Thoughts on Hearing Aids

ladysolitary85

ladysolitary85

New Member
Joined
Nov 8, 2010
Messages
1,650
Reaction score
5
I just thought of something interesting.

If a teenager is wearing ear buds headphones for their MP3 player and cranks up the music.... and are advised not to as it can cause hearing loss....

Does the hearing aid act out the same?

I mean if it sounds right to us, and we can hear, could it actually be slowly decreasing our hearing?

Just a thought. (Not against hearing aids at all)
 
My husband wondered about that too. (He of the perfect hearing, per an audiogram of two days ago.) Since my hearing has gotten worse over the last 20 years, he wonders (and thinks it's very possible) that the hearing aids themselves have made it worse.

I dunno. I doubt it, actually, assuming a person is going to a qualified audiologist and the aids are set with an upper limit feature.

I certainly noticed that the Oticons I was trialing were a lot louder than the Phonaks, and when listening to live music, they were definitely very much uncomfortably louder. I had to take them out when I went to a live, outdoor concert and the music was coming out of these humongous speakers. Just WAY too loud.

I asked an audi about this years ago, and she said no, a properly-fit hearing aid with today's features that immediately dampen sudden blasts of noise will not harm your remaining hearing.

So I'd agree that the *potential* is there, but I think if things sound "normal" to you, then your aids are probably set correctly.
 
PFH started a thread about this awhile back. At least, I think it was PFH. Check the HA and CI section.
 
my thought on my hearing aids were the same thing but I always try to turn it down before it destroys all my hearing I have left =D in fact, 2day's hearing aids are cool now.
 
Doesn't one have a volume control on their hearing aid? If too loud-turn down. It is up to the individual to determine "what is too loud"-or so I was advised over 40 years ago- when I got my first Hearing aid. Still valid today?

Implanted A B Harmony activated Aug/07
 
Not always. Some HAs come without volume controls. I had one of that type many years ago, and didn't care for it at all. I think I had that one for about 3 years or so.

With the Oticons I tested recently, when I first got them they were set so that even when they were just barely turned on, they were still too loud. The audi re-set them that very afternoon to a lower volume level so that I could use them at setting "2" for most situations.

Even at that, there were many situations that were still too loud, even just barely turned on.

If I had bought them he might have been able to re-adjust further, but as I'd already been "test-driving" them for several days, I couldn't extend the test period any further.

So it's not quite as simple as just saying "turn them down." The inherent volume that is programmed into the aids has to be correct for the listener in the first place.
 
Mine have automatic volume control, which means that I can not adjust the volume myself. However, I find this much better than the HAs I had years ago when I had to keep adjusting the volume.

I think that if the HA volume is set correctly for your hearing loss then an automatic volume control is better, its all a matter of getting the things set correctly by your audiologist. It's certainly worth repeat visits until they get it right.
 
Wow. I didn't know volume could be set like that. Mine has the typical volume dial that you see and I'm always having to move it up or down. Maybe I should look into seeing if I can just have it set to one volume.
 
So BG, did you come to any conclusions about the HAs you were testing? Or are you going to keep the ones you already had? I'm curious to know, because I'll be shopping again one of these days. :)
 
I can control the volume on my ha's I have a button:) lol I know a friend who still has the dial wheel thing but mine isn't a wheel it's an actual up or down button.
 
AlleyCat said:
Wow. I didn't know volume could be set like that. Mine has the typical volume dial that you see and I'm always having to move it up or down. Maybe I should look into seeing if I can just have it set to one volume.
Click to expand...

You don't have to have it set to just one volume, they can set it so it adjusts the volume up and down itself automatically depending on the ambient noise levels.
 
AlleyCat said:
So BG, did you come to any conclusions about the HAs you were testing? Or are you going to keep the ones you already had? I'm curious to know, because I'll be shopping again one of these days. :)
Click to expand...

I decided not to buy them. In some respects, mainly for watching TV, they were better than my current Phonaks. However, they were awful for music, and they weren't very good in group conversations with a lot of people talking in the background (a party situation, in other words).

So I didn't think it was worth paying $5700 for new aids just to be able to hear the TV more clearly.

It's possible that if I had bought them, the Oticon rep could have tweaked them further to make them more to my liking. But I just didn't feel like spending that much money for something that was only marginally better and in some cases worse than what I've got.
 
AliciaM said:
I can control the volume on my ha's I have a button:) lol I know a friend who still has the dial wheel thing but mine isn't a wheel it's an actual up or down button.
Click to expand...

you mean the volume control wheeler, I have that feature on my old Siemens
 
Beach girl said:
I decided not to buy them. In some respects, mainly for watching TV, they were better than my current Phonaks. However, they were awful for music, and they weren't very good in group conversations with a lot of people talking in the background (a party situation, in other words).

So I didn't think it was worth paying $5700 for new aids just to be able to hear the TV more clearly.

It's possible that if I had bought them, the Oticon rep could have tweaked them further to make them more to my liking. But I just didn't feel like spending that much money for something that was only marginally better and in some cases worse than what I've got.
Click to expand...

Are you going to try any others? Other Oticons? Phonaks? etc? Just because those HAs didn't work out for you, another one might.
 
Back
Top