Hearing Aids

Some 2 months ago, I had an appointment to see a specialist at a hearing centre. Yes, after many tests they agreed i did have Tinnitus and were able to show me on computer generated graphs, exactly what tonal range my hearing was loosing out on due to this, plus also identify what audio range the tinnitus was affecting.
Out of curiosity, what were your hearing charts like? Can you share or describe them? I'm curious to see how closely your hearing loss matches mine.
 
Again the question here curious since I find some research papers about LOFT hearing aids but very little other information about it, are these available at all on the market?
 
I have high frequency hearing loss from years of hunting, Harleys and running loud printing equipment. I can hear my High pitched T over everything but the shower. Went and had an audiogram done from ENT and was told I dont need hearing aids yet but noticed I could not hear crickets at night from my right ear. Funny but my T seems to be coming from my better ear on left. Went on ebay and bought hearing aids for 375.00 used but with new ear tubes and if I send my audiogram they will program them for free. I wear them at night when watching TV and it has reduced my T from an 8 to a 2 and hardly notice it. Also my T is much lower when I wake up and doesnt seem to bother me in the day..Best thing I ever did for nothing else I have tried made any difference in reducing volume. Did xanax, valium, Ginko, niacin, magnesium, curamin, zinc, Lipoflavinoids and the list goes on and on. So hearing aid does work for me. I will post at a later date if my T goes completely away. So happy I did this and getting relief...I do not wear them in the day just like 4 to 5 hours in the evening for the last week...
 
I got hearing aids and they help to some degree but you can not really sleep in them so as soon as you take them out its hard to sleep.
I sleep in mine if I didnt I just couldnt deal with it it just gets louder and louder and the ppressure build up gets intolerable ,masking machines or no masking machines
 
The past 24hrs have been unbelievable...I have some form of control over my tinnitus now and I rule IT, not the other way round.

What device you ask?

"Phonak Nathos Q Tinnitus" hearing aid.

Thanks for posting! I did a trial with a hearing aid, but I don't think I gave it a fair shot and am going to start over with an audiologist who has a wide range of products to choose from. Thanks for giving the exact name of the one you like. Also, does this mean I will need two even though the hearing loss is in one ear? Sounds like most people have two aids.

Incidentally, my tinnitus is mostly a static or (loud!) sizzle sound these days with some overlying tones that come and go. Will a hearing aid help sizzling type tinnitus? As far as I know, the only hearing loss I have is conductive due to missing ear bones.
 
As far as I know, the only hearing loss I have is conductive due to missing ear bones.

What bone(s) are you missing? There's only the malleus, the incus and the stapes.
Have you thought about doing reconstructive surgery? I think we can rebuild the ossicular chain surgically nowadays.
 
What bone(s) are you missing? There's only the malleus, the incus and the stapes.
Have you thought about doing reconstructive surgery? I think we can rebuild the ossicular chain surgically nowadays.

That's definitely an option and I've been weighing the pros and cons of reconstruction vs. hearing aid. If there was a guarantee that reconstruction (I'm missing the incus and malleus) would get rid of the tinnitus I'd go for it, but there's not. Hearing aids seem less risky and have tinnitus settings and technology that might help the tinnitus, so the plan is to try that first. I'm not sure it's the right decision.
 
That's definitely an option and I've been weighing the pros and cons of reconstruction vs. hearing aid. If there was a guarantee that reconstruction (I'm missing the incus and malleus) would get rid of the tinnitus I'd go for it, but there's not. Hearing aids seem less risky and have tinnitus settings and technology that might help the tinnitus, so the plan is to try that first. I'm not sure it's the right decision.

Understood. Yes you are right that there aren't any guarantees with the surgery and it's obviously in a different class in terms of invasiveness.
It seems like a reasonable approach to try hearing aids first. I think that's what I would do too.
 
Understood. Yes you are right that there aren't any guarantees with the surgery and it's obviously in a different class in terms of invasiveness.
It seems like a reasonable approach to try hearing aids first. I think that's what I would do too.
That's probably what both us should've done first.
 
A nice summery

https://www.wareable.com/samsung/best-hearables

I just ordered the hear one

Anyone has experienced with one of these?

Imho nearly all hearing aids should be trashed, expensive overaged. Actually I consider most hearing aids companies evil selling medical approved crap that you can't reprogram yourself.

What do you plan to listen to through them, white/pink noise or some other masking sounds like nature sounds?
 
Did anyone bought programmable hearing aids and program them?
I see you can buy these programmable hearing aids, but have not yet seen any hearing aids that could produce good quality sound.
I have these ANM in ear earphones. They are expensive, but produce very narrow band (mid and high frequencies only) sound.
I would not mind that the earphone is visible.
 
I wear programmable Phonak hearing aids but I don't program them myself. I know you can purchase all necessary hardware and software to do so but at that expense you might as well have a trained audiologist do it for you, I suspect it's cheaper than buying what you need to DIY.
Good quality sound takes good quantities of money.
 
Good quality sound takes good quantities of money.
I totally agree with that. But I want to be able to do the programming myself. I think I know what I am doing IMHO.
I have been working with audio all my life. That is also a reason why I don't like the tinny/harsh sound of the in-ear phones I tried.
Hear One, works great, just battery isn't amazing
Thanks. I will be checking this out.
 
Hi Louise

I tried hearing aids on the recomendation of my ENT who said it might help me with the tinitus with the same reasoning as mentioned in the 2nd post I think that its supposed to compensate for the frequemcy of hearing lost ( I have noise induced hearing loss) and unfortunately it did nothing for me . we are not all the samr but i have heard the same thing from other people who tried hearing aids with the same results .
while it obviously heped me to hear better my T was not reduced .
This was 9 yrs ago. Cost me a fair amount but was willing to try anything that would hep.

I`ve just learnt to live with it , not easy , its a fine line day by day .
 
I'm only on Day 2 with my new hearing aid, but so far, so good! After a pretty disappointing experience with a closed fit cheaper model, this new open fit one is amazing. Things don't sound tinny, I can barely hear my tinnitus when it's on and I actually love the Zen chimes -- and I'm generally someone who prefers absolute quiet (though those days are rare). My ear feels a tiny bit sore, but I think I have some middle ear fluid and it's not the aid's fault. My tinnitus is extremely reactive to sound and tends to be very high when I'm walking about in the city or in places with lots of buzzing (the grocery store, etc.). I took one walk in the city yesterday and could barely hear the tinnitus, then same thing happened in the grocery store, where it usually buzzes away. I'm worried this is too good to be true, but we'll see!!!
 
I'm only on Day 2 with my new hearing aid, but so far, so good! After a pretty disappointing experience with a closed fit cheaper model, this new open fit one is amazing. Things don't sound tinny, I can barely hear my tinnitus when it's on and I actually love the Zen chimes -- and I'm generally someone who prefers absolute quiet (though those days are rare). My ear feels a tiny bit sore, but I think I have some middle ear fluid and it's not the aid's fault. My tinnitus is extremely reactive to sound and tends to be very high when I'm walking about in the city or in places with lots of buzzing (the grocery store, etc.). I took one walk in the city yesterday and could barely hear the tinnitus, then same thing happened in the grocery store, where it usually buzzes away. I'm worried this is too good to be true, but we'll see!!!
That's encouraging to read. Is your hearing loss across all frequencies or predominantly in the low or high frequencies?
 
That's encouraging to read. Is your hearing loss across all frequencies or predominantly in the low or high frequencies?

All frequencies because two ear bones were removed, but much worse in the high frequencies. It's mostly loud hissing and static and very reactive to sound. The idea of amplifying sound was kind of terrifying because I thought amplifying the sound might ramp up the tinnitus, but so far that doesn't seem to be the case. The amplified sounds seems to mask the tinnitus (which thus far has been completely unmaskable), and when I take the aid off my tinnitus is back at baseline in a quiet room. I'm cautiously optimistic at this point.
 
Has anybody out there had success with the Tinnitus Reduction Program in the Phonak Audeo V50 Hearing Aids? They are a 2015 model that has a tinnitus program built in. I have had tinnitus for over 10
years now. It is high-pitched, primarily in the right ear. Sounds like bunch of cicadas.

I hardly notice it during the day. But in quiet situations it's quite annoying. I have a mild to moderate hearing loss in the high range. I had some success with wearing hearing aids about 7 yrs ago, but I lost them and the cost was too high to replace them.

So any success out there with the Phonak Audeo tinnitus masking program?
 
I wear Phonak Audeo V90 with the tinnitus balance and they are a big help but I am limited to two sound levels of white noise. I prefer to use the ComPilot bluetooth accessory to listen to other sounds, rain or tones. I have high frequency loss beginning at 4K which is also my tinnitus frequency.
 
I wear Phonak Audeo V90 with the tinnitus balance and they are a big help but I am limited to two sound levels of white noise. I prefer to use the ComPilot bluetooth accessory to listen to other sounds, rain or tones. I have high frequency loss beginning at 4K which is also my tinnitus frequency.

I have hearing loss above 4 kHz in my left ear, and 4/10 tinnitus (hizzing sound) too. I manage with T in normal day, but quiet moments brings it more noticable. Sad thing is that I have quite good High End gear, and now I cant enjoy listening music, because spatial information and of course instrument sounds above 4 kHz on left channel are missing. I have ENT's referral to a Hearing clinic to get a free hearing aid. But it can take up to six months, before I know if I'm getting hearing aid by them. Meanwhile I'm instructed to use IPhone app called "Hearing Help" when I'm at home. ENT gave me also modifed ear plugs to use with app, he also adjusted hearing parameters according my hearing curve. I know, it is not a hifi-solution, but it seems to help anyway, also reducing T a little bit.
So, I'm curious which (brand, modell) hearing aids are accetable when listening seriously music ?
 
So, I'm curious which (brand, modell) hearing aids are accetable when listening seriously music ?

I don't know of any hearing aid targeted at audiophiles. They just can't reproduce the sounds very faithfully (think about the only tiny speaker they have at their disposal), and are generally tuned to enhance speech, not music.
Sorry about the bad news - I use headphones when I want quality (without my hearing aid), but even then, T just mars the experience.
 
I don't know of any hearing aid targeted at audiophiles. They just can't reproduce the sounds very faithfully (think about the only tiny speaker they have at their disposal), and are generally tuned to enhance speech, not music.
Sorry about the bad news - I use headphones when I want quality (without my hearing aid), but even then, T just mars the experience.

It can be hard to find suitable hearing aids to an audiophile (or a musician), but there are brands, for example Widex, which seems to care about sound quality, with music listening too. Hope to hear any experience about hearing aids and music listening.
 
I have hearing loss above 4 kHz in my left ear, and 4/10 tinnitus (hizzing sound) too. I manage with T in normal day, but quiet moments brings it more noticable. Sad thing is that I have quite good High End gear, and now I cant enjoy listening music, because spatial information and of course instrument sounds above 4 kHz on left channel are missing. I have ENT's referral to a Hearing clinic to get a free hearing aid. But it can take up to six months, before I know if I'm getting hearing aid by them. Meanwhile I'm instructed to use IPhone app called "Hearing Help" when I'm at home. ENT gave me also modifed ear plugs to use with app, he also adjusted hearing parameters according my hearing curve. I know, it is not a hifi-solution, but it seems to help anyway, also reducing T a little bit.
So, I'm curious which (brand, modell) hearing aids are accetable when listening seriously music ?
Hearing aid sound quality preference is a lot like speaker sound preference. Everyone has a different perception of what high quality sound is. Before I settled on Phonak I wore Oticon in a trial and wasn't happy with the audiologist so I returned them and when to a different audiologist and when he put the Phonaks on me I noticed, to me, a much richer sound quality.
 

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