Eh?
90% loss left ear, 75% loss right ear. Word discrimination is better in left ear. Yeah, hearing aids are essential, but only help so much. I’ll be looking at cochlear implants soon.
What did you say? :)
My experience is similar. I first tried a $2000 pair at Costco. It made the background noise really loud and didn’t really help with my problem which is not that I can’t hear sounds but that sometimes people’s voice come in muffled. It also wasn’t programmable - it didn’t have an equalizer that you could play with.
I bought a cheapie $50 one on line and it’s actually better. It has a programmable equalizer, connects to my phone so I can use it as an ear pod. It ain’t perfect but it helps.
Now that they have approved the sale of over the counter hearing aids, prices should drop like a rock. They’re really nothing more than an earpod with a mic and programmable equalizer.
Yes!!! Go to bossa.com. These hearing aids look amazing & are dirt cheap! I may order to have a spare set put up. I have $5,000 hearing aids & these look better.
I had a pair of the Britzgos-probably the same ones. I agree, all they did was amplify EVERYTHING. After a couple more pairs of cheapies on Amazon, I bought a pair of Lexie B1’s. They work better than my previous pairs, but they’re just a little short for my level of hearing loss. Not perfect, but they didn’t cost thousands of $$$$$.
A cochlear implant is a surgically implanted electronic device that provides a sense of sound to a person who is profoundly deaf or severely hard-of-hearing. It bypasses damaged portions of the ear and directly stimulates the auditory nerve. Signals generated by the implant are sent by way of the auditory nerve to the brain, which recognizes the signals as sound. Cochlear implants mimic the function of a healthy inner ear and replace the function of damaged sensory hair cells inside the inner ear to help provide clearer sound than what hearing aids can provide. Most people with severe to profound hearing loss can understand speech in person or over the phone better than they did with a hearing aid, and it can usually help you know sounds around you, including telephones, doorbells, and alarms. Although the device can help the person hear better and detect environmental sounds, it is not as good as the quality of sound processed by a natural cochlea and therefore will not restore hearing to normal levels.
But it is very expensive. Estimates run 50K-100K.
I may enjoy the silence. Or should I say hearing aids will have to do for me if I reach that point & the silence is not as wonderful as I imagine. 😋.
I have macular degeneration, so losing my eyesight is more concerning for me. I'm almost to the point where I can't drive anymore.
That’s not what I heard.
Bookmark
Severe loss here. Word discrimination is poor.
I have ones that have 96 individually adjustable frequencies. If you have a serious hearing problem it is best to get quality in person hearing testing, not some online test. If you want precision diagnosis and properly adjusted aids.
Be aware that aids which only amplify have the potential to harm your hearing over time by over amplification.
I’ve had the same pair for 4 years and they are low maintenance. Battery life is 10-14 days. Plus I get free hearing tests as needed for updated re-programing as needed.
While no panacea, they make a huge difference in my quality of life. I could not go without them.
” the only thing the hearing aid did was make all sounds louder. “
Welcome to the world of lousy hearing and hearing aids.
They barely make my wife’s voice more intelligible, just mostly swamped by racket in restaurants.
I have damage that destroyed the eardrum and bones in my left ear.
I got a BAHA (Bone Anchored Hearing Aide). They drilled a hole in my skull, implanted a titanium post in it, and, the the BAHA snaps into it.
For the first time in 50+ years I could hear stereo. I can also use the app on my phone to adjust things so I can change things (mostly bass and treble) so I can hear what I want to hear.
It’s also a prosthetic, so, my insurance pays fully for it.
Worth having the 9mm slug in my head for. :D
Bookmark to read later. 81 years old and definitely have a hearing loss.
Buying a generic hearing aid over the counter without professional adjustment isn’t likely to do you much good, regardless what you paid for it.
A hearing aid isn’t just an amplifier, making everything louder, it only boosts the volume of the frequencies where you’re deficient. It takes testing to identify those frequencies.
It’s not just the old tone test, where they play a tone louder and louder until you finally hear it, there also are discrimination tests that involve someone saying words to you and you repeating them back to them. From that they can tell what parts of speech you’re having trouble understanding, and make adjustments for that.
Roll all that together and they know how to adjust your aid so you get the most out of it. You’re probably better off with a cheap aid that’s been properly calibrated than an expensive one that hasn’t been.
Bookmark
Went to a pro audiologist, got tested, 40-60dB loss above 2KHz, no wonder I couldn't understand speech or hear birds chirp, and everything was muddy.
I got the high-end Oticon DSP-based hearing aids, expensive ($3000 each side). Audiologist programmed them for three modes: 1) normal indoor/outdoor everyday use, 2) speech in very noisy environment, 3) music listening. Highly adjustable, can be programmed using my smartphone, can act as in-ear monitors.
The first two DSP modes provide noise and echo cancellation as well as boosting high frequencies. It's like having my hearing back again, but the DSP causes artifacts when listening to music.
The third "music" mode boosts high-frequencies without the smart noise-cancellation, to provide minimal distortion of things like piano and plucked strings (I'm a guitarist). Not as good for speech but music sounds great.
Those hearing aids have changed my life. Recommended highly. Expensive, yes, but worth every penny.
Have never had a “hearing aid” that worked worth a darn. Don’t even bother with them now that I’m learning to lipread. Which isn’t the magical skill people think it is, but it gives me clues to help sort out meaning from the gabble I hear.
My BIL has about 25% hearing loss in both ears. We finally talked him into getting hearing aids from VA. Suddenly, like magic, he could hear again!
Two years later, one of them no longer works. VA will fix or replace them at no charge. Nope, he can’t be bothered to talk to the office. He’d rather just complain.
Yes, that is frustration you are hearing (reading?).
Prescription hearing aids work well for most people. However, they are very expensive. If one does not have somebody else to pay for them (very good insurance or the VA, for example), they can be prohibitively expensive.
You get what you pay for. Go for quality. Starkey hearing aids are adjustable to adapt to noisy environments, have variable volume, and don’t need batteries because they have a charger built into their case. Change the wax filters about once a month. If you have earwax problems, use some Debrox or generic equivalent. Yes they work, They make a world of difference.
I get my hearing gmaids at Costco. I get the, cleaned regularly and even get the insides replaced when necessary. They hook up to my iPhone and work like wireless head phones. I read a lot and can listen to my kindle while I do House work. Still, I don’t hear well in public places and the masks drove me crazy.
The hearing loss is hereditary in my family. Everyone on both sides of my family had a hearing loss as they got older, at least the ones who lived to get older. The men in my family have not been very long lived. My mother’s father died of an ear infection when he was 23. It went into the mastoid bone and killed him.
