Hearing aids for Severe hearing loss

[mainie]

My audiologist only works with GNResound and Oticon, and seems to favor Oticon. She recommends any of the following Oticon hearing aids:
Synchro, Safran, Tego and maybe Sumo.

I've been using a Danovox programable and it has never satified my needs, that is why I'm looking at digitals. At the moment I can only hear in a quiet environment when the person talking to me is close by and facing me. I cannot hear in noisy environments, like a restaurant or at a large gathering, even with a noise program. I can't hear speech at a theatre or show, nor the movies, TV or radio. I can't hear at lectures or workshops. I have great difficulty hear my companions when travelling in a car. Also, I can't hear on the phone.

Probably I will not be able to get all that with a hearing aid and will need other assistive listening devices, like an FM system? So I would need a compatable aid?

Please tell me which hearing aid you would recommend? Also, if anyone else has owned any of the Oticon models above, please will you comment on them?

Thanks!
Mainie

[Admin]

GN Resound and Oticon Hearing Aids are both very good brands.

Yet, if you are looking into FM capabilities, I would recommend the Phonak Savia, Eleva or the Micro Power BTE with receiver in the ear.

We have several posts on this forum about FM and especially the use of the Smart Link. You can find out more here: http://www.hearingaidforums.com/showthread.php?t=100&highlight=smart+link

If you are not considering FM, I would suggest trying the Sonic Innovations Innova hearing aid with directional microphones. Will have to be an ITC, ITE or BTE instrument, but directional microphones with their noise reduction schemes work very well in noisy environments.

Yet, if you provide us with the hearing loss you have as well as your speech discrimination scores (should be a percentage on each ear), I and others on the forum can provide you with some better ideas.

We have a few Oticion wearers on the forum, but most of them wear the open fitting Deltas, which are not made for severe hearing losses.

[Admin]

One other option, before spending a lot is to order a Conversa handheld microphone.

8

This is a wireless microphone and directional microphone that can place closer to the source of the sound and you wear a small telecoil loop, like a necklace and you can wear them under your clothes. The way it works is the sound from the microphone is beamed wirelessly to the receiver which is worn around the neck and the wire loop around your neck send the signal wirelessly to the hearing aids. The hearing aids must have Telecoils, which most BTE's have. Many ITC and larger hearing aids also have this feature.

This is a cheaper alternative to FM Boots or the My link and can give users an idea of how FM systems and wireless microphones work.

We gave it a good testing and it work very well...in fact, we could hear conversations even when we left the room. I went to use the restroom and could still hear everything everyone was saying in my office.

Retail should be around $795-$1,000.

I have one in stock, a demonstrator unit, if anyone needs one to try out. PM me if you are interested.

[chris]

My question is how practical is this type device for everyday use. Do you actually have to arrange to set the unit near the source and then retrieve it when you are done. I can see where this is not always practical. It would be great for office meetings or in someones homw but I don't understand its use in the everyday world. Could you shed some light on the matter?:confused:

[Admin]

Chris:

The practicality depends on your situation. In your case, it may not be practical, as you are moving about in the work environment you are in.

Whereas some people need this type of device to hear other in their car, across, the dinner table, in meetings, etc.

You really don't have to place the mic at the sound source, such as in a church, for example. You can just face the unit in the directional mode toward the speaker and you can hear a little better.

But for people who are very active and can't afford to be pointing this remote control looking thing at people that are talking to you, it might not be the right solution (LOL)!!!

You really would have to have poor speech discrimination, in fact very poor and have a whole lot of problems hearing in noise to warrant this.

In your case, I would still advise Savia, Watch Pilot or Sound Pilot and directional microphones.

Hope this helps u out.

[kat]

For severe hearing loss, the options are a little narrower, especially if your speech discrimination scores a lower than 70% or so.

In those case, the Oticon's can work quite well.

I prefer using the Sonic Innovations Innova or Applause or the Phonak Savia or Micro Power, as these can deal with the little problems that often occur with severe hearing losses.

I would suggest you discuss with your audi/had what types of results you can expect with the amount of hearing loss you have, in both quiet and in noisy environments and find out what type of testing procedures they have in their office to ensure proper fitting (ie Speech mapping, HINT or Quick SIN Tests).

[mainie]

Right ear
250 - 50
500 - 50
750 - 70
1K - 100
2k - 110
3k - 100
4k - 115

Left ear
250 - 50
500 - 50
750 - 80
1K - 90
2k - 100
3k - 100
4k - 100

Based on this test, one of my local Audiologists has recommended the following:
Starkey Destiny 1200, or GN Resound Metrix.

I appreciate your comments. Also, can someone help me with prices for these?

Thanks!

[Admin]

If your audi uses Resound and Oticon a lot more than anything else, you really should be using a hearing aid made for profound hearing losses.

The reason why is because although the Metrix and other typical size 13 battery BTE's have enough power for right now, your hearing can change for the worse and most likely will, thus you should already be planning for this.

Thus the Sumo DM by Oticon or the Phonaks mentioned above would work now and carry you in the future.

The drawback is the size, as the Sumo DM is a large BTE.

Thus, if size were an issue and you need the power, the receiver in the ear Phonak Micro Power would be a great solution.

I don't think you will find too many audi's who would suggest the Starkey...but that is of course up to you.

Yet, I would stay with the Oticon SUMO DM if you have to choose between an Oticon and a GN Resound, particularly because the SUMO DM has a great feedback cancellation program and lots and lots of power to spare.

Pricing on the Sumo DM's should be around $5,500 for a pair with all services included.

Also, do you have the results of your speech discrimination test for each ear? It should be a percentage number for each ear.

[mainie]

Thanks for you response. My audi DID do a speech discrimation test, but this was not shown on the evaluation. I think I did very badly with this...
This audi is quite excited about Starkey's new Destiny range!

[kat]

If your audi is that excited, make sure they offer a trial period and then give it a try.

It would be good if you can test 2 side by side at the same time, so you can compare. It would be good if you can compare the Destiny agains the Oticon Syncro or Sumo, since I think you indicated they work with Oticon.

[mainie]

I saw another Audi yesterday who recommended Phonak Aleva. We looked at the Micro Power but found the right ear high frequency loss right on the edge of the power it could provide. Please will you tell me the major differences between the two, apart from size and power?

We also discussed having the FM boot, I found out it has to be attached by the Audi and then remains attached to the hearing aid. This transforms the hearing aid into a BIG unit, and not desirable! I was under the impression it was something easily plugged in and out as needed?

Please will you explain my options - exactly what I need to acquire to achieve the following goals?

· I assume my new Aleva will improve hearing conversation when traveling in a moving vehicle on the highway, without any additional listening devices?

· I teach yoga to groups of 8 - 25 people, and I need to move around a bit, would I be able to hear a question from the back of the room, with hearing aids alone?

· When attending trainings, lectures and workshops where the lecturer moves around the room and is not always facing me - what are my options, keeping it simple? This is not the type of environment that has built in wiring or whatever that may enable me hear speech through my hearing aid.

· What are my options for the theater, plays, movies, TV, radio? Will the Aleva work for some of this without additional listening devices?

· I am confused by all the data I've consumed during the last few weeks, this includes the article on your website about smart link and Fm, etc.

I hope I have not confused all your readers with my question! Anybody that has experience or knowledge, please share...

Thank You!

[Admin]

The Eleva's are also a very good choice.

With the BTE models (not the micro Eleva), you can attach the FM boot and you can take them off and remove them with proper instruction.

It does make the hearing aid longer and larger.

If you don't want that, you still can use My Link and not have an FM boot and use the Telecoil program to wirelessly send the signal. You will also need the Smart Link microphone/bluetooth/remote to do this.

Without FM capabilities, I doubt that the hearing aids alone can fully correct your hearing loss, at least to the extent you would like, due to the severity of the hearing loss and, most likely, poor speech discrimination scores.

But I would rather use the Phonak Eleva's over the Starkey Destiny's any day.

Make sure to ask your Audi what you can reasonably expect with hearing aids and whether FM solutions are necessary or not.

[mainie]

I've been wearing these for almost 6 weeks now, with adjustment being made every 10 days or so. I don't know what to tell my audiologist anymore, except that although the power is there, I do not understand much. Some parts of words sound too sharp (like noise) for me making the word get lost.

Another problem i found was that soon after the the last adjustment sounds appeared uncomfortably loud. Now sound is soft, too soft. Understanding speech seem worse now than with my previous programmable analogs - Danovox, despite the Danovox not providing enough power.

Unfortunately my audiologist does not have the equipment for testing HINT or SIN. I had much hope that the Aleva would improve my speech understanding, simply because they are digital, offering so much more options.

What can I do? How can I help my audi help me?

[Pedro De La Garza]

I´m also have a profund hearing losses and in my opinion just Ponak Supero and Oticon SUMO have power for us.

I´m wearing SUMO XP (analog) and I´m going to change to SUMO DM (digital).

I was looking for other option but just CI (Coclear implant) is for us.

You can try many type of HA but any one can´t restore you hearing ability, then we migth looking for the best super power aid but knowing that always we will have problems of listening in different situations.

All HA have "fitting range" than you must compare to yours and in that case starky destiny is not for you, may be Da Vince (I try it) but oticon and ponak are much better . . . .

[ZCT]

Mainie,

I have fitted several patients with a loss similar to yours. I think the Destiny 1200 is a good choice, but it's not going to be cheap. But ask your specialist if you could try a Starkey DaVinci PxP or PsP also. They are really powerful aids and you are certainly going to need some power. A good specialist should be able to order all three in and let you listen to them right in his office. Then you can decide which sounds best.

For very bad hearing I think the DaVinci packs a lot more punch than a Destiny. This should make it more future proof for you.

[Leslie6]

Sighhhhhhh, alas I am severe/profound and make do with what i have and this site is wonderful. I must thank and congratulate you all for participating. It is good to see you post and respond. I am a computer consultant in the field I work in offices and private homes. As you can imagine using telephones in such widely diverse environments is very hard to do. I would like to hear about your success stories adapting to phone use. I use a cell phone for messages as i fournd a company www.phonetag.com that offers transcribing services. The voice mail on my cell is forwarded to phonetag and they transcribe it and send it back to me as a text message. OH my how wonderful it is not to miss the phone messages anymore. However, if any of you have alternative methods I sure would like to hear about them. Thank you for posting all these wonderful ideas on this site.

Fondest Regards
Your Friend Leslie

[John59]

I use these 3 BTE’s for my hearing Loss
Siemens Centra SP
Siemens Intuis SP
Siemens Phoenix 313- this is analog.

Nevertheless the programming is key the all of the digital hearing aids.

right left
250 70 110
500 80 110
1000 70 90
2000 65 85
3000 80 105
4000 80 110
6000 110 110
8000 90 105

[buck]

Nu Ear has the same technology as Starkey in a BTE called the 1200 Rhapsody Power Plus. Not only is this one of the most powerful instruments on the market it also has loop system capabilities that will allow you to hear at Church, movies and even your TV at home if these places have the loop system installed. You can have these installed by a professional or you can do it yourself. We have them installed in our waiting rooms and the people that can't hear in your described situations can hardly believe how well they can hear again. Ask your fitter about the loop system. Wish I could fit you. Good luck.

[rn1969]

never have used a hearing aid,im in the process of getting them,i wanted to ask can i buy one at atime they are so expensive,also what do you think about buying them on e-bay ?

[prodigyplace]

Unless you have only a loss in one ear or are deaf in one ear have have a loss in the other ear, two aids are generally highly recommended. If you are deaf in one ear, what uiis called a CROS or BICROS aid is recommended to transfer sounds from your deaf ear to your better ear.

Generally, you would get the best results by seeing a good hearing professional who will work with you to get the proper aids for your loss and adjust them to suit you best.

Most people here would agree that your choice of hearing professional is generally more important than your choice of hearing aid brand.

To work most effectively, the aids need to be professional adjusted for your particular loss and then adjusted to improve it for you as an individual. Ordering from e-bay you would either get used aids that were were programmed for somebody else or aids that are generally adjusted for your loss, but without the final adjustments most people need.

the user-programmable aids available online (Hearsource & America Hears) are older technology that us not suitable for many hearing losses. At leats, that has been my experience. A severe to profound loss generally needs the technology available in today's advanced aids.