Hearing loss -- I can't understand conversations

@jdalylew So pleased that you mention telecoils (t-coils). I will continue to say that a hearing aid without a telecoil is like a car without air conditioning. You don't need it all the time but when you do it's a true game changer!

New Bluetooth technology called Auracast is coming, but isn't available in many places just yet. Even when it is, the best advice and decision is to have hearing instruments that are equipped to connect to hearing loops via telecoils AND Auracast. Be prepared to be able to use whatever is available to you. This is especially true in venues like theaters, worship centers, meeting rooms, etc. The Americans with Disabilities Act includes communication access. These technologies provide that access.

Wherever you buy your hearing instruments, insist on the options that connect you to everything you want to hear. These options can also be helpful in noisy social settings when used with add on equipment like hand held microphones. Unfortunately, many providers don't fully explain these options, so people continue to be unaware of them. Often people learn their expensive hearing instruments don't have these options and it's too late to return them.

from: @julieo4

Information from HLAA: Hundreds of people tuned in to watch a Dec. 3 webinar Better Together: Auracast and Hearing Loops—Understanding the Future of Assistive Listening. Moderated by HLAA Board member Andrea Kaneb, the event was very informative. Now, the captioned recording is available on the national HLAA website http://www.hearingloss.org

@julieo4 I'm glad you mentioned the importance of getting hearing aids with telecoils AND that are Auracast ready. It will still be quite a few years before Auracast gets installed in enough places to "take over" the assisted listening that so many places ned to have. It will likely start showing up in other places for the masses like sports bars with numerous TVs, or even the exercise industry making treadmills and other systems with built in TV's that one has to connect with a cord to ear buds or headphones. Yes, there are theaters and even some churches that have installed it but they have to provide receivers and headphones, or a neckloop if one has telecoils, for basically everyone wanting to use it since so few have Auracast in their hearing aids. Another excellent website to find tons of very useful information is http://www.CenterForHearingAccess.org. I encourage everyone to visit this site.

@h2h Yes, that is an excellent resource. Thank you for sharing it.

I encourage everyone who needs hearing help to learn as much as you can about options in hearing aids before you buy them. Ask questions. Talk to people you know who have hearing aids. Read the information recommended above.

Hearing aids have come so far in the past few decades, but a problematic issue relates to the industry doing more to push 'invisibility' than effectiveness.

That effectiveness, for most people relates to the options mentioned in this conversation; having telecoils and Auracast included. The tiny space these options take up in a hearing instrument is miniscule, but they do need space. Even with these options, today's hearing aids are much smaller than they were even a decade ago.

Let the stigmas related to vanity go and get back into the hearing world with excellent technology.

Yes, there has been a lot of improvement.

@julieo4 Thanks Julie. Yes, everyone with hearing loss needs to be an advocate and, I like how you said it, "let the stigmas related to vanity go..." If we don't advocate for ourselves no one else is going to and ADA regs require many places to have an assistive listening system or if not in that "required" category, they are expected to provide accommodation when requested. Again, the http://www.CenterForHearingAccess.org has great information on this to help understand it and help you become a more confident advocate! And regularly hearing people complain about not being able to hear in noisy settings, I'm not sure any hearing aid will provide a solution to that. Maybe as AI technology advances enough. I read there are some that shut off the microphones on the back of the hearing aid to more focus the front microphones, but it still seems like people aren't satisified. Some of that, IMO, is someone having to much expectation on what hearing aids will do for them. They won't bring your hearing back to "normal." Hearing loss, correct me if I'm wrong, is often physical damage to some parts of the interior of your ear, the tiny hairs are damaged so nerve signals don't make their way to the brain. That isn't fixable. But one should not foregot a hearing test or getting hearing aids as they will still most likley be of some benefit. Everyone's hearing loss is different so some benefit more and some not as much. I have moderate to severe hearing loss in both ears and someone needs to be four feet from me in a less noisy environment for me to hear and understand them. Others don't have this same limitation. Bottom line, do research, then get tested, ask questions of the AuD, have a checklist of questions with you to ask, test them out, go back for tweaking of them if needed. I would love to hear better but realize there likely isn't a HA that will meet all of my expectations.

@lou1130 I've been wearing hearing aids for 15 years now and I get so discouraged in regard to NO IMPROVEMENT in the hearing aid industry especially with the hearing aids and the HORIBLE BACKGROUND NOISE. How about an "EAR DRUM IMPLANT"? My former hearing doctor told me one time while discussing my hearing loss that "Oh yeah, they know how to do a hearing drum implant but consider what that would do to the hearing industry". I, like you, think that with the huge advancements in technology, THEY DO "KNOW" HOW TO DO AN "EAR DRUM IMPLANT" and I despise talking on the phone anymore because of not being able to understand the other person (who usually talks way to fast) and I usually have to tell the other person on the other end to Please slow down your talking, please.

Yes and it's so frustrating!! I bought high end hearing aides and still struggle in my day to life. It's kept me from getting certain jobs because of it.
I hate feeling left out in conversations. People get impatient and frustrated and it's hard to deal with.

I wear hearing aides but they do not do very well in my hearing. I can hear better with them but sometimes I still have a problem hearing what others have to say. I hate to ask them to repeat what they said but I have to and sometimes they get aggravated at me for asking. It is difficult. I feel like staying at home unless I have to get out.

No matter how sophisticated, hearing aids are they essentially just amplify sound. Yes, the better ones can be selective with certain pitches, so they separate background from speech. But if you have severe inner ear damage they don’t deal with this, the inner ear ‘translates’ sound into something your brain understands and if that is damaged the sound distorts and is unintelligible no matter how loud. All hearing aids do is amplify the distortion. This is the problem I have, and so far I have not found a solution.