Hearing aids anyone?

[Sigarms]

I'm in my mid 50's, hearing is figuratively and literally shot. Been that way since my 20's but it's getting worse and my wife is kind of getting exasperated.

What do you do? Pay to go to an audiologist? Then the question becomes how do you determine who is legit and who is selling snake oil? Just curious as to the path to getting a decent but not overly expensive hearing aid.

 

[Stimw]

You might try one of those over the counter hunting aids.
The prices that I have seen on medical aids was ridiculous!

 

[Dftodd]

My kids future father in law spent a bunch of money between the audiologist, and a set of hearing aids. Said they worked ok, but not great. Said he was in Harbour freight and saw some for sale for around $20.

So for giggles, he bought a pair. He was wearing the harbour freight hearing aids when I was introduced to him When asked why, he replied they work much better

I'm in the same boat as you. Mid 40's , an alarm tech for 10 years listening to sirens and fire alarms going off. Then a diesel mechanic for a rental company for the past 15 years. Wife and I constantly bicker going shopping since she will say something quietly not wanting other folks to hear, and me telling her to yell at me because I can't understand what she's saying due to the back ground noise. :confused2:

 

[Bird]

You might want to see this thread, if you haven't already seen it.

http://www.tractorbynet.com/forums/related-topics/391510-hearing-aid-selection.html

And there are some other threads on this topic also.

 

[marchanna]

I don’t have hearing aids but my daughter does. Costco is a good place to buy hearing aids. You’ll need an audiologist to help you get them dialed in properly. I would buy bluetooth ones so that you can connect to your phone.

 

[Sigarms]

You might try one of those over the counter hunting aids.
The prices that I have seen on medical aids was ridiculous!

LOL I've used my electronic shooting muffs in bed. They work pretty well, but are kind of bulky.

 

[Sigarms]

You might want to see this thread, if you haven't already seen it.

http://www.tractorbynet.com/forums/related-topics/391510-hearing-aid-selection.html

And there are some other threads on this topic also.

Thanks Bird, yes, I am an idiot sometimes...

 

[k0ua]

Huh? What?

I think you will have to bite the bullet and go to the audiologist, and find out how bad things are and go from there.

I think you are in some pretty good company. I think most of us have some hearing loss.

 

[Slowpoke Slim]

I lost 80% of my hearing while in the service. Some freq ranges I'm deaf as a post. Others aren't as bad. Background noise wipes out what little hearing I have left. The spoken word is one of the most difficult things to pick up. I can tell someone said something, but it's usually unintelligible, unless they're close by and facing directly at me when they speak. If someone turns away from me, I won't be able to understand them. For my case, a cheap set of just "amplification" aides would be useless. I'd need the fancy-shmancy programmable computer gizmo kind. Yeah, forget that $$$. The folks around me can just learn to speak the h*ll up for that kind of money.

 

[kittyhawk]

I am in my late 40s and lost all my high frequency in the Navy working on flight decks around Jets and shooting machine guns for to long. I went to the VA last year and was diagnosed with severe high frequency hearing loss, and I am still waiting on an appointment to get my hearing aids....
I bought some cheap things at Walgreens one day and use them all the time now.

 

[Wagtail]

I lost 80% of my hearing while in the service.

And your VA doesn't cover this?

I've got an Australian VA "White Card" that covers a number of medical issues = 100% coverage for them & a 'civilian' provider is just fine to provide the service. Hearing is one of my approved issues. They just bill all costs to the government. This includes top-notch hearing aids + batteries for my life.

 

[oosik]

My problem isn't that I can't hear stuff. Its that most of the crap going on around me I DON'T WANT TO HEAR. I need ear plugs or a good set of shooting muffs.

 

[kittyhawk]

The VA covers mine, just getting in for an appointment to get fitted is the hold up. I have had several cancellations and I will admit one was on my fault, but dragging this out for almost a year now is getting old. I have an appointment at DeBake in Houston in two weeks so hopefully that will be it.

 

[JD15302155870]

I had no problems with the VA getting a hearing test and then had choices for which type aids I preferred. What I really like is when I leave with and say “Thank You”. My hearing loss began with my berthing area being directly below 5 inch guns firing all night.

 

[reb]

I tried several otc type hearing "amplifiers." They are ok for hearing loss which is equal in both ears and even across the spectrum. The second set that I bought from Costco seems to work pretty well, tho SWMBO still complains when I ask her to repeat something. At least one company offers to customize the aids to your hearing loss if you send an audiologist's test results. The overall cost is probably equal to or greater than some place like Costco, tho. My FIL has a set from the VA that seems to work very well for him. The price was right (free), but he qualifies for the benefit; I don't.

 

[cdaigle430]

Started wearing hearing aids in my early 30s, went to Miracle Ear for help. $3400 for a set of analogue in the ears...worked ok for two years then then after the warranty kept breaking on my every 6 months and I had to pay out of pocket. Went to the VA for help-thank god, I get new ones under warranty every 4-5 years and free batteries. I am in my 50s now and my hearing is all but gone but my advise is to see a professional and get a second opinion if you need to. Dont buy cheap crap because they wont last and you will lose hearing from them-why? Hearing aids blast amplified sounds into your ear. A professional will take hearing exams and learn what frequencies you need amplified. Then the program your hearing aids to amply those frequencies-That way only the frequencies you cant hear are amplified in your ear...not the ones you can already hear.

 

[treefarmerguy]

Started wearing hearing aids in my early 30s, went to Miracle Ear for help. $3400 for a set of analogue in the ears...worked ok for two years then then after the warranty kept breaking on my every 6 months and I had to pay out of pocket. Went to the VA for help-thank god, I get new ones under warranty every 4-5 years and free batteries. I am in my 50s now and my hearing is all but gone but my advise is to see a professional and get a second opinion if you need to. Dont buy cheap crap because they wont last and you will lose hearing from them-why? Hearing aids blast amplified sounds into your ear. A professional will take hearing exams and learn what frequencies you need amplified. Then the program your hearing aids to amply those frequencies-That way only the frequencies you cant hear are amplified in your ear...not the ones you can already hear.

Please use a larger font, my hearing is bad!!!

 

[marchanna]

My daughter, 11, is hard of hearing, and one thing that we have learned is that hearing loss can can have distinct profiles. This means that certain frequencies can be lost or some you can even become more sensitive to. It is the audiologist that dials in your hearing aid based on their tests and your feedback. You have to have a proper hearing aid in order to be able to achieve this because they can load in specific programs. A simple amplifier has none of this capability. Your particular region may have government subsidies to assist in the cost of hearing aids, and I encourage you to make every attempt to utilize them. Lord knows we’ve all paid enough tax, its times like these that you get some of it back.

 

[RalphVa]

When you go to the audiologist, insist that they do an air and bone conductivity. Often, they may not do the bone one. If sound goes well through the bones but not the air, you could have ottosclerosis, which is fixable with some good micro surgery. I had to have my right eye done in about 1984. Had superman hearing for about 10 days until my body turned the volume down.

Later, here in about 2001, a doctor did the left ear. It had some nerve damage in mid range; so fixing it was not quite so dramatic.

Had a hearing aid for my left ear for a while that wasn't worth too much, backfed a lot, etc.

About 2 or 3 years ago, I got $2,000 hearing aids for each ear. Still, I have troubles with hearing certain people. Luckily, my audiologist has some programs on mine, and I have a remote control that selects them that help when I'm in meetings trying to understand different people. I need captions to hear all the voices on TV.

I'm a veteran, but I didn't mess with the VA. A friend of mine is a retired marine. He got some similar to mine all paid by the VA.

Ralph

 

[oldnslo]

On fifth set of hearing aides and none of them repair all of my high frequency hearing loss which almost equal in both ears. Set I have now are the programable kind with blue tooth capabilities. I have mixed emotions about the blue tooth and wish I could turn that feature off when in crowded environments since I believe they are trying to connect to everyones phones. I.e. almost constant volume changes and interference. These have four levels of application in each ear as well as directional capabilities. They still are of limited help in a noisy environment and I frequently turn them down or off in this type of environment.

Yes I went to registered audiologist and yes these are expensive around $3000 each. Biggest challenge is getting some that are comfortable and work for you. Make sure they will provide a 30 day or more free trial period along with multiple fitting visits. Took me four visits to get this set working at an acceptable level.

Best of luck on your search and decision.