Digital Hearing Aids

[kowalskil]

Some of you might benefit from reading my free online

"Hearing Aids For Dummies" essay. The link is:

http://pages.csam.montclair.edu/~kowalski/hearaids5.htm

 

[dogtowner]

I too have been relying on hearing aids for about 4 years. Mine are digital and a whisker above midle if the line models.

It was shocking to learn the extent of my hearing loss. What I began being able to hear was quite surprising.

My dad and grandmother did not like their analog ones (yes it's genetic to have hearing prone to degeneration). I was told two things that are very important but usually ignored. It's going to sound tinny. At first. You have not been hearing these frequencies so when that is restored by the HA by increasing the volume of those freqyencies, it's going to sound wrong. This will improve as your brain relearn how to process this new data.
So
Secondly, wear the darn things even if they are annoying with the tinny sound. If you pull them out you just delay your brain's learning process.
This is hard at least it was for me. And then I decided to bite the Bullitt and do it. Sure enough, after about two weeks the sound became more natural, the headaches/earaches got better and life b was transfirmed.
Now know this, it won't be the same.
Mine have forward and rearward facing microphones. Your ears do a far better job of detecting where sound originates. So not having that will be notable. I found I had to have greater emphasis on the forward as it was too easy having someone behind me drown out someone I'm looking at. Doesn't go over well if I'm going "huh" to the wife because some guy behind me has a booming voice.
So lots to adjust to but hearing us far better than not hearing.

 

[Walter]

Very interesting. I will push my mother to wear hers more often, she has the habit of wearing it only sometimes.

 

[dogtowner]

Very interesting. I will push my mother to wear hers more often, she has the habit of wearing it only sometimes.

If her complaint is that it's annoying or even to the point if being uncomfortable I can vouch for that improving at least for digital ones. I'm afraid my grandmother's old analogs might not improve as they didn't function the same. Also she had feedback issues may have had fitting issues. Be sure she is working closely with her audiologist to get them tweaked right for her. Good luck !

 

[Lagboltz]

I have been wearing top of the line digital for about ten years. They are only a tiny bit better than middle of the line models if at all. I have forward mics only, but it is still difficult hearing in a noisy environment.

The basic problem with any hearing aid is that it changes the phases of incoming waves randomly. The ear and brain cannot reconstruct the direction of the sound.

A problem I have is "hidden hearing loss". Even though you can hear the amplified frequencies your brain has a hard time making sense of them because of deeper auditory nerve damage.

It's sort of like eyes. If there is not enough light energy or if your vision is blurry, you can't see well. That's easy to fix. Just turn up the lights and get glasses. With hearing aids you can turn up the sound energy, but you can't get rid of the "audio blurriness".

 

[dogtowner]

I have been wearing top of the line digital for about ten years. They are only a tiny bit better than middle of the line models if at all. I have forward mics only, but it is still difficult hearing in a noisy environment.

The basic problem with any hearing aid is that it changes the phases of incoming waves randomly. The ear and brain cannot reconstruct the direction of the sound.

A problem I have is "hidden hearing loss". Even though you can hear the amplified frequencies your brain has a hard time making sense of them because of deeper auditory nerve damage.

It's sort of like eyes. If there is not enough light energy or if your vision is blurry, you can't see well. That's easy to fix. Just turn up the lights and get glasses. With hearing aids you can turn up the sound energy, but you can't get rid of the "audio blurriness".

Ears do provide more omnidirectional hearing and I doubt hearing aids can match that. Perhaps ones that fit entirely in the ear. My audiologist was honest enough to say the same of top of the line models.
I have a problem with white noise. Electric motor hum for example. I'm told this is common. And poor enunciation is tough. Try telling the wife that one.
Still 1000% better.
I remember when I first had them on I was trying to figure out what I was hearing, kind of like someone using sand paper. It was me fidgeting with my feet. Couldn't believe what I'd been missing.
Not perfect and never will be (intellegent designer way better than the human ones) but still worth it.