Old ears and hearing aids

[dosmalo]

According to my wife Pam, her hearing loss is 'congenital' which I suppose could be genetic also. She claims that it became very noticeable to her by the age of 13 and became progressively worse from there until she was fitted for her 1st pair of hearing aids in her 30s.
She was in her 40s when we met and I would have never guessed she had them because she wears her hair long. When we started dating before we married she sat me down and revealed her secret but it weren't no biggie to me.
She has always been very discrete about it at work for fear of being discriminated against and I can certainly understand that.
The great thing about the new Oticons is that now she can hear what is being whispered down the hallway and around the corner from where her desk is. LOL!

 

[cason]

Bruce,
I have moderate upper frequency hearing loss and have been using Oticon Intiga aids for several years. I've been very happy with them. I have several suggestions. Do web research on the several brands- Oticon, Phonac, Seimans, etc.
Find an audiologist who represents several brands, one who will allow a home trial before purchasing. This is a major investment - probably in the neighborhood of $5000 for a pair. Check out web forums for hearing aids- there are several. Learn what you can from others experiences.
Good luck in your search.
Bob

 

[mbose]

Hi Bruce,

Some very good suggestions have already been made, especially about finding an audiologist. I got my first hearing aids about 7 years ago. Here are a few more thoughts.

1. Try to find an audiologist that is conveniently located and has hours that agree with your schedule. There are a vast number of settings on modern hearing aids, and getting the best configuration for you involves some trial and error. (Sometimes a lot of trial and error.) I purchased the equipment to self-program my previous set of hearing aids, but that is not practical in most cases and it means you will be going back to the audiologist repeatedly. That is, unless it's not convenient for you to go back, which is the reason a lot of people wind up not wearing their hearing aids after spending so much on them.

2. Check out hearingaidforums.com. A similar community to AK, with a lot of very helpful users. Search for music and musicians as there are many threads.

3. How satisfied you will be regarding music depends on your specific hearing loss. You will be given a graph that indicates how much hearing you have lost at different frequencies in each ear. Here is an example:

Freq - 250 - 500 - 750 - 1k - 2k - 3k - 4k - 6k - 8k
-- R -- 10 -- 10 -- 05 – 05 - 35 - 55 - 65 - 80 - 80
-- L -- 10 -- 10 -- 05 – 05 - 40 - 60 - 70 - 85 – 85

This chart shows a sharp loss beginning at 1500Hz. It drops fast with a loss of 35 db at 2K. Ideally, the person with this chart would like to hear balanced high frequencies, but what makes this impossible is that the hearing range of 750-1,000Hz, within the mid-range, is 30 -50 db louder without the help of aids!

Hopefully your chart will look better than this. But if it doesn't, you may find that hearing aids will help you in many ways, but possibly not with music. One point my audiologist makes is that even if we were able to increase the 2-3K range by 35-55 db that does not mean we should. The additional hearing damage caused by the extremely high dbs would be significant.

Regards,
Michael

 

[hnash53]

They made a huge difference for me in listening to music. I've long lost the high frequencies and these hearing aids brought back much (not all)... but much of the highs back for me. Wish I'd gotten them even sooner.

I wear the behind-the-ear type. Hardly noticeable. And I would encourage you, if you are concerned about "appearances," don't be. Do this for yourself. People don't notice I'm wearing them.

 

[mbose]

I agree with hnash53, and please don't take my comments as discouragement. It costs little to investigate your options, and is definitely worth the effort.