Those Oticons excel in very loud restaurants without even having to go into a special program although one is available if needed. They are truly amazing in noisy environments!
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I’m enjoying my new Oticons,too! They are really great in noisy restaurants. I did have to have my audiologist tweak them as it made my friends voices it so loud it almost hurt and my voice seemed so loud. These software programs are amazing.
I had dinner with a friend who has a very very soft voice. Not only did I struggle with the amp on, but had to go in and raise it manually.
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Do you have the app on your phone?
Yes
At first I thought you meant with the hearing assistance mode (which I happened to be playing with tonight)… but I assume that is in a paired setup.
Dad’s wife is sure it’s not worth going to audiologist for new hearing aids since his ears (always bad) might be beyond help. But a few years ago when paired to ipad there was amazing success, so I still have a hope.
Might be beyond help???
Isn’t it when you have that kind of uncertainty that you go to the doctor and have her/him run some tests and provide a consultation to clear it up? Please continue to work on him and her. This is serious.
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“Sure” it’s not worth going because “might be” seems like a contradiction. Might be implies uncertainty rather than being sure – might be successful or might be unsuccessful. I agree with Bill Marsh that if there is a risk of a severe problem that is all the more reason to see a doctor rather than self diagnose. There are often options beyond just amplifying sounds with hearing aids.
That said, hearing aids have come a long way in recent years. Many models of basic hearing aids can provide enough amplification to support profound hearing loss, with >90dB in specific frequency bands. If the problem is not just volume, many models have functions focused on clarity such as selectively enhancing unvoiced consonants (p, t, f, k …), while reducing low frequency vowels. Or selectively removing what AI actively determines is background noise.
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Might be one of those things where it’s too much trouble for her to get him to the audiologist for appointments and follow-ups.
The work of getting an elderly person to appointments becomes really difficult and I guess you think about how that would affect their quality of living at this point.
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I should clarify that Dad does have hearing aids. He’s had various models over the years, currently using one rechargeable newish one and one older battery operated one (one of the newish ones went missing). They do help, but not as much as I’d like.
@deb922 is right. It is difficult for his wife to get Dad to appointments - he’s 99 years old, and house has a lot of stairs. Dad does not really like the nearby audiologist they used before. I’ve encouraged them to ask friends for recommendations. Dad is super sharp for his age, but two way conversation (especially by phone) only works when he can hear properly.
Oh. I see. It’s a shame because people with severe hearing loss late in life are so disconnected.
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Two way conversation by phone does become increasingly more difficult for many as they age. Remember, by phone, you aren’t getting any of the non-verbal cues we get when we are communicating in person. No facial expressions, hand motions, body language, etc. You are only getting the words, and one with a hearing loss might not be getting all the word parts also.
And sometimes, hearing aids don’t help this…sometimes they do.
My suggestion is…use the aids always. And take advantage of the times when the aids actually do help.
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At my May hearing test (at audiologist associated with my PCP health clinic), the results showed mild hearing loss… worse at higher frequencies. I went ahead and made a July appointment (free) to understand more of their offerings even though at this point I have limited need.
Audiologist confirmed that in my current situation I’m a good candidate for OTC hearing aids. Although there are frequencies where I only hear about 61%… I had 100% recognition on the missed words once she increased volume, which apparently is a good indicator that simple OTC hearing aids can help (?)
Turns out my medical insurance, to be replaced by Medicare next summer, would possibly cover $1000/ear… any brand. (Though audiologist was dubious, said that is unusually good - suggested double checking.) Currently though I have a $3500 deductibe, and am only $43 into it. So no temptation to jump into a prescription set of hearing aids this year.
My plan for now is to play around with Airpod3 hearing aid mode.
JK!
I am hearing (pun intended) very good things from several audiologists about OTC hearing aids. I have expensive RX hearing aids and I still have trouble with background noise and auditory discrimination.
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High frequency hearing loss is the most common kind. The problem with this kind of loss is that even though it only affects a limited number of sounds, those are the very sounds which distinguish one word from another. So, if you get that one letter sound wrong, you get the whole word wrong. You get that one word wrong, and you lose the meaning of the entire sentence. Lose that one sentence and the whole paragraph is off.
I don’t know your profile, but here are the high frequency sounds - s, f, t, k, h, sh, ch, th.
Clarity of speech is the single biggest issue for hearing impaired people.
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Right. And that’s why I want to start getting a handle on this now, not wait until I’ve lost too much hearing/sounds.
So far my airpods3/OTC proof-of-concept experiment going ok at home. The setup is pretty easy (including a simple hearing test), but I think I missed a last/start step on my own last month. I will try to experiment more later at our weekly beer night with friends, the most challenging environment (and honestly a place where our older friends with hearing aids also sometimes struggle). TV is usually no problem since we often run captions, ha… always if a British series.
Test drive on Airpod Pro3 as OTC: I got things set up on Friday for our regular group happy hour / dinner outing. Worked quite well. But… turned out to not be a realistic test because 1) only 5 of us this week & 2) we were at a large, uncrowded food hall, not very loud - I also could hear fine without the assistance.
I certainly did notice small subtle sounds such as pants swishing. Not bothersome, just a good reminder that I miss some some small stuff. Hmmm… next test will be this afternoon when our soft voiced CO_kid comes over to watch the FIFA finals.
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I have moderate to severe hearing loss. I am an identical twin with the exact same hearing loss profile (total ski slope loss after a loss frequency). I wear Phonak Audeo. They are ok. This is my second pair by Phonak. I took the fancy options off (like listening to music or tapping the ear to answer the phone). It was annoying. I am hoping to get another pair soon- but I will maybe try a whole new brand and audiologist. Mine retired and I went to the Dr. that bought the practice and am very disappointed. My hearing has gotten worse and I fear about getting dementia. I used to speak Spanish fluently (lived there in my teens for a couple years) and would watch all the Spanish Netflix shows. However- I feel that now (even in English)- there is almost a delay I have to even process speech which is frustrating. It’s depressing.
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I tried Phonak and didn’t like them. Too much auto switching of ptograms.
I tried Oticon and did like them. Set ‘em and forget ‘em. Little to no need for extra programs because the automatic program is so good.
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I had more fun playing around with the airpods as OTC device during Sunday’s world cup finals.
You can manually switch between Transparency (all), adaptive (screens out some backbround noise) and noise cancellation (which at one point during the game was better for converation). Sometimes it autoswitches from adaptive to transparency, especially if user starts talking.