Strategies & Realities - Hearing Loss in Social Settings

That's a positive one! Have fun! Go Packers! Will watch for you at the game!! 🙂

If you use hearing aids, do you use a dehumidifier box to store them in? Hearing aids definitely can be affected by humidity and moisture.

It is a shame that hearing aids cost so much. It's also a shame that Medicare doesn't cover them. This is an issue that the consumer organization, The Hearing Loss Assn. of America (HLAA) has been working very hard on. If the people who need hearing aids, who feel they are too costly, would get involved in HLAA, it would help. http://www.hearingloss.org How? Because numbers matter to the decision makers in the legislature. Isn't it time to let those decision makers know that hearing loss affects millions of Americans?

It is very common for a person with hearing loss to blame others for mumbling. In fact, that is one of the most common signs of hearing loss. Yes, some people do not speak up, or don't speak as clearly as they should. Some have accents. Some have speech defects. Now, many are wearing masks that muffle speech, even on the phone. They also make it impossible to speech read if you depend on that skill. Most of us with hearing loss do depend on that whether we realize it or not as we learn to watch for clues to help us understand what is being said.

If you need hearing help, do get tested by a clinical audiologist. Ask for a copy of the test results. Once you have the results of that test in hand, via an audiogram, take it with you to shop for hearing aids if what is offered there is too costly for you. A lot of people in this forum had shared very positive experiences of buying hearing aids at big box retailers like Costco and Sam's Club. They generally offer a longer trial period than you will get from a clinical audiologist. That gives you time to try and get used to hearing with them. If they don't work for you take them back. Nothing lost except the initial cost of the testing.

It's obvious that the technology field of audiology is changing due to different sales approaches and opportunities. It is important though, to understand that a hearing aid can be the best and most expensive model of all, but if it isn't fit properly for an individual's hearing loss it probably will not work well.

There are reasonable options out there if you want to hear better. Do you?

Thank you for all the suggestions. I did try to get help way back when, unsuccessfully, but I think it might be a good time to try again. I was so disappointed when medicare suggested that they might be able to do something here and it fell through. It looks like it is out of the question now. Medicare has done ok but I don't think they will be getting hearing aids covered (or partially covered) any year in the near future. Thanks for the suggestions.

Julie, are hearing aids also affected by super dry conditions where there’s the possibility of static electricity?

I've never heard of that being a problem. Does anyone else know that answer to this question?

@loribmt and @julieo4

When I was wearing analog aids and living in New York my hair was long…shoulder length. I remember getting static electricity when I removed a woolen hat or my hair swished back and forth against my ears. I would hear a crackling noise that was temporary and sometimes feel a sensation when I touched my hair. It didn’t happen all the time and it had to be really dry air.

Static electricity can occur when two objects are rubbed together . If I remember right it was due to an imbalance of ions. Anyway, 40 something years later and living in Florida and wearing digital aids, it is rare that I have experienced static electricity and can only remember a few times I got a “shock”. It would seem to me that CIs , having more electronics than hearing aids, might be sensitive to static electricity but I know of no one who has ever mentioned it.

I never connected the possibility of interference because nothing ever happened to my aids .
Over thanksgiving my son (who wears aids) had static electricity on his shirt and we were trying to rub dryer sheets over the material. So, I don’t think , especially with how sophisticated aids and CIs are today, that this would be an issue. If it was, we would be hearing more about it.

My thoughts …FL Mary

Thanks, Mary. It was just something that occurred to me. When we’re home in Wisconsin during the winter, our air is so dry. We have a built in humidifier which helps. But I still get static electricity interfering with my computerized sewing machines. I have to be cautious and use rubber mats, and other little tricks I’ve found. With the discussion of hearing aids with humidity, it spurred the question about static. ⚡️😵‍💫

I agree. if this was an issue, we would hear about it a lot.

In early December, the House of Representatives passed legislation that included hearing aids in Medicare. Whether this will be addressed in the Senate remains to be seen. Or if it will be cut out in both houses. Our legislators make decisions based on what they hear from their constituents. It's important to let them hear our voices so they know what matters to us. Have you written to your legislators about this?