Hearing Aids
 

My hearing has been gradually deteriorating for several years - and this week, I learned that it's time to get hearing aids.

DAMN!

The modern hearing aids seem to be very sophisticated with regards to sound modification, and they're almost invisible. Great. But then I heard how much they cost.

DAMN, DAMN!

Anyone here in the fifty+ forum have experience with these things?

How bad is the wind roar while cycling? How badly does excessive sweat affect them? (I would get the "nanocoated" version, and the "wind block" option.)

And besides cycling - how have you adapted to hearing aids in general life..?

The VA has given me Phonak ones, course they have given me Siemens, in the ear, ones past. Talk to your audiologist about it. My current ones are behind the ear, and sweat is not a factor, my old ones, the in the ear sweat was a factor. Each in the ear hearing aid has to have mold taken, then they make your hearing aid. Watched a How it is Made show once on it, very interesting. Both of mine with a remote control for different kinds of situations, riding in cars, road noise, eating out, going to movies, etc. etc. I didn't have to lay out cash for mine, but I understand mine run about $3K each. Batteries aren't cheap either, I get about 5-6 days out of each battery, battery packs usually have 6 -9 batterys, starting at around $7-8. When I ride, or am fishing in my trolling I usually just take my hearing aids out. My wife is very grateful I have these as otherwise the TV/radio blasts her out of the room.

I've been very fortunate with my hearing. After over 30 years of working around heavy construction equipment and many hours of target shooting, my last test earlier this year was slightly better than my last test 5 years ago.

Hopefully this is not an expense I need to be concerned with for many years! Best of luck to you.

Take a look at Bob Walker game ears. I don't know if they have all the bells and whistles but they do amplify sound up to about 49 decibels which is about 9 times the ambient sound. I have high frequency hearing loss and I just can't hear things like leaves crunching under a deers foot unless they are making a lot of noise but I can hear a car driving by 4 miles away with the game ears.

I've been wearing them for over a decade. Without them I only hear about 25% of what most people hear. I find they improved my quality of life a great deal. I do not wear them when cycling. It's not the wind noise that is the issue for me. Rather, it's the fact that they don't do well when drenched with sweat, and mine are behind the ear.

I've had hearing aids for some time---highly recommend to new behind the ear ones. They are very comfortable, much more than in the ear hard type. Only problem I've had is the wire that leads from aid to ear the insulation brakes and wire has to be replaced. Sold by New Sound and all covered in price

Ditto NOS88. I have behind the ear, and have used in-the-ear. The in-the-ear tends to close up the ear canal, resulting in a boomy-ness sound (like talking with your pinkies in your ears). The behind the ear don't completely close the ear canal so you hardly know you're wearing them. One problem I had is in certain work situations (theater lighting) I would remove my in-the-ear (when wearing a communication closed ear headset) and hopefully remember where I put the aid. I lost or broke two that way. The behind the ear models I can wear in pretty much any situation.

I do not wear them cycling. I have ruined one behind-the-ear with sweat (Costco replaced under warranty), I now have Gore-Tex covers (yes, that's what they are made from) that is supposed to keep them dry, but I find wearing my aids while riding to be annoying, too much wind noise. As well my loss is in the voice range and I can hear auto's and trucks approaching from behind. I just am not much a conversationalist while on the bike.

I purchased my behind the ears from Costco, having used the hearing center at my college for my first in-the-ears. I am much happier with Costco, having purchased the Kirtland Signature series. They were $2000, minus my union reimbursement of $500 so cost $1500. Money well spent. The warranty is 2 years and they come with rechargeable batteries, which makes life much simpler, simply pop the entire unit in the provided charger overnight and they will last all the next day. This is much more convenient then swapping batteries and cost effective as the $20 rechargeable lasts at least a year. You can also get a $300 Bluetooth communicator that pairs the aids with a cell phone, so easy to take calls. They will also stream audio from an iPod, but typically streaming Bluetooth music is not great sounding, or so I've been told. I don't have the BT device, maybe for Christmas.

I have as well, been very happy with the service at Costco. The audiologists I have dealt with are first rate as are the folks that manage the center.

http://www.costco.com/hearing-aid-styles.html

Have a pair of Oticon Deltas. The amplifier is behind the ear connected to the speaker which is in the ear (inside a latex cone). They are almost invisible and the sound, when working, is quite good. However the speakers don't last in the hostile environment inside the ear. About every six months they die out and the warranties to replace them are expensive. My next pair won't be the inner ear variety. They initially cost around 4k.
I don't wear them riding or any outside activity. I use them mainly for work and meetings or watching TV and movies. It's great when flying. I take them out and don't hear the babies crying.:)

I am in the same situation as the OP. My audiologist recommends hearing aids for me. I've done a lot of shopping around. There are a couple of web based hearing aid providers that sell pretty good digital aids for about 1/3 the price of name brands, or about 2/3 the price of Costco. They are pretty good but don't have all the bells and whistles as Oticon, Siemens, or Phonak. Do a search for Audicus or Embrace Hearing aids.

I have behind the ear hearing aides - very comfortable. I don't wear them while riding but my hearing loss is not profound, I just miss a lot of consonants - typical high frequency loss.

Just a brief rant:
What a scam that hearing aides cost so much. There's really no reason, except that they can charge that much, so they do.

Next scheduled rant:
Crazy high prices on glasses and glasses frames when you know it's just all profit.

New York Times:

http://well.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/1...ring-aid/?_r=0

The latest Consumer Reports has an article on how to reduce the cost of glasses.

If most people didn't get them covered by insurance, they would probably cost about the same as an iPod.

If you want to reduce the price of glasses go to Zennioptical.com

My wife got some bifocals from them for about $20 and they are of good quality. All you need is your prescription for your glasses and you can order on line. Unless you have money to waste there is no reason to pay $400 for glasses.

I have heard that when it comes to using hearing aids that you should try to only use them when needed because their increased volume tends to cause even more hearing loss. I don't know if this is true. I am just repeating what I have heard.

Since you got your hearing aids [MENTION=199133]the[/MENTION] veteran affairs your batteries should be no cost to you as well. You can order hearing aid batteries through my health vet

Guess you can always turn them down or take them out for suppressing the road noise..

I have been wearing hearing aids for 20+ years now. I would shop around and lokk @ phonak, seimen, octicon etcetra . I have a profound hearing loss and wear aids all the time on my rides. Yea it does carry over excess wind noise however inmo that is irrelevant when it comes to safety concerns and riding . With my hearing loss i really dont hear cars approaching until they are directly behind me or pass me. Once i get out in the country, less traveled roads i dont worry so much about traffic . They do help give you a better quality life. The hard part is getting used to them and getting people to look directly @ you when conversing. The bad part with hearing aids they will pick up all the noise around you say like in a restuarant.
I am lucky though i am a cochlear ear implant canidate @ the veteran affairs.

good luck with your decision

Sorry about the spelling i was using my nook

My wife has them, and here are some tips:

1. She originally got the all in the canal type. Those worked OK, but when she switched to the behind the ear type, it was "Wow, what's that sound? Wow and I can this now!" etc. IOW, BTE was much better.

2. We've been impressed with Costco.

3. She wears them riding and has no problems with wind noise. Some people do, and wearing something over your ear fixes that.

4. We got something that let me wear a special microphone so that what I said would stream directly into her ear for riding in the car. It wasn't worth it, and we took it back.

5. Remember, the hearing aids are for your spouse, not you.

6. Getting them sweaty or wet while riding has not been a problem, but she always puts them on the special drying thing afterwards.

7. Don't expect your hearing to return to normal with the aids. You need to work on strategies for communicating with your wife. For example, neither of you should be allowed to start a conversation from another room.

Hearing and listening are two different issues. Many of us have problems with both.

Holy s***! I've been browsing that http://www.zennioptical.com site. Those prices seem too good to be true! I will get a new prescription ASAP and try out a few pairs.

Heck - for just $100 I could get 3 different pairs and prescription sunglasses.

Thanks for the info.

Incidentally - I've found a very informative forum about hearing aids:

http://www.hearingaidforums.com

That site is to hearing aids what Bikeforums is to cycling.

Do hearing aids help with tinnitus??

Yes, you can get hearing aids that incorporate the tinnitus treatment called Tinnitus Retraining Therapy (TRT). My audiologist recommends this type of aid very highly. I've had tinnitus for 47 years since a gun went off next to my ear in Marine Corps boot camp rifle training. I am considering this type of hearing aid, although my standard hearing aids (Phonak) have lessened the annoyance of the tinnitus because other sounds are amplified. They've helped greatly.

Thanks !! I'm going to schedule an appointment to see about my first set of aids soon so I will keep your post in mind.

Costco. I got Kirklands 4 years ago, with 90 day return warranty and 3 year warranty. They were rebuilt with no questions asked just under 3 years after I got them. There are really only a few manufacturers - my Kirklands came in a box with some Rexton markings, and it was manufactured by Siemens. IIRC, Phonak and Oticon are other manufacturers, and there's one more, whose name I've forgotten. Mine are RITEs - Receiver in the ear. I wouldn't ride with them, because I'm told moisture kills hearing aids, and sweat ruins into my ears. From the hearing aid forum, I conclude that HAs are like saddles - what works for one person may not work for another. BTW, ear wax is a big problem. According to my doc, ear wax is natural. If you keep cleaning your ears, the wax just comes back faster and thicker, or you get sick. Life has been easier since I started cleaning wax out of my HAs instead of my ears. Alas, the HAs didn't reduce my tinnitus; that's another person to person variation.

If you get some of their glasses and you don't mind, let me know how you like them.

Will-do.

I haven't even made an appointment yet - will probably do so in the next week or two...

We've been getting our prescription glasses there for about 10 years and have been very satisfied. Never found a badly made lens (more than I can say about some much more costly optical places) and the frame quality has been good as well. They started with $19 as their lowest price years ago and have only been getting cheaper since then. Got my current pair along with one for my daughter when they were running a 'two for one' sale so mine was less than $4. Of course the price will go up as I could start to use some bifocals now, but it'll still be quite reasonable.

I agree with the comments about the high price of hearing aids. Seems like the revolution in miniature electronics should have brought the price down to more reasonable levels.