Coping with hearing loss

[ajay_m]

I appreciate there may have been discussions on this previously, but I thought this might be of general interest.

I had not realised the extent of my progressive hearing loss until it became clear that it was difficult to understand what was being said on TV and my poor partner always had to repeat herself. It's the loss of the high frequencies that causes problems of course, since consonants start disappearing. Oddly, I really didn't notice problems listening to music, but when I ran some informal tests through a pair of headphones, using the mixer oscillator, it was clear that neither ear was picking up much beyond 8KHz and there was also a rather significant dip between 300Hz and 1KHz in one ear as well.

So I scheduled a hearing test through my GP. This has been outsourced by the NHS to Specsavers and Scrivens. Specsavers do not have the best of reputations, based on trustpilot, so I booked with Scrivens.

The audiologist was very thorough. Tests were made through normal headphones and then using special bone conductivity phones. The conclusion was that I had moderate hearing loss. The graphs... well, if these were a pair of monitors you for sure wouldn't be buying them....

I expected to be given the hard sell on expensive hearing aids, but this was not the case. It turns out that the NHS will fit you with behind the ear aids which are not in fact some 1950s lump of hideous flesh-coloured plastic where you carry the battery on your belt, but which are about the same size as any of the state of the art aids you can get privately. They connect over Bluetooth for programming and then there's an app for your phone so you can control eq and volume etc.

I thought about going private but figured that since the NHS would supply these for free, if they didn't work out, I was no worse off and at least I would know how well the technology would work for me. You can spend up to £4,000 but as far as I could determine, the quality increase would not necessarily be spectacular. One key difference is that these high end units put the drivers directly in the ear whereas the NHS supplied units have the drivers in the main body of the hearing aid and the sound is conducted through the small plastic tube that connects to the body. While this undoubtedly does compromise the sound, I felt that the fidelity was far higher than I had expected. It also makes for a more rugged device, so understandable they'd go down this path.

To my surprise, it was possible to get these immediately. For free. Not only this, you get a supply of batteries (and their replacements for life) for free. You can get rechargeable units but to be honest I can see the advantage of just popping in another battery when needed. They last about a week.

I had expected the result to be like listening to an open mic over headphones, a constant barrage of noise and clatter. To my surprise this was not the case. With the volume adjusted appropriately, they seem to reject noise and background incredibly well but still compensate for the significant high frequency loss. And even music is fairly good, playing stuff back through the studio monitors I expected things to sound like they were coming down a plastic tube but once I'd eq'd the treble down a bit on the app, actually things sounded quite good. The lower frequencies don't come through the hearing aid anyway, as there are just fairly loose fitting silicone domes that sit in the ear canal and don't press fit like with earbuds.

They do not whistle, like the old units. There's some pretty clever acoustic processing going on in there.

Now when I got home my partner couldn't even see them. They tuck behind your ears so you really have to look pretty closely. You can get tiny in-ear units (privately of course) but frankly I don't feel these standard behind the ear units are particularly obvious. Heck, glasses are much more obvious then these.

Now this weekend we're off for a bit of a walk across Dartmoor and popped into the local train station to buy tickets. The lovely lady there has hearing loss and so naturally I mentioned what had happened. To my amazement she pointed out that I was now eligible for a disabled railcard. It is true. If you wear hearing aids, you are eligible, you do not have to be severely impaired. All you need is to photograph the battery replacement card you get with your hearing aids and for £20 a year you can then get 1/3rd off rail fares EVEN AT PEAK TIMES!.

So I thought this might be useful to share. I had resisted going down this path because I was dubious hearing aids could help, I thought they'd just overwhelm me with noise. But modern aids are incredibly sophisticated and even the free NHS aids are far from primitive. If you are unsure about your hearing, I strongly recommend you get checked out. It has been a revelation to me. The birds!. I could still hear them without hearing aids but only just. Now they are everywhere!.

[BillB]

Thanks for sharing, Ajay. That's really useful information.

[Hugh Robjohns]

Indeed -- good information to share!

I heard a programme on BBC R4 the other day about hearing aids, and they interviewed a specialist who said much the same as you -- the free NHS aids are pretty much as powerful as the expensive private ones and can be configured just as easily. Although he sells private aids in his practice, he actually wears NHS ones... which probably says all you need to know.

The choirmaster in my village choir wears two NHS hearing aids which he rates highly. The only problem he complains about is a weird stereo panning/fluttering effect sometimes, which seems to be an issue of the two earpieces working independently rather than being stereo-linking so that the auto-gating and level processing functions work separately, and sometimes get caught out to create noticeable panning effects. He overcomes the problem by pulling out one earpiece...

[Drew Stephenson]

They do not whistle, like the old units. There's some pretty clever acoustic processing going on in there.

I think that might depend on the model and set-up; last time I went to see my mum there was so much whistling going on I thought the smoke alarm was faulty!

It has been a revelation to me. The birds!. I could still hear them without hearing aids but only just. Now they are everywhere!.

[Martin Walker]

Thanks for sharing, Ajay. That's really useful information.

Agreed - I've been debating for some time whether or not to go down this path, as like you my hearing now only goes up to around 8kHz, and while my music making carries on regardless, as do the majority of conversations, I do suffer a bit in a noisy, crowded room (particularly at gigs).

I'd better contact my GP to get a referral to an audiologist, so I can also go down the NHS route.

[Arpangel]

My partner is desperately trying to cope with progressive hearing loss, all I'd say is stick with the bog standard NHS aids, we’ve tried top of the range Oticon aids, and apart from fancy programs and Bluetooth etc, that's about it, there isn’t a massive difference in hearing quality.
Obviously it depends on the nature of your hearing loss, but my partner is now trying Bone Conduction aids on a band, and they work really well for her shrinking ear canals.
In-ear aids are good if you can tolerate having things in your ears without getting an infection, but moulded outer ear ones are good if you cant.
We’ve been through them all.

[ManFromGlass]

I had forgotten the sound of wind blowing through the trees or even the rustle that your clothing makes when it moves. Sometimes I rub my ear just to hear the sound that makes now.

Love mine!

[Arpangel]

I had forgotten the sound of wind blowing through the trees or even the rustle that your clothing makes when it moves. Sometimes I rub my ear just to hear the sound that makes now.

Love mine!

Beautiful.

[Telemaxis]

I've recently started to wear hearing aids and am now able to fully hear - and contribute to chats with family and riends. I hadn't realised that, as my hearing had worsened, I'd been taking a less and less active part in conversations.
One downside though - with the hearing aids in, my acoustic guitar sounds awful! Harsh and scratchy! I mentioned this to my daughter and her response was "now you know what we've had to put up with all these years!"

[Wonks]

One downside though - with the hearing aids in, my acoustic guitar sounds awful! Harsh and scratchy! I mentioned this to my daughter and her response was "now you know what we've had to put up with all these years!"

Nature's way of telling you it's time for a new guitar!

[ef37a]

I have had aids for 20 years or more and my experience has been different from many here and in some parts not so good.
But then my deafness is rather worse than a loss at 8kHz. I am 20dB down at two kHz and falling. The boost in the aids meant everything was suddenly "splashy" and shrieky. Running a tap was quite an experience! They also made most people sound like Sean Connery "Yesh missh Moneypenny".

I went back to Audiology a couple of times and they toned them down but voices are still not quite right but I can live with it.
I have two aids but the one in the left ear hurts after an hour or so. Again, the hospital ground a bit off it but it is still painful so I make do with just one. Actually my glasses hurt the top of the same ear (bit of heat shrink helps!) so I think I must have a deformed lug!

The aids DO help me with social interactions but there are limits. Strong accents defeat me as does moderately loud ambient noise. Mobile phones just don't have enough welly but my Samsung smart phone is Btoothed to the aid and that is brilliant! Don't even need to be in the same room to hear it! Unfortunately the aid can only be paired with one source. Be very handy to have telly on them (subtitles are a cluster****!) but then it is a constant wonder to me how they get as much electronics in them as they do!

Arpangel, did you try cleaning the aid's mould with an alcohol glasses wipe to kill any bugs? When mine get too disgusting I pop them in a small glass jar (had dried herb in it) Warm water and a DROP! of Fairy. Shake and leave overnight.Beeeeuatifully clean in the morning. I have also learned to change the tube, got some off Zon.

Dave.