I’m evangelical about hearing aids and glad to do a review.

I am now 81 and have been using a (NHS supplied) Siemens Lotus pro2M hearing aid since 2008.

This has been very satisfactory in ordinary domestic situations and where a Loop connection is possible (though I seldom use it in eg the theatre &c but it is fine in church). Since I have only one (left-ear) aid, I increasingly sit to the right of anyone to whom I am talking. And hope for a new referral for a five-year review next week.

I suspect that no hearing aid can really be effective in noisy social contexts… parties / restaurants (especially where there is minimal soft-furnishing so noise rackets around off hard surfaces). In spite of the three different settings, mine picks up and amplifies all sounds, without being selective. I don’t often need to increase the volume setting, which does tend to increase feed-back.

Anne C.

I started off with the NHS and was fitted with a pair of Siemens Prisma 2 instruments. I found these very uncomfortable to wear and only of use for indoor general conversation and TV watching.  I soon gave up using them.

My next venture, at great personal expense was with a pair of Phonak Extra 22D moulded in ear aids. These were definitely an improvement and more comfortable than those supplied by the NHS but again only of use indoors when there were low background noise levels. When there was any degree of background noise they became totally useless. Although there were selectable programmes to compensate for various environments, I could never achieve satisfaction.

When outdoors, they were of little use. Wind and traffic noise was amplified to an intolerable level and when driving, road noise was very high.

I became dissatisfied with these and eventually stopped using them.

Recently I decided to have one more go at restoring my hearing to an acceptable level and have been fitted with a pair of dot by ReSound DTT160 with open ear fit.

What joy, I believe my hearing has now been returned to as near as it will ever be to normal.

They are incredibly comfortable to wear. So comfortable that I forget they are there and am happy to wear them all day and every day.

They perform well in all situations that I have so far encountered.  No wind, traffic and road noise. Near perfect hearing in high background noise situations, absolute bliss.

Brian R.

My experience of wearing hearing aids is why did I wait so long.   Personally they have helped me a great deal and now I could not function properly without them.  I was very reluctant to wear them when I purchased my first inner ear pair  several years ago and denial set in.  I was in my late 50’s and started to question as to why has this happened to me at what I believed to be a very early age.  I was born in the days of no TV, no loud music, etc. etc. so why had my hearing deteriorated. No one in my immediate family had hearing problems.  I had suffered greatly as a child with ear aches and colds and it always gave me problems, so this could have been the start of developing hearing loss.    
 
Female voices and small children are the hardest to hear whereas a male voice doesn’t raise a problem. So, finally I gave in after much prompting by my audiologist and lo and behold I could hear again, birds singing, clocks ticking, sounds that over a period of time you get used to not having them around so you don’t miss them until you hear them again.
 
Last year I changed from the complete inner ear aids to ones that fit behind the ear and then attached with a minute clear tube to a small device that I insert into my ear canal.   I have found these to be better for me as I feel that I have control of a combined sound. Before I felt as if my head was enclosed in a helmet or being under water. They are a slight nuisance if like me you also wear glasses but I found that if you have glass stems that are not very thick then along with the ear attachment there isn’t a problem adjusting them to fit.

P. M., Lincolnshire

Following on from the launch of the ReSound Verso 9 and 7 late last year GN ReSound have now released to the UK market a mid range offering to complement the premium and advanced levels of Verso 9 and Verso 7 respectively. Predictably named the Verso 5, it has a decent feature set and particularly if you like your wireless toys the Verso range is a good option to look at. We haven’t supplied any Verso as yet but we have had some good reports from other hearing aid audiologists and their clients who like the ReSound Verso as a product and are quite impressed with it.

The ReSound Verso 5, in common with its older brothers the 7 and 9 is based on the Range II chip. Here are some of the main features available in Verso 5;

The ReSound Verso range has now pretty effectively replaced the now ageing ReSound Alera range, although ReSound as a manufacturer have unusually kept the Alera range on the books alongside the Verso, which makes for a very crowded product range. Apparently this is because some of the national suppliers are keen to keep the Alera on the books and increase their margins. We can’t imagine a scenario where it would be advisable to purchase the Alera now instead of Verso unless you are replacing one of a pair lost or damaged, or you are buying at a VERY substantial discount.

GN ReSound Hearing Aids

I purchased my Phonak Savia ITE for use at work as I frequently attended meetings where I used to miss the first part of a sentence and it was not easy to ask people to repeat themselves.

The hearing aid consultant set up a specific program for me to use at meetings ie where there were interfering noises/conversations and I just needed to hear a single speaker.

They worked well in this situation.  

I also use them at home to listen to TV , especially American films where the diction is not precise, and at theatres and classical music concerts. Again they work well in these situations.

Finally I use them when going out for a meal with friends or dinner parties at home, where there are 4-6 people.

Situations where the aids do not work are whenever I am in a larger crowd of people eg functions or where there are interfering noises such as music or nearby conversations.

I then have to take out the aids as they ‘damp down’ because of the loud noise, so making it even harder to hear the people that I am with.

I also don’t use them in outdoor situations if it at all windy as the wind noise is far too loud.

D.W., Waverton, Chester

I lost most of the hearing in my right ear when I was about 4 years old. I fractured my skull and damaged the nerves to that ear. I went through life unaware that I had a hearing problem.

I went through school thinking I was stupid as I always seemed to ask questions that had already been asked. The follows the usual ridicule. I was 20 before the problem was found but no help was offered.

It was 4 years ago that I first tried a digital aid. A fairly simple one but it proved that the technology could utilise the small amount of hearing that I had to make quite a difference. 2 years ago I got a new Starkey S Series 7 CIC aid with more channels. This helps as I have high frequency hearing but not much else.

However although I can’t “hear” as such I can make out sound better that in turn allows my brain to make sense of it.

I would now like to trade up to a more complex aid that I can control myself. This would make talking in noisy environment slightly easier.

Overall I would have to say that modern digital aids are life changing and well worth investing in. The performance of these aids has improved beyond all measure. Also the CIC aid is so comfortable it is easy to forget you are wearing it. Mine has survived several showers!!

I really would suggest that anyone with a hearing problem considers one of these amazing pieces of technology.

George A.

At 63 years old and having had hearing loss diagnosed on several occasions in the past I have just finally taken the plunge and bought a pair of Oticon Ino miniRITE hearing aids. My immediate reaction has been ‘why didn’t I do this ages ago!’ The reasons I didn’t go down this route sooner are numerous, but the main ones were (i) too expensive (ii) thinking they would be bulky and uncomfortable to use (iii) not liking the thought of having ‘earplugs’ stuck in my ears all day and (iv) not believing they would make much difference.

I was wrong on nearly all counts! OK, they may seem expensive (and it certainly pays to shop around) but the difference they have made to my life is enormous. I was displaying all the classic symptoms of gradual hearing loss; pushing the tv volume (and my wife) to their limits, feeling isolated in social situations due to missing large parts of conversations, suffering the embarrassment of having to keep saying ‘pardon?’ to people who spoke to me and wondering why everyone sounded so muffled.

Since wearing my hearing aids it is a different world. They are virtually invisible to other people; incredibly comfortable (I sometimes forget to remove them at bedtime!); I can join in conversations in restaurants and pubs and the tv is operating at normal volume once more. The muffled voices have given way to clear, crisp sounds. What I found most amazing about these digital hearing aids is that the issue is not just about the volume of sounds. I imagined that by just amplifying sounds I would hear them better but in fact by tailoring the different frequencies the aids boost to match the ones that I have ‘lost’ in my natural hearing has made a huge difference. If my hearing changes in the future the aids can be reprogammed to cater for that.

The single most important factor in coming to my decision, however, was that I found an audiologist who would let me try a pair (even if only for a few minutes). One of the large organisations who had tested my hearing previously were unable (or unwilling) to let me hear for myself what a difference they would make and yet expected me to part with several thousand pounds ‘on spec’ – I don’t think so!

So, my overall view is that ‘putting up’ with hearing loss is a mug’s game. Having your hearing tested professionally and using well prescribed hearing aid really is life-transforming for you and those around you.

Alan F.

Here is a review of my current hearing aids which are a pair of Oticon Agil Pro’s which I use with a pair of Oticon Streamers.

My hearing history – I have been a sufferer of severe Otosclerosis in both ears since my late teens ( and before perhaps..) which resulted in severe loss in my right ear. I wore a single cic siemens prisma in the right, in the left loss was slight to moderate at the time so no aid.

At thirty I had a stapadectomy in the right ear which temporarily made things much better but only restored the one frequency band at 6000kh. After 18 months the tinnitus returned full force and I currently have great difficult hearing anything without my aids. The left ear is now moderate to severe loss. I was fitted with a pair of Oticon Agil’s, lost one, was insured so upgraded to a pair of Oticon Agil Pro’s.

I have had these pro’s for coming on 3 years. They are very, very comfortable and I wear them up to 18 hours a day so they have to be comfortable.  They have very good sound. The short of it is I am a saxophonist, I teach DT, I teach woodland education, I am a sound engineer and I have a wife ( ). I rely/ could not and do not cope without the perfection these aids give my hearing. What is more, if I cannot hear adequately in a certain environment I can discretely turn the relevant program up via the streamer or when in a lecture / concert I simply change the program.  Even driving is no issue as the streamer acts as legal hands free ( providing the iphone is in a hands free cradle etc).

The aids are small, discreet and almost unnoticeable. They are robust, easy to clean and reliable.

My experience of CIC aids was one of difficulty with wax and also the odd drop/mishap. The aid I had briefly in an interim was an air tubed type- make no mistake the modern ‘fly by wire’ clear electrical tube is 100% superior. No unsightly yellow wax tinge, hugely smaller and vastly more comfortable with no NO perspiration. I could go on but suffice to say the agil pro’s ARE MY EARS and I could not get by without them.

Please do refer my details onto anyone who needs further experience explained.

Kind regards

Andy K.

I have now been using a set of Phonak Audeo IX digital hearing aids for some time and find them excellent.

The “T” setting is operated by remote control fob and so is the volume, independent for each side [as I wear one each ear].

They seem to cope well with crowd situations and sort of focus on those closest to me in a conversation.

The new domes which protect the entrance to the hearing amplification work well and seem to gather less wax in use and are simple to clean.

A 6 monthly routine visit to the hearing centre checks for any defects or necessary adjustments.[free]

The actual part inside the ear shell is very small and allows air flow around the “speaker” so avoiding the usual tunnel, echo  or enclosed effect.

So I am happy and your batteries are excellent.

Hope this helps.

KTB

I have two hearing aids one NHS supply and the others private ones. The NHS ones are better for hearing but I am vain and do not like wearing them. They are cumbersome and people are inclined to think you have learning disabilities and are condescending when speaking to you!!

The private ones are Starkey Destiny 400……a few years old but very expensive and I have to use them as I cannot afford more. Hearing is not easy and I lose a lot of the conversation through missing words.

I need the TV very loud to be able to hear to the inconvenience of my family. The telephone is out of the question as I cannot hear what people are saying.

I will have to think about getting better aids as I am not happy with the present ones. I think a big problem could be that the small in ear aids fill the ear drum and put pressure on your ears causing distortion in sounds. The NHS ones are cumbersome and unless you have long hair to cover them you feel very self conscious!!!

Jo H.