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Do you have any experience with non prescriptive hearing aids?
Hearing Loss | Last Active: Aug 22, 2023 | Replies (6)Comment receiving replies
First; I have not had personal experience with OTC hearing aids, but hold-on! I do have experience with a prescription, highly rated single-sided hearing aid that was later determined by my Audiologist & Neuro-Otologist was not the answer for me due to my having a “sensory” hearing loss. That’s where the inner and outer hairs in my R-ears cochlea were damaged, and something that a hearing aid would not have corrected. Unfortunately, something that took awhile to determine as the speech recognition in my R-ear deteriorated from (post injury Audiogram) 76% to 42% several months later.
My point is, it’s imperative that you see an ENT (Specialist) and Audiologist to determine the “exact type” of hearing loss you have (There are essentially 3-types of hearing loss: Sensory, Conducive & Mixed) in the event your considering self treating yourself with an over the counter hearing aid as I can assure you that reprogramming of that hearing aid will be required potentially every 3-6 months by an Audiologist, despite the OTC hearing aid potentially having an app. for you to self adjust? Keep in mind that a hearing aid is essentially an amplifier of “sound”. Even with my Rx hi-end hearing aid I heard “tinny” & “echoing” faint sounds.
Due to my Sensory hearing loss I just had an OSIA 2 bone conduction implant device placed, awaiting my fitting and programming next week.
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Good luck with your OSIA 2 bone conduction implant. Single sided deafness can be treated in some ways that are different than for those who have hearing loss in both ears.
Sensorineural hearing loss (SNHL) is very common. It affects the hair cells in the cochlea/inner ear. Those do not regenerate. Thus, cochlear implants help many people as they bypass the cochlea with the damaged hair cells to stimulate the auditory nerve. For years, prior to the development of implanted devices, it was believed that the auditory nerve was 'dead'. Amazingly, that is rarely the case. That nerve is simply not getting the message.
With single sided deafness, bone conduction from the hearing side to the deaf side may do the trick. I hope this works for you and look forward to hearing your experience after your tech has been activated and programmed.