I’ve worn them for over five years and my current pair are Phonaks. I sometimes tell people that they are comparable to wearing a bra. Most women I know appreciate wearing a bra for support or fashion reasons, but the bra comes off when they get home and relax. I wear my aids when they’re helpful (about 60% of my waking time), but it’s nice to putz around without them.
My father, OTOH, had two pairs over a six-year period and could NEVER get to the point of wearing them with any regularity. He hated his.
BTW, mine are receiver in the ear models. Restaurants and auto parts stores are almost painful to me, BUUUT I can hear conversations taking place behind me like you wouldn’t believe. This is sometimes amusing…sometimes not.
My father gave Mrs. Homer a pair of hearing amplifiers (not hearing aids - those are customized to the patient’s ear size, specific hearing loss, etc.) and she immediately tore them out of her ears. She said that everything was just. so. loud., and she could also hear things she had no interest in hearing. She joked that she could hear the sounds of the bugs landing on the blades of grass outside.
Me too, but Logitech head phones. If I’m going to be on the phone for any length of time, that’s the route I go. I suppose earbuds would be fine too, but I can wear my aids with the headphones.
A friend that is on the phone a lot for work swears by those bone conducting jobs. OpenMove is the brand he has and I bought. Doesn’t work for me at all.
I’m going to need at least one hearing aid. Hearing in my left ear has declined in the last two years. The right is still pretty good. I tend to turn my head in that direction for conversations.
Can you still enjoy music? I understand you can hear it with an aid. But can you pick out the various parts? Appreciate the bass lines? Some people have told me the layers of sound gets jumbled and distorted.
I really want to continue playing guitar and piano. Tuning an instrument would be nice. I can still hear well enough to do it now. I’m hoping aids will just make it easier.
I’m in choirs but don’t consider myself a musician. I googled “best hearing aids for musicians” and got some hits. Don’t know if this will be any help.
I had a dept server in my office for several years. The cooling fans from the server and my workstation weren’t good for my ears.
I’m doing my research. I don’t want to settle for the typical over the ear, senior citizen, hearing aid that insurance covers. Like my mom wears. She gets very frustrated with it.
Absolutely. You need to find an audiologist who works with professional musicians. I knew this the first time I wore my hearing aids to choir practice.
I’d even call a musicians’ union or the symphony human resources person. Find a message board. This is important.
Great news for consumers with low to moderate hearing loss. I expect competiton will force audiologists to reduce their prices. Maybe in a couple years?
New Federal law allows sales with No prescription required.
The Navy gave me some just before I retired. I liked them, but there was something about my younger daughter’s voice that caused a loud buzzing in them, so I quit using them. She’s grown now, and no longer lives at home, but I haven’t seen the hearing aids since we moved 11 years ago.
I’ve started using a Bluetooth adapter and noise canceling headphones with my tv. I can understand whats being said and still keep a low volume.
I do want to get modern hearing aids that pairs with a phone. You can change the sound profile with an App. A friend told me he places his phone near someone he’s talking to. The phone picks up the conversation (and sends to his hearing aids) without being muffled by other people talking in the room.
Or rather, I love being able to hear friends talking in a loud, crowded bar. And being able to hear even British-accented dialog on TV… with the volume at 6 instead of having to “turn it up to eleven” which annoys my wife. (Speaking of her, the doc asked why I’d made the appointment and I said “Because my wife’s been mumbling more and more…”)
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Yeah, I wanted to be able to hear NOW. That (and the audiologist who helped customize the hearing aids for me) was worth over a thousand bucks to me.
And they (Widex Moments) have a great app that helps me adapt to different environments. I can even set them to “listen” to what’s directly in front of me, or on my left or right.
Oh, my favorite feature? They have Bluetooth that’s paired with my phone, so I can listen to the audiobooks I’m addicted to ANY time.
I have some in-ear hearing aids that are crap and I never wear them. They don’t stay situated well, and I don’t really notice much improvement in my hearing with them. I had tried a pair of behind-the-ear aids briefly before I got the in-ear ones, and I think I had better hearing with those. They also had more features, like Bluetooth and a phone app.
My other problem is that I must use headphones or earbuds as part of my job…. Not sure how that would work with hearing aids.
I think that 2017 OTC hearing aid law just went into effect recently.
That would actually be awesome. The crappy aids I have now don’t have that capability, so that has been a roadblock to my being able to use them at work.
I have tinnitus, some minor hearing loss, and good insurance, so I get my hearing checked every year. Except I took the pandemic off. I went back early this year, and mentioned that I was getting more concerned because I have a few friends who seem to be mumbling more. After we had the test data, she told me that the defect detected might be in their frequency range, but it’s still pretty minor, and it’s much more likely that they actually are mumbling
(One of the people involved is my sister, and my Mom has trouble hearing her at times too.)
That said, I do think it’s getting worse. I’m a side sleeper and listen to the (streaming) radio at night, and I find myself changing the volume on my Echo depending on which side I’m on. I think I’m on the way to needing/wanting/benefitting from hearing aids, so I’m reading threads like this with care.
I just went for my ear molds today. It might be a while before I get the actual hearing aids though. I have employer-provided insurance (in the US and not old enough for Medicare yet), and it provides coverage for one pair a year but doesn’t tell you what the allowed limit is until the claim is filed. So that’s special. I can’t afford a big outlay out of pocket, so we shall see how much my lousy insurance will help. Audiologist recommended the Phonak Virto P-312.
I can still hear well enough to do it now. I’m hoping aids will just make it easier.