I’m trying to decide whether to wear one or not. The doctor says if I want to hear normally I have to wear one, but I’m holding out because I think I’m too young (21 years old) to rock one of these things.
So I’ve got a few questions.
If you wear one, do people notice?
If you are young, do people treat you funny once they notice it?
That’s about it. I’m not worried about the cost, or if they will work right. All I care about is that people won’t treat me different. I could very well be overreacting to this, and might find out that wearing a hearing aid is no big deal, but right now I don’t know anything about it.
I don’t wear one, but my wife is an audiologist who can test, prescribe, and fit them. She currently works for a hearing aid manufacturer, and is well aware of what can be done nowadays with hearing aid technology. I’ll share what I’ve gleaned from her, but remember that I am not an audiologist, nor any kind of health professional. I do think you should heed your doctor’s advice, though.
Are you “too young” for a hearing aid? No. My wife has dealt with a number of children who simply have hearing problems. Of course, as the kids grow older, they continue to have hearing problems (hearing losses cannot be fixed, only helped), so they go through their teen years and into adulthood with hearing aids.
People need not notice, if you do not want them to. Technology has made hearing aids small enough to fit inside the ear canal, where they are virtually unnoticeable. Certain models–like the ones you may have seen that fit behind the ear–are noticeable, but not all models are.
You may find the “Ask the Expert” portion of the AudiologyOnline web site useful. I’ve linked to an item dealing with aural rehab of a hearing-impaired teen, but I imagine your worries (at least as far as you state in the OP) aren’t much different. If you look around the site a bit, you’ll find all kinds of information there that may also help you.
Still, I’ll reiterate: follow your doctor’s advice. He or he can probably answer your questions more fully than I or a website can, and he or she may also refer you on to professionals who can help with counselling about dealing with hearing aids, as well as answer all your questions about the aids themselves. Good luck!
I am 26; I have worn aids in both ears since I was 4 years old. I have behind-the-ear models, the most visible. I speak clearly for someone with my level of loss, so few people know right away that I wear them. A couple of friends knew me for months before they realized I wore hearing aids. Having long hair helps!
Growing up, I got teased a lot about them. “Battery Ears” was popular. I can laugh about it now, but I hated needing to wear them. It took a long time for me to understand that the way kids viewed someone with hearing aids was not the way adults would. Kids laugh and point, adults ask questions and make accommodations. I’m not ostracized like I always envisioned I would be. I’m probably more sensitive to what I perceive to be slights or insults because of the crap I had to put up with as a kid. Someone assuming I know sign language just because I’m hearing-impaired really gets me fuming. This happens a lot, and while I know it’s an honest mistake, I can’t help but feel frustrated.
No one treats me ‘funny’. Some people just don’t know, so they think I’m purposely ignoring the ringing phone, or the conversation, or whatever. I try to head that off by saying, “By the way, I wear hearing aids…” The more considerate people make an effort to speak louder and clearer, and to look at me when they talk. The clueless get irritated at having to repeat themselves and tend to ignore me. But it’s not a big deal at all. People tend to forget about it after a while. And believe me when I say wearing them is better than not. You will hear so much better, you won’t believe what little things you’ve been missing. I recently got a new hearing aid, a much better model than I’ve had, and the difference was amazing. I went from hearing ‘a whooshing sound’ to discerning that it was a copier making a copy. Wait, *two * copies. I went from having to look at my boss’s face every time he spoke to me, even though he stands not 3 feet from me, to being able to understand every word with my back turned towards him. Hearing the AC turn on. Knowing *which * door just closed rather than ‘a door’.
Feel free to email or PM if you want to talk more. I’ll help any way I can.
I wore them for a while, then had surgery and didn’t need them. I’m getting ready to get some again. When I wore them before, no one noticed and if they did, they didn’t say anything. I was actually pretty young myself (I was about 25, I guess), but generally wore my hair long. Don’t know if you have that option. If you get “in the canal” ones, probably no one will notice. Mine weren’t huge, but they weren’t hidden in the canal, either.
I can tell you that wearing hearing aids are a lot less embarrassing than having to say “what” over and over and then tell people you are hard of hearing so they will speak more clearly. If your hearing loss is affecting your ability to communicate with people, you’ll probably really appreciate the help. Good luck!
I don’t have hearing aids, nor do I know much about them, but can I ask you what you mean by “do people treat you funny”? Are you afraid they’ll feel sorry for you, or that they’ll ridicule you? If it’s the former, it would be out of sympathy, which is good-hearted(albeit misplaced) and they’d surely eventually realize you aren’t a pity case and get over it, right? And if it’s the latter… Well, people who make fun of people with hearing aids aren’t really people you want to know all that well, anyway, right? Would you go limping around with a broken foot because you’re worried people will treat you funny if you had crutches? No, because it would still be obvious that you have a broken foot, and that you aren’t doing what you can to improve the situation.
My little sister was born without about 20% hearing loss and had to begin wearing them at a young age. The stigma of them caused her to leave them out whenever possible, but luckily she hasn’t developed any noticeable speech impediments. She’s 15 now, and still wears them occasionally but for the most part she’s just learned to adapt to her surroundings and sit closer to things. We learned about it when she would do the exact opposite of what we were telling her to do…turns out she couldn’t hear the “n’t” in the contractions, and was hearing “You cann’t do that, Emily.”
I’d say you should go for it, they are expensive and you might feel a little self-conscious about them but if you’re a student for instance, you depend upon hearing directions and instructions properly.
There are models now that fit so closely inside the ear that they’re barely visible unless you’re looking for them. Besides, you’re past the age where public ridicule is very common like she was, so at the least I’d expect you might have to learn to live with some uncomfortable and poorly-phrased inquisitive questions. But in the end you’ll be better off.
Went to college at 46 and found that I could not hear most of the instructors, even if I sat in the front row. Went and got some resoundaire hearing aids that go behind the ears and have a transparent tube that goes in. Was expecting alot of the “oh you poor old man” from the kids, but only one noticed, and that was because her younger brother wore the same kind. Would recommend any digitally tuned unit, as they are tuned/adjusted only to the frequencies that you cannot hear or have difficulties with. If I ever took them out in front of people, say to change the batteries, most were surprised that I wore them because they never saw them. And I definitely don’t have enough hair to hide them.
Not trying to bend the conversation away from the OP, but I suspect I’ve got some hearing loss I need to contend with. What’s wierd is: If I’m listening to music, I think I can hear the full range…lows, mids highs, woodwinds, fingers on strings, everything.
Talking to people however and it sounds like the whole world mumbles. Normally I’m pretty good at picking up conversations, but if there’s any background noise, I have a very difficult time.
I’m pretty good about taking care of my body…checkups, excercise, etc ,and this shouldn’t be any different, but what can I expect for expenses? I’ve heard it’s pretty expensive, but there’s no basis for comparison…is it $500 expensive, or $5000 expensive?
My seven year old son was born partially deaf and wears hearing aids in both ears. He is supposed to anyway, we insist he wear them in school but during the summer things have gotten a little lax.
Anyway his are behind the ear, and his hair isn’t that long, but from what I can tell people don’t necessarily notice them if they are just interacting with him casually.
As far as people treating him funny, most of the kids in his school seem to know about them and he hasn’t reported any teasing, nor have his teachers. He is very sensitive and we would probably hear about any such incident, but in any case we have asked him outright and he says no, the kids don’t tease him. This is in a small private school though, his experiences might be different in a larger school, or one with a more heterogenous student body.
Are you asking about the cost of getting your hearing checked, or the aids themselves? A basic hearing test shouldn’t be that much, ours are covered by our health insurance though so I have to confess I don’t know the actual cost.
The aids themselves can get quite expensive. We bought my son fairly high end digital ones, I believe they were in the range of $3,000-$4,000 for the pair. The annoying part is health insurance plans generally don’t cover them, we have to pay out of pocket (although at least we can pay for them pre-tax). In our case we were very lucky to get some financial help from the grandparents.
If you can demonstrate genuine financial need there are organizations out there that will supply you with aids (generally not top of the line of course) at reduced rates. If you need more info let me know.
I understand that the people who would ridicule me are people I don’t want as friends. The thing is, I don’t want to know they exist at all.
Sadly, dealing with more douche bags is something I have to consider when making my choice. I guess what I would really like to know is how many new douche bags do I get to discover if I get hearing aids.
Thanks to everyone that replied so far. All help is greatly appreciated.
So…is hearing loss (for the sake of this question, assume from listening to loud music, not a degenerative disease.) a static or progressing thing? If I get a hearing aid, and it amplifies the sound so I can hear it, does it ALSO contribute to the hearing problem?
My doctor says it can be both. My hearing can get worst or it could stay the same. They don’t really have any way of knowing for sure.
I don’t know about the second part of your question. I don’t think doctors would recommend hearing aids if they add to the problem, but that’s just what I think.
I have the exact same problem. Hearing people talking in an otherwise quiet room, I’m usually fine with, but if there’s a TV on or ambient noise, I have to focus very closely or lip-read to understand (and sometimes that doesn’t even work).
If your loss is being caused by loud music, I don’t know how a hearing aid would treat it. There could be a different cause, however. I’m not a doctor, but as my doctor told me, this sort of hearing problem can be caused by a fluid buildup inside your ear/sinus cavities. I was actually recommended to take a prescription decongestant to help correct the problem. (Which never happened… That probably wasn’t the smartest thing I’ve done…) The same thing might have happened to you too. Have people told you that you talk quietly? Fluid buildup can cause the hearing problem, but can also cause you to hear your own voice more loudly in your head.
No, hearing aids don’t contribute additional hearing loss. They amplify sound waves, they aren’t adjusting any part of your ear or affecting the way things work in there.
My wife has them, got them in her early 20’s. She has the over-the-ear style, but they are mostly invisible since her hair usually covers her ears.
She has had the worst problem with getting ear molds that fit comfortably, must have gone through a dozen different ones before finding good ones.
Health insurance does not cover them, and they are about $2500.00. Sucks. It makes no sense that someone’s vision can be a little blurry and they can get coverage, but permanent congenital hearing loss? Nope, must all be in your head little girl, we don’t consider that a medical problem, have a sucker, run along now :mad:
I figured they were tuned to your particular range of hearing loss (say, in the range of normal male conversation), but what I wasn’t sure of was: If you DAMAGED your hearing from listening to loud things, then you put in hearing aids that MAKE more loud sound, if the damage would continue to occur. You know, if after time, you’d have to make the hearing aid louder and louder, until what point you couldn’t amplify the sound any louder and you were still stone deaf.
I’ve worn hearing aids since I was four (thirty five years now), ranging from very old behind the ear Nixon-era technology to digital canal aids. I honestly can’t think of a single instance of someone mocking or harassing me for wearing them since I was in high school. However, people do tend to act a little differently around me if they know I’m wearing them. They tend to speak up, and overcompensate in various ways. I never noticed this until I went from the fairly visible in-the-ear hearing aids to fairly subtle in-the-canal hearing aids. I suddenly noticed I couldn’t hear customers as well. Eventually, I figured out that they’d been speaking up once they saw the hearing aids, and when I got the less visible units, that had stopped.
The in-the-canal aids have a real benefit beyond the vanity issue. When I went to them, I noticed for the first time that I could tell where sounds were coming from.
As for how they work, they do amplify sound waves, but they can be very specifically tuned to amplify the right frequencies the right amount. They are designed to do so while minimizing the sudden shocks that lead to hearing damage. And the levels are set to correct for loss without crossing the damage threshold. Some even have white noise reduction circuits that help with background noise in crowded rooms.
You said it perfectly.
I wish I could afford ITC aids…I’ve had 5 different medical insurance policies in my life and only one covered anything for hearing aids. And that was a set dollar amount, once a year. It helped, but aids are still super pricey. It’s asinine that someone can see a podiatrist or dermatologist and be covered 100%, yet like **Gargoyle ** said, permanent hearing loss? Nope.
