Connect
← Return to Ear or Hearing Aid?
Discussion
Comment receiving replies
@neil10
I have been wearing hearing aids for 45 years and my educated guess is that it is not the aid but your ear. I see my ENT for an ear checkup and clean out about every 3 or 4 months. My hearing is bilateral profound.
Hearing fluctuates a lot. You could have had a piece of wax across the eardrum that naturally migrated out of your ear. In my case, I have very dry ears and just went through a couple of days of diminishing sound in my right good ear to the point I could hardly hear the start up tone or the tones for the different programs. My ENT had suggested long ago to put mineral drops in my ear canals on a regular, if not daily basis. Mineral oil does not build up and is essentially a moisturizer.
So when this happened I put drops in the canals at night and the next day my hearing was back to near normal. Did it again that night and Bingo, the next day my hearing was back to normal.
My loss is so bad that any little obstruction like ear wax is immediately noticeable.
Don’t go back to Costco just yet. If you haven’t had an ear checkup recently I suggest you see an ENT for what I call a dusting and a cleaning. My ENT happens to wear hearing aids and is board certified with many awards so I am confident about using the mineral oil.
Any drugstore carries this oil and you can get a pack of droppers also.
In addition, check your aids if you have tubing like I do. Tubing accumulates moisture and can get clogged. Consider using a Dry and Store at night to keep your aids free from moisture which is a killer of those tiny parts in the aids. And I know you don’t put Qtips in your ears right? You could push any debris further into the ear canal and make things worse.
Let me know what you think about all this info I just imparted
FL Mary
Replies to "@neil10 I have been wearing hearing aids for 45 years and my educated guess is that..."
Mary,
I know what you are talking about. I have Costco Phonak H/As and i loved them when I got them. But then my right ear started feeling clogged up and I couldn’t hear out of that ear at all. Then, sometimes, I could hear just fine. This is the 2nd et of hearing aids that I am experiencing this trouble with. I went to my ENT Dr. and he said my ears were fine. I go to Costco, and they try to help. I’ve emailed Phonak and asked for their help. They gave me a number of suggestions to make on my phone regarding blue tooth. But the problems persisted. UGH! Yesterday morning. out of sheer frustration, I went to my box of old hearing aids and with the TV on, I tested my hearing and comprehension. Now I am back to wearing a pair that I purchased from Costco prior to blue tooth and my right ear has been fine and no clogged up feeling. I am wondering if blue tooth has anything to do with it because when I’d open and shut the batter door on H/A, I’d hear just fine for seconds or somethings minutes or sometimes hours. Now, without blue tooth on my old hearing aids, I can hear! So thankful for that.
Let me know if any of you have had this experience. By the way, my hearing loss is moderate to severe in both ears.
Rose
@neil10
For about a year now I get a feeling like there is a bug in my ear crawling around. It can happen in both ears. I went to the doctor and had him check. No bug and no explanation. The only way I can get it to stop is to lay on my side and put a few drops of hydrogen peroxide in and let it bubble away for a while. This lasts for a few weeks. Doe's this sound like a dry ear issue?
Connect
Hello, Mary. I'm learning so much from you. Thank you for sharing your knowledge.
I have extremely dry ears also. The ENT says this is the cause of my 'plugged up' feeling in the right ear. It feels like it's stopped up most of the time, with fluid behind the ear, itches and is quite bothersome as well as I can't hear! Sometimes I have earaches, for several days or overnight. Don't know why..... have tinnitus which naturally is worse at times, crickets or rushing sounds. Tinnitus is in both ears, but always in the right ear. Today it's worse.
The doctor told me to use hydrocortisone cream in both ears every couple days. It feels wonderful! Apparently, the extreme dryness causes the fullness, feeling like fluid is behind the drum. Stops the itching, removes any wax which I never used to have but do some now. It may reduce swelling, since it's anti-inflammatory. I'm not totally clear on what's happening, but makes sense the swelling would affect hearing???
I see the hearing aid person in 2 weeks, at Mayo Jax. I decided to stay there for help, at least for now. I know this can be a precise process, so I'm working with them. I trust them to give me the true skinny.
Also, getting an amplified phone, etc. Julie was telling me about telecoils and loops....so much to learn I really don't want to know! But, need to hear, eh? So, we do this and enjoy the next parts of living! Thankful!
Blessings to you.
Elizabeth