Hearing aid - am I expecting too much?

[drd63]

I wondered what people’s experience of hearing aids is? I have quite severe hearing loss in one ear, it constantly feels blocked and I have seen a consultant a few times had MRI’s etc and been told they can’t see a problem so I should try a hearing aid - I’m fine with that but it’s the blocked feeling which is really annoying. Anyway I’ve now got a hearing aid and it doesn’t seem to help, it just distorts the limited hearing I already have. Not surprisingly it’s done nothing about the blocked feeling. This has been going on for over 2 years and I can’t help the feeling that the blocked feeling is causing the hearing loss but the medics are only interested in looking at the symptom rather than the cause. Any thoughts would be much appreciated.

[sherman]

You have checked for wax buildup and tried dropping oil into your ear canal twice a day for a week or so?

[Pupp]

Eustachian (sp?) tube issue maybe?

[CoolHands]

I’m sure if they forked out for an MRI, they have considered ear wax!

[Junglebert]

Is it an NHS hearing aid? If so, they’re pretty poor. Try a high street audiologist like Hidden Hearing, they’ll demo all the suitable units and you may well be surprised by the difference in quality.

Boots, specsavers and a few others offer this on the high street, but my family have always had superb service from Hidden hearing, so that’s who I’d recommend.

[Rough101]

Some of the places do a full refund on the dearer models if they don’t work out, so it’s worth a try on finance.

[a311]

drd63 said:

I wondered what people’s experience of hearing aids is? I have quite severe hearing loss in one ear, it constantly feels blocked and I have seen a consultant a few times had MRI’s etc and been told they can’t see a problem so I should try a hearing aid - I’m fine with that but it’s the blocked feeling which is really annoying. Anyway I’ve now got a hearing aid and it doesn’t seem to help, it just distorts the limited hearing I already have. Not surprisingly it’s done nothing about the blocked feeling. This has been going on for over 2 years and I can’t help the feeling that the blocked feeling is causing the hearing loss but the medics are only interested in looking at the symptom rather than the cause. Any thoughts would be much appreciated.

I had unexplained hearing loss (almost total) in one ear. The NHS hearing aid I don't use, it might be a frequency thing and it's been adjusted but it's really poor at picking up speech, but if someone was rustling a bag of crisp 100 yards away it picks that up and it's really loud.

The thing it did help with is helping with tinnitus. The loss coincided with working from home much more, If I had to go back in the office I'd probably need to look at privately sourced options.

[MYOB]

There’s nothing wrong with “nhs hearing aid” as they are sourced from reputable manufacturers depending on your local trust.

I’ve been wearing a nhs hearing aid all my life and trust me, you’re never going to find a hearing aid that helps with the blocked ear sensation.

Everytime I get a new hearing aid, even ear moulds, it can take weeks to adjust to the new sounds.

The only differences with nhs and private are the service is better privately and you are not at the whim of the useless nhs service. Secondly, the nhs hearing aids may be a generation behind in terms of the bells and whistles, which are mostly gimmicks.

[TwigtheWonderkid]

Junglebert said:

Is it an NHS hearing aid? If so, they’re pretty poor.

On the whole, this just isn't true. NHS aids are often maybe one or two models down from the current model. A bit like getting a free iPhone 14 or paying a fortune for an iPhone 16.

But the best hearing aids in the world are only as good as the audiologist who programmes them to suit your hearing loss. NHS audiologists are usually better than high st shop audiologists. My son has Specsavers hearing aids and NHS aids. He only wears the NHS ones, as he finds them far better.

[Bill]

MYOB said:

Everytime I get a new hearing aid, even ear moulds, it can take weeks to adjust to the new sounds.

Agreed generally, but particularly this. How consistently have you worn it OP?

[drd63]

I was warned it could take some weeks to adjust and I appreciate it’s early days, 6 to be precise but I have been wearing it every day, all day and it simply doesn’t seem to make a difference unless on max volume but then speech is so distorted it’s unintelligible.

[MYOB]

Give it a few weeks and if there’s no adjusting to it, go back and talk to the audiologists as they can hook it up to the computer and make adjustments to the settings. However, it can be difficult to identify the optimum setting when in a quiet room as what tends to work in a quiet sealed room, doesn’t correspond to the requirements when outside.