Hearing Aids

[MontmorencyTT]

Don't they all have volume controls then?

Mine don't.

I'd assumed they would have.

You'd think, wouldn't you.
They don't even have an "off" switch. To turn them off, you have to sort of half pull the batteries out, and mine always fall out inside the box. (However, a friend of mine's expensive private ones are the same in this respect).

Mine are NHS, and modern, discreet and digital and all, and I hate them.

They have a program control switch, and I currently have 3 programmes:

1. "normal"
2. supposed to eliminate background noise (e.g. in noisy pub) - doesn't work.
3. (one I asked for) - to hear people better at a distance, e.g. in meetings (helps a bit).


The main problem I have with them is that they simply don't help me with the situations I find most difficult (which is when you need them), which are mainly:

1. hearing people with soft voices (I seem to know a lot of those, including my wife ...)
2. Anytime there is serious background noise

They do however do a fine job of amplifying intrusive background sounds that I don't want to hear, traffic noises, sudden bangs etc (despite what I've seen written in some postings above).

They also distort some voices (perhaps I know a lot of people who are secretly aliens).

I don't want to put you off, but be aware, they are no panacea.
However, you may be luckier than I was.

I should say that my hearing aids were for hearing loss, and tinnitus didn't really come into it. I'm at the stage where hearing loss is much more of a problem to me than tinnitus ever was (over more than 20 years).

However, because of various developments, I am shortly getting some new ones, and I believe these have a volume control. We will see...

 

[Quentino]

Hearing aids probably lead to overstrain of the ear. Has this thread discussed this article?

http://www.lumomed.de/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=57&Itemid=65&lang=en

hum... from mens whk recommend to use laser to '' regenerate '' ear cells... this is incredibly surpising.

Of course it seems to be a good choice to not use HA always if you are always in loud environments.
But the only source the article you show is at the down of the webpage : dr Wilden...
So i'm very open minded but here... it seems it's mostly wriiten to sell this laser ''treatment''

Wilden and his son seem pretty adamant about hearing aids being shit.

They also seem pretty adamant about the success of their treatment.... a treatment not scientificaly proved.

@MontmorencyTT , i hope your new HA will provide you relief... for what i know the quality of sound really change from one aid to another.

 

[cowdodge]

I'm sitting here with my zen hearing aids on trying to drown out a high squeal that my tennitus is making. They do help but not completely. I feel as though I'm becoming a robot with my hearing aids as I put them on first thing in the morning and usually last thing at night. Beside the hearing aids I take two zanics pill a day and two oxicotine pills. They really help but I'm very carefull not to over due with the pills.

 

[Quentino]

I feel as though I'm becoming a robot with my hearing aids as I put them on first thing in the morning and usually last thing at night. B

You should not. Think about it like putting glasses. Do not dramatize and see the good aspects!

 

[Tamika]

Apologies if this question has been covered elsewhere on this forum that I have not found - and if so please redirect me.
I'd like to find out what is the highest frequency range that most hearing aids go to? Do most only go as high as required for speech range 6,000 Hz or do some go higher to 8,000 or 10,000?
Any responses most appreciated.

 

[Tamika]

I'm sitting here with my zen hearing aids on trying to drown out a high squeal that my tennitus is making. They do help but not completely.

Hi Cowdodge. Do you know what the frequency of your T is?

 

[Danny Boy]

Please do not regret not having hearing loss.
I know tinnitus is no fun, but neither is hearing loss when it starts getting serious.

Enjoy your hearing while it lasts (and I hope it lasts as long as you do).

I won't regret it! Thanks for the advice and you're right, I should be glad that my hearing is perfect. Just annoying that I have tinnitus and I worry about it getting worse when my hearing gets to a point where it's diminished.

 

[Dubinvero]

Most hearing aids do not go much above 7,500Hz. I own the Siemens Micon Pure 7's which go up to 12,000Hz. They also have tinnitus masking up to 12,000 Hz.

 

[Tamika]

Most hearing aids do not go much above 7,500Hz. I own the Siemens Micon Pure 7's which go up to 12,000Hz. They also have tinnitus masking up to 12,000 Hz.

Thank you for that information. My T is around 11,500 I think so I was wondering if any aids went that high. I know some people are fortunate enough to find the aids input alone (without masking) helps reduce their T.
Do you aids help with your T?
Regards
Tamika

 

[Dubinvero]

My Tinnitus is at approximately 8000Hz. I trialed 3 different brands of hearing aids before realizing that they could not mask above 7000Hz.
I do not use my hearing aids without the masking white noise. I find that the hearing aid function alone does not mask at a high frequencies like 8000Hz or above.
In summary, I always use my hearing aids with the masking function on. I believe my hearing aids with the Tinnitus masking function helped greatly with my habituation.

 

[click]

@MontmorencyTT

Thanks for that - can you let us know how you get on with your new aids please?

I promised myself that I'd go to the 'hearing aid people' if the T hadn't gone after 3 years.

It's been over 3 years now but it's pretty much under control - still want information though because you never know what the future may hold

 

[Tamika]

My Tinnitus is at approximately 8000Hz. I trialed 3 different brands of hearing aids before realizing that they could not mask above 7000Hz.
I do not use my hearing aids without the masking white noise. I find that the hearing aid function alone does not mask at a high frequencies like 8000Hz or above.
In summary, I always use my hearing aids with the masking function on. I believe my hearing aids with the Tinnitus masking function helped greatly with my habituation.

Thanks for your helpful response. My hearing loss is mild below 8,000 Hz but drops rapidly to moderate to severe at levels 8,000 to 12,000 Hz. I'm trialing Phonak at the moment - just using the aids and no masking turned on. They don't help with my T which is in the higher range. I can hear speech a little crisper with the 's' sounds more audible. However my mild loss in the speech frequencies is not enough to really need aids yet. I can manage without. My audiologist wanted me to trial Widex Zen hearing aids as they have the Zen tone fractal sounds for tinnitus. They were waiting for them to arrive and I have an appointment today to pick them up. I'm happy to go for the free trial and see if they help. I'm also getting some custom industrial ear plugs made.

 

[brody24]

Haven't pegged the frequency of my T (just in right ear due to surgery), but I did audiogram yesterday which was decent in lower range, but sloped sharply downward halfway across the chart. Even now just playing around with sound frequencies on Youtube, I can somewhat make out 3 kHz, 4 khz juuust barely if its loud enough. 5 kHz I hear nothing even if I raise volume fairly high. Given that this seems to be the range of my hearing loss, I'm assuming my T is somewhere in that general range (which seems like an area that can hopefully be helped somewhat with a hearing aid, as opposed to T above 8 kHz frequency or something high like that).

 

[Joshua Dyer]

It has been suggested to me that I consider hearing aids to boost the human speech freq range. I'm hesitant to go this route just yet without trying other therapies. I guess it's a personal embarrassment issue for me, but that's just how I feel. Maybe I'll see it differently.

 

[brody24]

It has been suggested to me that I consider hearing aids to boost the human speech freq range. I'm hesitant to go this route just yet without trying other therapies. I guess it's a personal embarrassment issue for me, but that's just how I feel. Maybe I'll see it differently.

I wouldn't worry too much about this. My grandmother just got a hearing aid recently and I would never even know she had it. Its nearly invisible unless I were specifically looking for it. And even if people could see it, so what? No reason to think of it any differently than eyeglasses. At least, thats how I think of it now that I may be considering a hearing aid.

 

[Joshua Dyer]

I suppose you're right. I'll do what need to do.

 

[brody24]

Anyone with a hearing aid have any input on either of these questions:

1. Does the range of hearing loss usually align with the frequency of tinnitus (I have conductive hearing loss across all frequencies, but much more severe loss at higher frequencies past about 3 khz. Unsurprisingly, T is higher pitched)?

2. What frequency ranges do modern hearing aids even cover? I assume a ski-slope loss past about 2,5 or 3 khz would be right in the range that a hearing aid can help with. But not sure.

 

[Anthony Hunt]

Hello everyone,
I thought I would share my experiences since my last post in May.
Since May this year my audiologist has had me try 3 different makes of Hearing aids each for about 4 weeks. The first I tried were the Starkey Z series, then the Widex Dream, and finally a pair of LINX from Resound.

I have now gone back to the Starkey Z i20 model HAs as these, for me, are the best at masking my T and I am in the process together with my medical insurance to buy them. I will have to pay about 1800 Euros but that also includes the Surflink remote which allows me to connect the HAs to my Mobile and to stream as well. The LINX were also good at this but only if you have an iPhone and as I have an android phone I could not make full use of them.

All 3 makes and models were very good with the Widex being the most comfortable to wear however because my hearing loss is only mild in the 8KHz range and the primary purpose for having HAs at all is to help me deal with my T (high pitched above 8KHz) then the Starkeys won out simply because the masking white noise generated by them is simply the most effective. The Starkey Soundpoint software allowed me to modify and select a unique "Hiss" which best masks my T.
I wear them for most of the day and only take them out after I go to bed having taken my sleeping pill. The sound quality when streaming is not great but does allow me to play any of the many Tinnitus relief sounds available via apps or from the internet.

As to wearing HAs at all, most people don't even notice I am wearing them and I see it no different to wearing glasses, in fact I tell people that a good analogy is; wearing HAs is a bit like the first time you put on reading glasses and suddenly everything on the page is clear and sharp. So it is with the HAs, all of a sudden you can hear the birds singing again and the treble is back when listening to music or you can hear clearly the people talking to you the "ssss" in words is sharper.

Have they helped reduce my T, unfortunately NO, its still there just as it began back in February but without them I honestly can say I do not know where or what I would be doing today, I think by now I would have become insane or so depressed............

What I would give to have my peace and quiet back. To be able to read a book or to watch television without having either my T or a Hissing in my ears. Perhaps one day.

 

[brody24]

Got my audiogram profile. I have moderate to severe conductive hearing loss from a history of surgeries and issues with just my right ear. Have loud T that I pegged to around 7000 hz.

250......45
500......50
1000....40
2000....40
3000....60
4000....70
6000....75
8000....85

I assume a hearing aid makes sense given these numbers? Do modern hearing aids address the areas of my high frequency loss? Since the loss is unilateral, would I only be looking at one aid vs. a pair?

 

[Terje Larsson]

Lots of stuff to read here, 15 pages! I'm not even halfway through but I'll jump right in anyway

My T is of the consistent kind, it's a constant high pitched sound. I've basically had it all my life but it's gotten more noticeable over the past ten years or so, probably as my hearing has started to go down a bit. I'm 47 BTW.

I went to have my hearing checked have some loss. My "basic hearing" as the audiologist called it, is fine and in everyday life I have very few problems with not hearing stuff. My hearing loss starts at around 3k and is worse on the right ear. My audiologist suggested I try a hearing aid.

Now (and this could get political), this is Sweden and the public health care system will sponsor a hearing aid with SEK 6000, which would be what... $650 or so. What it means is that for most people a hearing aid here costs about $70, mine would be more (less than $300) but still nothing out of my reach and I can try them for a month and then return them if it doesn't help me the way I hoped.

So, I will try this. I have very little to lose. The cost, the embarassment for wearing them in public, the trouble of having to put them in and having them there... it'll all be worth it if I get a less noticeable T and better hearing.

 

[Terje Larsson]

Since the loss is unilateral, would I only be looking at one aid vs. a pair?

I asked my audiologist the same thing since my T is mainly on the right ear, which also has the most significant upper frequency loss and she said that you should get a pair for better balance and orientatioin.

 

[JasonP]

Hearing aids have helped with tinnitus along with their maskers. What I would like is a hearing aid that goes beyond the typical 8000 Hz and goes all the way to 20,000 Hz which is around the end of typical human hearing. This would allow for more ambient noise in the higher frequencies to mask some of the higher pitched ringing. In addition, I would like built nature sound files such as different kinds of rains, thunderstorms, water running, etc. that are inside the hearing aid itself that can be custom programmed using equalizers to fine tune the amplification of low, mid, and high frequencies. Would anyone else benefit from these? I do not think they exist right now but if they do, let me know.

 

[Terje Larsson]

I could, if I remember it, ask my audiologisy about this when I meet her next week.

 

[Jay_Dee63]

I've had great success with hearing aids (I have a minor cookie bite hearing loss) with white noise maskers. Let me know if you have any questions.

 

[JasonP]

Is there any hearing aids with water stream masking sounds built in? Water streaming seems to mask better than white noise does for my tinnitus. I do have hearing aids with bluetooth but the transmission/receiving can be flaky sometimes and it drains the batteries faster.

 

[brody24]

I have pretty severe hearing loss in my right ear and just recently got a Widex hearing aid. Insurance covered it since my loss is from a history of ear illness and injury to my ear drum. I have terrible T in that ear and the aid doesn't really help, since the T pitch is a little above the aid's range (my T is just under 7 khz, whereas the audiologist said even the best aids are only going to mask T up until about 5.5 khz). But it at least has a white noise feature, along with the Zen chimes feature that can take the edge off a bit if I need it. Its nice to finally be able to hear out of my bad ear. I just wish it could better mask my T.

 

[Michael2013]

Is there any hearing aids with water stream masking sounds built in? Water streaming seems to mask better than white noise does for my tinnitus. I do have hearing aids with bluetooth but the transmission/receiving can be flaky sometimes and it drains the batteries faster.

I have Linx2 and they don't have water streams built in, but you could stream it with bluethooth. I don't have any problems with it being flaky or draining batteries noticeably.. Though no matter what hearing aids you have, the batteries will drain faster if you are constantly streaming any kind of noise/sound.

-Mike

 

[Genevieve]

I'm wondering if anyone who has tinnitus caused by noise-induced hearing loss has any experience with using a hearing aid to 'cure' tinnitus?

The use of hearing aids to reduce/eliminate tinnitus is something that the Hearing Specialists sometimes recommend and I am thinking about going down this route.

Thank you @Louise for this thread, I was asking myself the same question and as I read the following posts, especially those of @Karl I understood that hearing aids can really make a huge difference on reducing the perception of tinnitus. But the question I also ask myself is what is exactly the difference between listening to white noise through my mp3 and through a hearing aid such as the widex zen for example?

 

[rod77]

I'm just now reading thru this thread. My audiologist recommended the hearing aids with built in white noise tinnitus treatment..., but they're 3thousand dollars. In theory, it sounds like a marvelous idea.

I'm on a musician forum as well and as we all age, many of us are experiencing hearing/tinnitus issues after decades of loud music. The hearing aid vs tinnitus issue came up.

Unfortunately, not one single player claimed any improvement with these hearing aids. One guy said he went back to his audiologist 4 times to have the frequency of the white noise "adjusted" but it never really worked and he gave up.

This doesnt mean it never works for anybody... but its definitely a buyer-beware scenario. I was all set to plunk down the 3grand until I talked to those guys.

I'm still considering it but I want to wait and see how my own healing develops.

 

[Philip83]

Sorry, but I have to admit I haven't read through the whole thread. A thought that crossed my mind today is that what if the medical field eventually finds a way to restore hearing, but it results in that the tinnitus is still there (since it's kind of in the head), would then maybe the H go ape-shit because now there's even more sound coming in, but the "brain side" of things are still damaged? If so, would it be temporary you think?

You who have tried hearing aids, have you experienced anything like this? That your H has become worse?

Again, sorry if this has been discussed already.