Not too bad, high frequencies are cut pretty well, difficulty in filtering out individuals in noisy crowded environments, left ear worse.
Dad was pretty stone deaf at age 91 year of death, my brother 68 yrs wears dual hearing aids, I have a prescibed single aid but it annoys me considerably, always coming adrift, don't wear it much.
I do miss the sounds of birds and the powerful hearing I once took for granted, also have tinnitis which I have to tune out, sometimes worse than others.
Probably not wearing ear protection when I should have has contributed, youngsters please take note.
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bryfos
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Well there don't seem to be any alternative but to wear Two hearingaids, I suggest you go back to where you got them and ask for another, if you don't then you will continue to miss things you want to hear, I would expect you got them from the NHS, who have a very limited choice of hearing aids, like one aid suits all, and they have very limited noise reduction circuitry, but the choice is yours, there are better aids out there, it depends what priority you put on your hearing....the NHS have filled there's by making you hear better, where and when is not there concern.
Incorrect re limited noise reduction circuitry. I fit Swiss Phonak aids for the NHS with the Outside Clinic and they beat anything you can buy privately - if you're not an audiologist you should not make comments on something you don't understand.
The fine tuning on these aids is the best! However, the audiologist can mess it up if they don't understand how to tune them!
If you don't have a Real Ear Measurement done at the fitting stage, the aid(s) will not be set up to the very best performance available to your hearing loss!
However, you also have to realise that, unless you have a conductive hearing loss, once you've lost your hearing it has gone! Hearing aids can't bring it back - it's gone! So your expectations have to be managed by the audiologist - in 23 years, I've NEVER told people that they can expect to hear conversation when in groups!
As we get older, the majority of us lose the ability to hear high frequency sounds first - and retain the low frequencies.
This means you hear the vowels but not the consonants.
In a group situation, all the voices merge together and form a low pitch rumble. Background noise is a low frequency phenomenon - so with this most common type of loss, you hear the noise brilliantly! However, as you don't hear high pitch sounds, you miss the t's, c's, s's etc - which gave your the treble (and clarity) in speech. You can hear people talking but you can't make out what they're saying - this is why.
No hearing aid, private or NHS can eliminate background noise. Audiologist is telling you porkies if they tell you they can!
The only way you can get rid of background noise is to tell everyone to shut up!
So, please understand that the aids distributed via the NHS through companies such as The Outside Clinic, are technically superb if they are programmed correctly by the audiologist!
Don't waste your money privately without trying them first - like loads of our customers, they've saved themselves loads of money!
Yes that is a good explanation of my hearing probs in crowds.
I am about to embark on a mission to get my hearing ability helped, firstly a recent partial blockage in left outer ear needs sorting , then testing etc. It will be NHS first unless I double check privately free.
You need to persevere with aids, two are best as the brain adapts better with two. If you don't then you will feel more and more isolated. I hate wearing them but just could not function without them. I did wear NHS but scraped the money together and have private aids which are 100% better.
Lets really put things into perspective here... NHS v Private, what is the difference, lets look at the change that has happened over the last couple years first.... Hospital NHS services have been under considerable change, and many services have had to be cut, or "Out Sourced", in many regions the Hearing Aid service has been out sourced to "Private Companies" with the Private sector paying a fee or a licence fee to the NHS for the service, the General Idea is that if the person has been fitted with a NHS approved Aid and they find that it is not for filling there needs than they will purchase a better aid from that company because they have become familier with that service, the main companies that have grasped this service is the OUTSIDE CLINIC, previously known as Scrivens, a National High Street Company, and the Eye Care company SPECSAVERS, there are a few others but not many as it is not very cost effective but it is filling there client list, Hearing Aid Manufactures have lept onto this and offering these companies some quite good cheap Hearing Aids, the profit margins are quite small but these companies are doing a lot, and have dispensers solely doing NHS work, as by the rules of the NHS they have to keep NHS and Private separate, but they work Hand In Glove, supplying the best profit aid in there selection, so you get no more or no less than the Local Hospital would supply, it's the same only quicker, for now, I say that because when the licence's become renewable we don't know what is going to happen, I think it's all a bit of a mess, but that is my opinion, the consenses in the Private Sector is that they do not wish to fit NHS Type Hearing Aids, it's too tied up in RED TAPE, and to say the NHS Hearing Aids are better than some Private Ones, with Noise Reduction as good as Private ones is just folly, the NHS can not afford to purchase the quality Technology hearing aids, with what the NHS give the Fitting Service, for the purchase of the aid, the fitting and Batteries, and there is a limited service interval in that cost as well, no way would £350 cover any decent hearing aid, it just can't, but I diverse...... Anyone who is thinking about purchasing a Private aid should seek the advice of a Local Independent Hearing Specialist, not a Expensive National High Street company, having been in both for 30 years, I can tell you where I would go.
You should check your facts and only make comments like you have when you have done so.
The Outside Clinic was not previously Scrivens! They started as domiciliary opticians 30 years ago, and then went into the hearing sector in 2009. Scrivens is a completely different company!
Having been an audiologist for 23 years, I've worked for Boots, Hidden Hearing, Amplivox and others, and can categorically state that the NHS aids that the Outside Clinic fit to patients are as good if not better than what people are paying £1-£2.5k for!!
So you're comments are wrong. Also if an NHS aid isn't working for someone, it's generally a case of it/them needing reprogramming - essentially, having a Real ear measurement done will result in the patient hearing as well as they have done for years! Fact.
If you want to advise people to pay for hearing aids before checking out NHS aids first, you need to back it up with accurate facts!
The main reason people don't want NHS aids is because they are behind the ear! You can only get in the ear ones privately. If cosmetics is THE main reason you're going privately, you are paying out unnecessarily and ignoring THE most important factor - the sound quality! NHS aids fitted and programmed correctly, as explained, will give as good, if not better, than you get privately.
The General point is, and I've heard it hundreds of time, and you've repeated it, what NHS aids would cost privately, £1000/ £2500, if you have been in the business, all be it, expensive national High Street companies for some time you should know the Best Deal is always your local independent Hearing Aid Dispenser, where you can get the very latest ReSound 3D linx a PAIR for that type of money, you tell me hand on heart that the NHS supply aids are better, all this "they would cost" is putting people off at least trying the very latest hearing aids and denighing them an opportunity of hearing better, because at the end of the day, that's all we want to do, if people wish to go the NHS route, fine, I always tell them, some have, some have been there, but want better, that's what I'm here for, and I HAVE NEVER EVER advertised my company on any blog, I think you will find it breaches the site rules, and probably the HPC as well, I'm here to give people the "Best Advice" not to advertise.
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Still Positive After All These Years
Well that's not what I would have expected