First time poster but already getting great info on this forum!
Im posting for my partner who woke up with hearing loss in one ear due to SSNHL (no cause identified).
She recently got a Signia Silk RIC IX7 to try out but the results have been very underwhelming. She says that she basically hears the same sounds with them in or out, but when they are in there is an added static or tinniness above some words.
She’s only had them a day or two so maybe this is normal? I would have thought that she would be able to hear voices/talking more clearly but she says there is no extra clarity with them in or out. The TV is still muffled, cant hear birds and they werent much good in a cafe.
Does this clarity come after some time? Or do they need more setup by the audi?
Thanks Neville! That what it seemed like to me but we dont know what to expect and its been pretty rough up until now.
Will try some other brands and audiologists
It’s not really an easy-to-fit hearing loss because of that sharp drop after 1 kHz. Real-ear verification would be nice.
Do you really mean RIC? Or do you mean Silk? The silk is a little in-the-ear hearing aid and it’s probably not going to be a good option for her if that’s actually what she has.
Thats interesting about the sharp drop at 1k, could you explain, or point me in the direction, on info on real ear verification? We did an REM with the audiologist is that what you mean?
Is there something we should be looking for or asking for in particular with this type of hearing loss?
You won’t get the full benefit with just one HA (which model of Pure IX 7, 5 or 3?) extra features come with using two and fully featured model (7) but you don’t mention what acoustics are used ( domes open, closed, or mold) but having used for only a few days is not long enough to know for sure, also the programming would of been set up for a first timer (under fit) plus most likely acclimatization setting,this is where you start off on a much lower fitting and over time (weeks, months) this is increased automatically to full setting, so a few things to consider.
Probably. If they put a small microphone into the ear to measure the output of the hearing aid then yes.
Yes, this is something I don’t do but that a lot of clinicians do do.
Either way, if she is not experiencing benefit call the clinic and let them know. It may be a simple fix, like cleaning the filter or stopping in to have the gain incrased to 100% if they started her lower. When it comes to adaptation (“This hearing aid sounds loud and weird”) it’s better to wait a bit for the brain to adjust, but when it comes to absence of benefit (“This hearing aid sounds like nothing”) it’s better to call back soon and have the resolved.
Thanks for the info @tenkan ! By acoustics do you mean the tips that go in ear? It’s not molded and I’ve popped a photo below if that helps. And we think it’s an IX7
As for under-fitting, my partner asked the audiologist if it would start off at a lower volume and increase over time and he said no, he would start her at 100%…
Thanks @Neville! Yes I think we’ll let the clinic know and see what they say.
Just so we know ourselves, do you think with hearing loss like this (shard dip at 1k), she should notice that the HAs are doing something other than chirps on top of the sounds?
Should it help in restaurants for example (so far just sounds like static/tinniness)? And should she be able to hear small sounds like birds etc…
Sorry for all the questions, really appreciate all the help here!
The hard thing about sudden sensorineural hearing loss is that it can cause so much damage that clarity can be really poor even when hearing loss isn’t that bad, so it’s difficult to say exactly what hearing in the damaged area will be like for her, and sometimes there can be weird distortional elements for a while that can down over a longer time with consistent amplification. So it can be hard to know at first whether amplification is going to be beneficial or not, and hard to know whether there’s something weird about the hearing aid settings versus just weird about the ear. But I would hope for more clarity on high frequency consonants.
She should talk to the clinician about what her goals are and if things were sounding consistently strange I would consider trying a different manufacturer to try to narrow down whether it’s actually just the ear that sounds strange right now.
I have single-sided nerve deafness, but it’s congenital vs. sudden. Several suggestions:
I have trouble with speech discrimination, and am now testing out ReSound Nexia aids. According to the hearing aid specialist, they are designed to enhance speech clarity while suppressing background sounds, which they do for me. Other brands may not focus on nor enhance speech clarity as well.
It may help your friend to consider CROS or BiCROS hearing aids (see What are CROS and BiCROS Hearing Aids and Who Needs Them?) for details. Basically, a transmitter in the bad ear sends sounds to the hearing aid in the good ear.
It may take trying on different domes of different material or sizes to get the fit just right.
As for what your friend should hear, it all goes back to fitting the sound profile of the HAs to compensate for the loss. It may take several visits and tweaks to the Hearing Aid Specialist (HIS) to get things to fit and sound right.
I agree completely with Neville. My asymmetry is caused by an acoustic neuroma and there is more to it than just a frequency response problem in the bad ear. Understanding speech via that ear alone is still a bit challenging even with good equalization. It’s certainly better with the HAs for speech but also for sensing direction. And it took some time (months) to get used to the whole experience. Mostly I’m thankful that my audi is skilled and pays attention to my feedback. Keep working with them and/or try to find someone better.
My sincere apologies for the delay in replying and thank you @Neville@hearing1@Gary_NA6O, this info is really helpful for us in making the next decisions.
It does make sense that there could be something else going on caused by the SSNHL that will need more attention from an audiologist.
We were able to speak to one over the weekend and lay this detail out so hopefully this will set us on the right path.
Thanks again!
We tried three different brands (albeit only for a weekish each) Widex, Phonak and Signia and she still says that she does not get any benefit from any of them. She says that things sound underwater with or without the aids… 3 different audiologists and REM with 2.
Real talk, is this the damage done from SSNHL? Is there anything to be done to help this?
Any advice is greatly appreciated as shes pretty low about the whole thing
Thanks @Neville yes you are right that there is a grieving process and we’re still going through but we are at a point where we understand it wont come back to normal.
Her goal is to regain some clarity, be able to hear the tv and kids etc
She may need to look beyond hearing aids. Has she not gotten even a little improved clarity from any of the hearing aids she has tried?
TV is handily resolved with any sort of TV streamer to the good ear. What does she mean by “hear kids”? Presumably, given that she has one normal hearing ear, she can hear them without trouble in a quiet situation. What sort of situations is she struggling in?
Thanks Neville! Could you expand on what you mean by looking beyond hearing aids?
Yes what’s baffling us both is that it does not seem to be adding any clarity at all. In fact, sometimes she needs to take them out to hear what people are saying… She says that there is always an echo and a “tinning” on top of the sounds
By hearing the kids, she means hearing speech that would be quieter or higher-pitched. Hearing things like birdsong is also another hope…
She also has tried streaming voice messages to the hearing aid but she is still missing words and it doesnt appear to be clear. Interesting you mentioned streaming to the good ear? The good ear does help a lot with TV. She’s testing the clarity the aid is giving her by blocking her good ear.
The situation that she’s trying to improve is just day to day, in the house with the kids who are talking at a lower volume
Has she always been in a closed or a tulip dome? My first thought looking at her loss was that you’d have to close up the ear to get reasonable feedback management. But then I was flipping through a colleague’s work today and saw him get a very nice fit on someone with a similar loss with an open dome, so if she hasn’t tried an open dome she could. It’s going to depend on the ear.
But even with a nice fit to target, the patient is going from ~55% speech intelligibility index score to ~75% speech intelligibility, so it’s not going to be 100%.
That tinniness, that sharpness IS the clarity. The ear needs to re-learn how to interpret that and it will never sound like the good ear. The thing that’s tough with sudden loss is that with consistent wear it might get significantly better over time, but it might not and you don’t know until you do it, which means that you need to throw a pile of money at potentially nothing if a hearing aid never really becomes tolerable. PLUS, you need to go through a significant period of time where things sound pretty junky and you just have to muscle through. If you can find a place with a longer trial period and you trust the provider to fit the device well, she’s better off trying to commit to a solid month or two of consistent wear before she makes any assessments. Widex, Phonak and Signia all make good hearing aids.
Alternatively, a hearing aid just doesn’t work for her and she needs to adapt to a world with one good ear. A lot of people go through life with only one hearing ear (e.g. Halle Berry, Stephen Colbert, Robert Redford). You employ good communication strategies and you look for targetted solutions. One option for a technological solution for speech in noise would be a Roger On microphone and either a (sometimes cheaper) Audeo P30 with a Roger X installed, or a Roger Focus on the good ear. If money is no concern, you could pop an Audeo L90 on each ear and connect the Roger On to both and use that for TV streaming and speech in noise situations while also amplifying the bad ear.
