Hearing aids

Re: Hearing aids

Evelyn Barbour-Hill — Mon, 19 Dec 2011 02:06:24 GMT

[quote user="Tim Cheyne"]

It will be interesting to hear how he gets on.

[/quote]

Groan.........

Many thanks for all replies.

Re: Hearing aids

Tim Cheyne — Sat, 17 Dec 2011 18:00:29 GMT

[quote user="Clive Ansell"]

In the end we bought them privately, although I cannot remember the specific model they were about £2000 each ear [/quote]

Compared to what I pay out here that sounds a bit expensive but it does depend upon the need of the user, and of course we have no VAT or additional taxes here.

My original two (Phonak; BTE) cost the equivalent of £600 each (including a handful of batteries and spare tubes) and after three years and one getting water in it (rain in the desert!) I am considering upgrading to a much smaller model (also Phonak) being offered at the equivalent of £800. I think that Evelyn should be able to obtain one for less than £1,000. It will be interesting to hear how he gets on.

Tim.

Re: Hearing aids

Clive Ansell — Sat, 17 Dec 2011 10:10:41 GMT

In my grandmothers case, the NHS was pretty much a waste of time. There was an 8 month wait for an assessment appointment, only to find the NHS supplied ones were bulky, uncomfortable, seem to have dated technology and did not work terribly well.

In the end we bought them privately, although I cannot remember the specific model they were about £2000 each ear from David Omerod

Re: Hearing aids

Christopher Saul — Thu, 15 Dec 2011 16:35:38 GMT

Hi Evelyn,

Though not a hearing aid user myself, I know a little as I have recently bought my Father a pair, and did my homework.

One option is to go to the NHS, I believe they have digital haering aids available nowadays though I also hear there's quite a waiting list and they don't have the most up to date ones.

If you go private, and if you shop around you can often find offers, e.g. I believe specsavers have a longish term offer of 2 hearing aids for the price of one. One of our friends has a pair of specsavers ones and finds them very good . I think - like most digital technology - you get the best offers on last year's (still very good) models as they're replaced by newer ones

I opted for a phonak pair for my Father - Boot's had them on offer during the autumn - and he's never looked back since. He can now hear things that he's been missing out on for many years, e.g. birdsong. The sound quality is excellent and they're so small you can hardly see them.

I'm no expert but one thing to look out for is the number of channels; the more channels the more they can fine tune your hearing, and the greater the capacity of the hearing aids to fitler out things like background noise. Of cours this leads to more cost but like everything there's a compromise to be struck; my father's aids have 16 channels and he think's they're amazing. Of course he's not a vet so I can't help you regarding stethescope work!

I also belive it's unusual to only need one aid; usually having one in each ear gives the best result

Hope this helps

Chris

Re: Hearing aids

Edward Jones — Thu, 15 Dec 2011 09:17:14 GMT

Not completely unrelated: Opticians have a use beyond getting your lens prescription. Open angle glaucoma is relatively common - I've been lucky enough to have my ocular hypertension detected before any loss of vision, so hopefully I'll never get glaucoma.

I think I could practise if deaf or if I need glasses, but less so with glaucoma. And the way things are going I might be needing my eyes to work for some years yet!

Re: Hearing aids

Virginia Campbell — Wed, 14 Dec 2011 20:25:00 GMT

[quote user="Tim Cheyne"]Liteman (I think that's the name) electronic stethoscope might be more useful.[/quote]

Have a chat to Dave Reid at Bennett-Williams in Gaerwen about this, he uses one.

Re: Hearing aids

Tim Cheyne — Wed, 14 Dec 2011 19:25:26 GMT

[quote user="Hannah Wynne Richards"]

I don't need a hearing aid (yet) so my only advice to Evelyn is to get one sooner, rather than later

[/quote]

Good advice, Wynne. I was surprised to be told to trial my first hearing aid on the less affected ear "to protect it". Apparently, if the auditory nerve is not stimulated by certain frequencies it loses the ability to respond (rather similar to muscular atrophy of disuse) but if caught in time it can be re-trained to respond to some extent. That certainly seems to be so because on occasions when I do not wear the aids (in the shower, at the pool, at the barbers) I do seem to hear better than when I was without the aids.

On the other hand I remember when, as a schoolboy 'assisting' at the weekly village RSPCA clinic, the general factotum there was very, very deaf and communication with him was difficult. One day he announced that a hearing aid had been recommended and the following week we would find him a different man. That was certainly so and I had an animated conversation with him but was puzzled by seeing no hearing aid (in those days a rather clunky object). "No, I haven't got one. After they syringed both ears I was hearing better than I have heard for years!"

Tim.

Re: Hearing aids

Hannah Wynne Richards — Wed, 14 Dec 2011 17:31:23 GMT

I don't need a hearing aid (yet) so my only advice to Evelyn is to get one sooner, rather than later My mother spent a couple of years in a state of denial-she didn't need a hearing aid-my father and I were both muttering. By the time she'd trained us toshout slowly,she admitted she was deaf-then guess what?-told us off for yelling at her !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Where glasses are concerned,I only need them for reading,and lose them so often that I dread to thinkhow much money is spent in a year paying staff for looking for them-still I supppose they wouldn't actually be busy every minute

Wynne

Re: Hearing aids

Clive Ansell — Wed, 14 Dec 2011 15:48:36 GMT

Two sheds

Re: Hearing aids

Judith Joyce — Wed, 14 Dec 2011 12:22:03 GMT

[quote user="Robert Whiteford"]I am now up to three sheds and a summerhouse[/quote]

Isn't a summerhouse just a shed with too many windows and not enough shelves??

Malcolm N

Re: Hearing aids

Robert Whiteford — Wed, 14 Dec 2011 11:47:26 GMT

For those of us whose arms are not long enough, the letters never big enough, the light never bright enough - can I recommend the single contact lens? One contact lens only for reading is a great boon. It takes a bit of getting used to but the brain soon adapts. No more glasses on the tip of the nose, on the top of the head, on a chain or on the floor...or lost. Try it.

Along with always use sunscreen, the advice to the young is always use ear plugs.

I am now up to three sheds and a summerhouse!

Re: Hearing aids

Mark Holmes — Wed, 14 Dec 2011 11:13:56 GMT

[quote user="Bob Russell"]

To balance things up - marriage tends to suppress the female urge to kill (just!).

[/quote]

Suppress?!??? I am fairly confident that my wife has been far closer to committing murder since myself and the children came along than before hand.

Re: Hearing aids

Bob Russell — Wed, 14 Dec 2011 11:06:32 GMT

To balance things up - marriage tends to suppress the female urge to kill (just!).

Re: Hearing aids

Mark Rowland — Wed, 14 Dec 2011 10:34:58 GMT

[quote user="Bob Russell"]I am saving up for a shed!![/quote]

Can we go halves. My world is very similar to yours.

Im not complaining either.

Re: Hearing aids

Mark Holmes — Wed, 14 Dec 2011 10:17:40 GMT

Yes Bob, I was under the belief that deafness was a natural physiological response to being married. In the same way that the immune system adapts to disease the brain adapts to marriage and turns its ears off.

Re: Hearing aids

Bob Russell — Wed, 14 Dec 2011 10:12:36 GMT

Cannot be any help with the hearing aid side of things but look forward to having some way of switching the outside world off! I live in a female dominated world and at home resort to headphones to get some peace and quiet. All the girls are desperately keen to tell me all about their day at school and the boss (+ her sister) are keen to tell me about all the things I should have done and have not!

There are some advantages to hearing aids!

No advantages to reading glasses, they are a pain especially in combination with contact lenses.

Please note that I am not really complaining seriously about the female dominated world bit - I do quite like it really! I am saving up for a shed!!

Re: Hearing aids

Tim Cheyne — Wed, 14 Dec 2011 04:22:22 GMT

[quote user="plantagenet"]

Sympathies - I am just at the stage of desperately not needing reading glasses - not for reading but for close inspection of stuff in surgery. I think half glasses would be the most useful since I am slightly short sighted (but don't need glasses except for driving) but I don't want to look like my own grandparents!

[/quote]

Consider using multi-focal with plastic lenses (lighter and less likely to shatter). I tried using half-glasses but did not like them. Anyway now I need help with all focal lengths so multi-focal are the choice. Out here, because of the need for sunglasses, I used photo-chromic lenses for some years but have recently changed to 'transitional' lenses that react and clear faster and are less 'CIA-looking'.

Tim.

Re: Hearing aids

Tim Cheyne — Mon, 12 Dec 2011 20:07:45 GMT

A BTE aid does not prevent your using a stethoscope but it gives little or no help; a Liteman (I think that's the name) electronic stethoscope might be more useful.

I do use a mobile phone normally with my hearing aids.

Tim.

Re: Hearing aids

Tim Cheyne — Mon, 12 Dec 2011 20:00:18 GMT

I use two hearing aids, one tuned for each ear, on the advice of a very good ENT consultant. She checked each ear and then insisted on a hearing test (seated in a sound-proofed booth listening to various frequencies and volumes through headphones). She and a colleague recommended BTE aids (BTE=behind the ear) using first one as a trial and then obtaining the second. On the basis of the hearing test the hospital technologist programmed them to my particular needs and the results were astonishing, As I left the building I heard a bird singing properly for the first time in years.

BTE aids are very discreet; I wore one for four months before anyone commented (and my friends and colleagues are not that polite!) and to my surprise they do not fall off easily.

Mine are Phonak, you will find their helpful site on the web, but I think that Siemens make a similar one. Battery life (small button batteries) averages about ten eight=hour days and there is a signal when they are correctly switched on and when the battery is failing. They are digital so there is none of that irritating whistling audio feedback.

The important thing is to obtain proper advice before buying; you do not get the right model from the thrupenny and sixpenny store.

Tim.

Re: Hearing aids

plantagenet — Mon, 12 Dec 2011 18:27:56 GMT

Re: Hearing aids

Julian Earl — Mon, 12 Dec 2011 17:11:48 GMT

Why would anyone snigger? Is it any different to needing glasses, in principle?

Other than that, I have no helpful advice but thought it a shame that people might snigger.