Hearing aid experience and recommendation

I don't think you necessarily need hearing aids for Tinnitus unless you also have hearing loss. I went to an ENT Specialist in December past. My hearing is within good limits but I have horrendous oceans in my left ear day and night .. it is worse in the silence of the night. Music does not ease it either. As mentioned above, medication did not help. I still have a serious balance problem and am having an MRI and SSEP on Thursday as I am seeing a Neurologist now.

 

My aids do nothing for tinnitus it is still there day and night, I am even conscious of it while driving. I didn't know they were recommended to help combat Tinnitus.

 

I had a hearing test at Boots I am at least 30% down ,thought it would be interesting.
He tried me with the pair he thought was perfect.(outside ear)
He took me into the street for a test and there was absolutely no difference also speaking to people in the shop.
He asked me for a return visit but I had no confidence in him or the aids.
Ideally I would like invisible aids but they are less efficient apparently and so difficult to recharge.
IMHO they have not perfected it enough yet.
It is better for women as they can hide them with hair…………I don’t have enough.
They are pretty expensive so one wants something that works well.
SO LOOK AFTER YOUR HEARING WHILE YOU STILL HAVE IT.

 

I have deafness and tinnitus (A above middle C) in my left ear and my brother in his right. We were in a band together 40 plus years ago and I stood to the right of the lead guitarist and him to the left (wonder if the lead guitarist is deaf in both ears?).
I was tested and given an NHS hearing aid a few years back and it is fine indoors but a pain outside. If it is windy the wind howling past blots out my good ear. I seldom wear it.
My wife is going deaf but denies it. As a result, her voice has gotten quieter as she has no feedback and if I cannot hear what she says she blames it on me not having my hearing aid in. I keep pointing out that she sits on the side of my good ear.

 

I also find, that wearing glasses, on the ear aids don't fit as well.
There are the added extras, domes and wicks to buy as they need replacing on top of the initial cost.

 

Yes I will. From my very limited knowledge on tinnitus, it apparently has a variety of causes. Perhaps my friend's case is something where the aid can help- after all, she is young so tinnitus and mild hearing loss are not that common. Glad she is so happy though.

 

Thank you all for the posts, interesting.
The tinnitus is not a major problem and I can live with it, at the moment. The loss of hearing is more of a problem especially when people are on my left; I also work with a number of people who are softly spoken. Socialising is something I don't do; as basically I don't like people in groups, one by one they are generally tolerable in small doses.
The price seems ridiculous as it is way north of a half decent mobile phone and I don't suppose you can get TMS or Radio 4 or ask Siri over your hearing aid.
Oh well I'll sign up for a test and see what the recommendation is.

 

Get your doctor to refer you for an NHS test. They even supply the batteries ongoing.

 

Hi,

Just resurrecting this old thread about hearing aids and interested to know if anyone has bought and used In Ear or Behind the Ear aids from the many sites offering them for sale from under £100 a pair and can recommend a particular brand ?

Appreciate that NHS or suppliers like Boots do test and tune their Aids to specific frequencies but for slight hearing loss it seems a very high price to pay using them.

 

My husband is an Audiologist, he had 6 offices. The best hearing aide to buy is Oticon.
Most reliable, user friendly, high satisfaction by his patients. With a good audiogram Oticon can program the hearing aid to fit you specific hearing loss, and the audiologist can also further program it with his computer and you sitting there. His appointment calendar was always full, word of mouth did it in this county, he did little advertisement. But, yes he did use other companies based on what the patient wanted to spend. Some insurances did cover part of it.
Husband now retired, sold all his offices.

And, no, I did not work for him, had my own career.

 

I've had NHS hearing aids for over ten years. I was diagnosed with a possibly genetically linked condition called Otosclerosis (which is a form of arthritis of the tiny inner bones) 30 years ago in my right ear and had a operation to correct that. The fused bone was replaced by a tiny metal implant. That helped but ten years ago I was diagnosed with age related hearing loss in both years and prescribed NHS hearing aids. Recently had new ones fitted and they are okay, although I find them slightly irritating to wear and they don't fit that well with glasses on. I still find it difficult to hear in noisy situations like busy restaurants which I think you just have to live with. I also get tinnitus which is bearable most of the time.
I rather preferred my old Oticon ones @redstar.
I did have a 14 month's wait to be fitted for the new ones which I found extraordinary, why the NHS couldn't just issue them to me, given that I was an existing user, I do not know.
I didn't want to go down the route of paying for private ones a, because of the cost and b, various friends told me they were no better in their estimation than the NHS ones.

 

I have a pair of Widex which is the same as an Oticon. Every hearing situation can be changed via an app on you phone.

 

I did a search for Oticon and the first thing that came up was an advert saying "Just £2,974". Nobody should be allowed to put 'just' alongside a number like that.
A friend spent several thousand pounds on hearing aids and reckons they are no better than his old NHS ones. They claimed to cut out background noise but he says he hear conversations behind hime better than those in front of him. At least people can't talk behind his back any more.