphasize your hearing loss causing dementia? Are both your hearing loss and your prescription cumulative and even more likely to harm you?

No picture of the Rexton, but it has to be a behind the ear type. Mine were completely in the canal using size 10 batteries.

I’m sure you had good reasons for choosing your RIC HAs, but I got BTEs. The attached article makes me think I made the right decision. I put price and hearing correction as my top priority. Streaming into the HAs was never considered.
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@user777 said:

The attached article

That article is confused and confusing. I hope it doesn’t reflect the quality of The Hearing Doctors’ in-person services.