Hearing Aids

[BoogieWithTheHook]

I appreciate this isn’t the most exciting subject but I guess it’s one that affects a lot of us older forum readers.

I had my hearing checked this week and it came as no great surprise to me that after many years of going to gigs and listening to loud music at home (and hence suffering from tinnitus) I’ve reached the stage where a hearing aid is “advisable” - which is a lesson to any youngsters lurching on here - look after your hearing!!

I just wanted to ask if anybody else has had an experience of using hearing aids and was it positive or negative in terms of your music listening experience once you had an aid fitted? What staggered me is the cost of getting a decent hearing aid. I’m still in two minds as to whether I really need one (the wife disagrees!) but the audiologist reckons it might help reduce my awareness of my tinnitus and he reckons it will improve my listening experience with my music, so i’m tempted.

Any thoughts or experiences anyone wants to share?

[Shere Khan]

Mrs Khan works in Audiology and she has NHS hearing aids which she says are brilliant and cost nothing. It does take time to get used to them, she reckons, but it'll definitely improve your listening.

[Grim Lounge Cowboy]

I’ve been told that your brain rewires so that you come to rely on them. That puts me off. Should it?

[Shere Khan]

Well there's an increased risk of dementia if you don't hear correctly. You'll still hear without your hearing aids but not as well as you will with them in. There's a perception that when you take your aids out that your hearing has got worse but that's just because you've become used to hearing 'properly' and have gone back to your old faulty hearing.

[BoogieWithTheHook]

I’ve read conflicting reports on NHS hearing aids. A friend of mine got some last year and never wears them (although knowing him it’s probably a vanity issue). Someone i work with has a pair and struggled to get used to them so hardly ever wears them.

My audiologist tells me you get what you pay for and obviously i want the best i can afford but the latest models are frighteningly expensive! £2000-3000. Seems ridiculous for such a tiny item!

[Shere Khan]

I’ve read conflicting reports on NHS hearing aids. A friend of mine got some last year and never wears them (although knowing him it’s probably a vanity issue). Someone i work with has a pair and struggled to get used to them so hardly ever wears them.

My audiologist tells me you get what you pay for and obviously i want the best i can afford but the latest models are frighteningly expensive! £2000-3000. Seems ridiculous for such a tiny item!

Well Claire wears them and is perfectly happy with them and she's the chief hearing therapist at the Norfolk and Norwich hospital.Tinnitus is her particular speciality. She suggests getting them for nowt on the NHS then you can use them as a benchmark against expensive ones because at the moment you have nothing to compare your audiologists £3000 ones with. You might think they sound great but they may be no better than a free pair. I have to say I don't notice Claire's when they're on, but maybe I would if she were bald.
I think your audiologist would say what he's saying because he has a vested interest in selling you a pair of pricey hearing aids. I should say that with Claire in her job and a son just starting GP training we're dead against private health care- a pity because we could be raking it in.