OT: Hearing aids

I haven't travelled it myself but my father was firing position on WWII anti-aircraft guns. Not surprisingly he was quite deaf in later life.

Initially only an expensive private digital hearing aid was of any use to him at all. He could lip read pretty well. The NHS ones at the time were little more than crude amplifiers with a tone control.

However, as his hearing got even worse the next generation digital NHS hearing aids were better than his first private one. And they improved every decade to keep track so even though he mostly relied on lip reading it helped him a lot to have a matched pair.

What you get now by going privately is one with perhaps marginally better performance but a physically much smaller in ear profile. This goes with more expensive batteries and shorter battery life.

FWIW my advice is talk to your doctor and get an assessment at audiology to see what they can do for you before spending any money.

My info is about 5 years out of date so things might have changed by now but I would still recommend trying the NHS audiology service first.

If you can get the NHS to provide, then do so. Otherwise you're looking at a £2k+ cost - and you have to buy your own batteries.

Due to being in an industry where hearing protectors were non exsistent for much of my early years, I am now virtually stone deaf in one ear, and less so in my other ear. Consquently , I am now using nhs hearing aids, and they seem good enough for me for now.

I did wonder if private hearing aids would be more comfortable and less obtrusive. But I'd have to balance that with any cost that there would be.

The audiology department at the Southampton hospital where I first got mine sent me to Specsavers last time I needed updating. Nothing wrong with the NHS supplied one I have.

You need to be referred by your GP.

Like others have said, go with the NHS. Your GP will be your first line of enquiry. He may arrange for you to be tested at your local surgery or medical centre, or you may have to attend a clinic at your local hospital. IMO people who spend £thousands on these tiny aids that fit inside your ear and are invisible are just vain about their appearance. They should get over it. As you get older, your faculties don't work as well, eyesight, hearing, (and other things I won't mention). Lots of people wear specs without giving it a second thought, so why not a hearing aid?

I have a distinct notch in my hearing which affects sibilants quite significantly. (The old "s"/"f" confusion.)

Not bad enough to need a hearing aid. But I do find radio/internet sounds not very good when heard through most of the speakers that phones, tablets, laptops and desktops have. Yes, you can buy amazing speakers and plug them in. But I have bought some simple Bluetooth earpods - and they really, really help.

(The ones I got are Xiaomi air2 SE Earbuds - about £25. Not paying Apple prices! Nor Samsung.)

it's probably about 20 years ago, but when I went for an NHS hearing test, I was told that NHS aids would not help me. That was because they were simply amplifiers without any frequency correction. So I had to go private. Nothing to do with vanity, I assure you. Of course, the NHS now does aids with tailored frequency response and pretty invisible, too.

I have really good hearing, and still find the sound of most phones, tablets, laptops etc pretty crap... Its just a reflection of the lack of adequate space to include large enough speakers etc. (same true for many flat panel TVs)

What was the cause one sided hearing loss? It's unusual to have that imbalance.

Carharts Notch?

In message snipped-for-privacy@candehope.me.uk>, charles snipped-for-privacy@candehope.me.uk> writes

Fully agree. NHS hearing aids have come a long way in recent years.

No - they said "probably" noise induced.

For a hairdresser you claim expertise in a remarkable range of topics. Do your clients teach you a lot as you give then a trim an a blue rinse?

what ?

I hear a stroke can cause that ....and lack of dexterity .....

Pamela pretends she is a wummin' in the same way you pretend to be radio man ......thought you knew that

Yup. Fiddly little things the NHS one is. Changing batteries, cleaning it. what about wireless charging? What about howl-round protection?

And madly expensive. I wish these could be open sourced and folks could work on rolling their own. I would. However, big liability and legal issues.

As you get older, your faculties

I think it amazing (and unfortunately sad) that there seems to be more that can be done for eyesight correction than hearing.

For a particular type of hearing loss, where some inner ear hair follicles are damaged, the brain can be trained to use others if electronics can 'frequency shift' the incoming audio.

Does that sound a bit like listening to SSB radio at first, I suppose?

I don't wear hearing aids, a relative who should doesn't get on with hers (for Tinnitus), so we unfortunately shout and she uses speakerphones at full volume :-(

My varifocus glasses shift about focal points for near and far, this took me a couple of days to get used to. Now I don't even think about it.

If you think the NHS aids are fiddly you should try the private in ear ones where the battery change practically needs a loupe to see what you are doing. And dexterity beyond what many older people can manage.

Also much smaller more expensive batteries so they don't last as long (and you are paying for them in addition).

You would also need your own anechoic chamber and calibrated transducers to do the hearing tests. Modern hearing aids are incredibly sophisticated and can shift true frequencies around to improve speech intelligibility by avoiding dead spots at the expense of ruining music.

Compared to what was possible in the past the modern hearing aids are a massive improvement on a crude analogue amplifier and tone control.

You sacrifice straight lines to get varifocals though.