Some questions on hearing aids...

amalis

Hi all,
I got my HA yesterday. It is Phonak Naida BTE. It is quite visible, or it seems so for now. Well, my first impression is a bit dissapointing because yes, everything seems more loud, but it is not making difference to my life. I expected that I will hear the world of sounds I did not hear before, that it will transform my life, etc..But it did not. When I got them, I came home and put my HA, expecting to have some type of audio shock, but nothing happened. Yes some sounds are louder and more annoying then I expected, but they are not important in life (like microwwe, light switch...), I even went outside for a walk and again..nothing new. I am not sure that it is worth it. The only thing is that I am living alone at the mo, and still haven't tried communicating with humans :-)
Also, I feel that HA are not fitted right, they are falling from my ears all the time :-)

I-Owe-You

Hello OP! (& fellow MSEs!) Apols in advance for the long post…

I too suffer with degenerative severe-profound bilateral deafness (sensorineural), I am 24 years old… and was diagnosed with hearing loss unexpectedly at 19 after noticing I was having difficulties understanding people whilst at work. My hearing has deteriorated somewhat since my diagnosis, and I have also recently been diagnosed with Meniere’s disease (a balance disorder of the inner ear) so if it’s any consolation I can empathise with you completely.

You can imagine my horror as a vain teenager when my ENT doctor declared after studying my first ever audiogram that I was actually deaf, and that I would need to wear these scary looking monstrosities over my ears in order to better hear!

I went for the mould fitting & after a month or so was given these (in my opinion at the time) ugly looking contraptions that I was expected to happily walk around in. I (stupidly) thought hearing aids were for old people (my only experience of someone with hearing loss prior was my great aunt who was in her 90s!) I was adamant people were looking at my ears and sniggering, & was extremely self conscious and paranoid about wearing them – particularly at work (I was a junior receptionist at the time in a snazzy media-type firm, where everyone looked the part & I felt ugly and so different because of my hearing aids)

Anyway, after a few months of consistent moaning about these NHS BTE aids, (& perhaps a few porkies about how I wasn’t getting on with them…not true, of course!) I was in the very fortunate position that my parents kindly agreed to save up the money to purchase me a pair of in the ear aids privately…(£1200 for both, and various costs for upkeep when they were out of warranty!) But I didn’t care about the price - fabulous I thought! Teeny-tiny aids that were a fleshy discrete colour that no one could see unless they looked very closely...I was relieved to not look different amongst my friends anymore…

I no longer wear these ITE aids, and I’ll tell you why…

• There is no T switch for loop induction (on my ones anyway) – just basic on, and off… super annoying if I’m in the post office, cinema, bank, etc… defeats the object of wearing hearing aids if they don’t “aid” you!
• The discreteness actually caused more problems in the long run – because it was no longer obvious I was wearing aids, strangers and even work colleagues continued to treat me as a “normal hearer” because it was understandably easily forgotten I had a hearing disability. There was no longer a visual reminder for people to enable them to make reasonable adjustments when communicating with me….so I was getting spoken to from inside cupboards, with hands over mouths, and shouted at across rooms etc… a nightmare for someone who is hard of hearing!!
• The batteries were not available on the NHS and were therefore quite costly…not a massive expense, but still one I could do without.
• Any problems and the aids would always have to be sent off for around 6 weeks to be repaired as my local PCT could not fix them for me. (Difficult if you are expected at work everyday, but are fully dependant on these aids to communicate!)
• Same applied for re-tunage… where my hearing is degenerative, I needed them to be constantly re-tuned, they would need to be sent off with my audiogram to be re-programmed once every 6-8 months or so.
• The times I’ve also forgotten myself and got into the shower, or gone to go swimming with them on…! My parents weren’t best pleased when I explained on so many occasions why one of my aids wasn’t working, and why it needed to be sent off for repair…oops!

I actually prefer the NHS BTE ones to the ITE ones now (of course I still wear my ITE ones for parties/weddings etc…or if I’m out clubbing with my friends & want my hair up!) but generally the NHS BTE aids do the trick just fine & are much better suitable for everyday life! I can make people aware visually that I am deaf when using these, and people generally respond better by behaving appropriately around me.

In my opinion my NHS BTE aids are quiet modern and fairly discrete anyway, I think they have improved so much since I was first diagnosed – that was only 5 years ago – so who knows what they’ll come up with in another 5 years!?

This is just my opinion….I know how difficult it can be living with hearing loss. I hope you find the hearing aids best suitable for you, and wish you well! xxx

salsarla

hey good post, alot of information there! Im looking to get some cic aids at the moment, only problems im thinking about are how many times they will have to get repaired and also how much the batteries will cost, but the trial they give you is a good idea as well.

Hear-Hear

Salsara,

Think very very carefully before committing to CIC hearing aids. They sit very deep in the ear canal, and are therefore much more prone to wax ingress and moisture and/or heat damage. So, you will face regular service/repair bills, and equally regular periods of being without them. More importantly, you lose a lot of functionality on CIC aids - such as no Telecoil, very small size '10' batteries that need changing every 6-10 days in view of their small capacity, and crucially if you want to hear in noisier situations, CIC's cannnot be built with Directional Microphones. On the other hand, if cosmetics is a concern that over-rides all of the above, then CIC'c it will have to be.

Have you looked at the much more popular ITC size? Only a marginal difference in cosmetic appeal, but a massive leap in functionality and reliability. Same applies to Open-Ear (which can look even better cosmetically than CIC). Discuss again with your audiologist, and seek at least one second opinion from an alternative supplier, before you commit to anything. You would always shop around at least 2 places for 'major' electronics purchases, wouldn't you?

salsarla

well i am looking at getting some cic ones from specsavers, i dont think open fits are suitable for my loss but maybe the ric might be ok, the cosmetic appeal does sort of override all of the other factors so it looks like i will be sticking with cic but i do have a months trial incase i change my mind.

one thing that is on my mind is the repairing issue, how often do cic aids require a repair? and how long would i have to wait each time? thats kinda a problem if you require them all the time like stated earlier.

btw i have already been to both boots and specsavers, so i have done quite a bit of research as well.

Hear-Hear

Firstly, it's clear that you have done some research, which is great. You may have noticed in other threads that I regularly trot out the phrase "shop around and seek a second opinion". FWIW, I reckon the reputations of Boots and Specsavers make them the best two to compare, as well as the fact that they are both in most towns. And that's exactly what you have done.

I don't know your readings, but you have obviously been told by both Boots and Specsavers that open fits may be unsuitable for you. RIC's can fit a much bigger range of hearing losses, and are certainly worth looking at. They are likely to smaller than the equivalent Open-Fit, cos the Receiver itself is no longer taking up room in the casing.

Personally, I think the RIC is a lot more cosmetically appealling than the CIC, as there's hardly anything to see in the ear, even if you are looking sideways at the wearer. Sure, the thin wire is there, but it's not really much thicker than cotton, and certainly almost invisible compared to an old-fashioned tubing + earmould. Why not ask your audiologist to 'model' a dummy CIC in his/her Left ear and at the same time a dummy RIC in the Right ear ? I think you will be quite surprised.

Repairs for CIC's. Now there's a question! Expect it to be away for repairs at least once a year if not two or three. And expect them to break down just a few days before your holiday, the week of a family wedding, just before the Christmas shutdown, etc, etc. Repairs usually have a turnaround of 5 to 14 days at a time. Oh goodness... it looks like I am trying to dissuade you here. Take your audiologist's advice. He/she is best placed to know your specific circumstances.

But do please keep us posted....

Errata

Hear Hear, that reads like very useful advice from you. Would it be possible for you to post links in your messages, for those who will have no idea what RIC, CIC, and Open Fit means ? and would find your information very helpful if they did ?

Hear-Hear

Errata

Well, looking at the two firms mentioned above, here are the links to the images you wanted. The Specsavers site shows all styles including RIC, the Boots one shows all styles except for the RIC for some reason:-

http://www.specsavers.co.uk/hearing/hearing-aids/product-range/

http://www.davidormerod.co.uk/cosmetic_styles.aspx

Both links have pretty good pictures of the fitting styles, and both show them in situ and out of the ear. The in situ ones are a wee bit like glasses - you see it modelled on a real person, but it's how it looks on you that is important.

jaxxy00

Just wanted to add for the lady who will be getting a new aid fitted. I was 37 last july when i got mine and thought 'im not old enough' for a hearing aid. Ive always had problems with my ears since a child and remember having to blow balloons up with my nose with one of those adaptor things (did anyone else ever have to do this years ago?).

Anyway, when sitting in the room and having it first fitted in my ear, i remember very clearly my shock at being able to hear the audiologist turn the pages of the booklet that he was going through with me. I was amazed at the difference it has made to my hearing. I have one siemens reflex m and may have to have another for the other ear. When walking down the hospital corridor on the way home, i could hear peoples footsteps. It was like 'oh wow!!' and the more different situations i found myself in the more i realised all the sounds i had been missing out on. Another shock was when i flushed the toilet, it sounded like a waterfall flood!! To start with i would wear it now and again (as i didnt really want to admit i needed a hearing aid and didnt want to risk people seeing it) but now its in from first thing in the morning till i go to bed at night.

Other half and the kids are happy too as they dont keep having to put up with the tv blasting out as i can hear it now. I would keep notching the sound up and when they said it was too loud i would still be straining to hear it.

Miss_Penny_Pincher_2

salsarla - access to work offered me private in ear hearing aids! This was 5 years ago now though. I explained to them that I had difficulty hearing in meetings and they offered to pay for private hearing aids. I hadn't even considered them before ATW mentioned it. Only problem was I had to get a letter from my NHS audiologist saying that the private hearing aid would be better and he refused as he said that they wouldn't give better sound than the NHS ones!

The hearing aids I use are Oticon Spirit 3 BTE. I'm happy with them but have long hair and always wear it down to cover them up. It tends to take people a while to notice but several people have said that they realised I was hard of hearing as they caught sight of them. For some reason I don't mind that but I can never wear my hair up. Wish I was more confident!