Hearing aid thoughts

My late DH wore hearing aids from age 45 until he had a cochlear implant at age 73. He never had anything stuck in his ears and found NHS aids and service really good.

I have a mould fitted NHS hearing aid which can be linked to bluetooth. Mould fit hearing aids consist of a hearing aid that sits behind your ear and a mould which is made for the shape of your ear. The other one I was offered was an open fit hearing aids which consist of a hearing aid that sits behind your ear and a soft plastic dome and thin tube that goes in your ear canal.

Batteries are free and I was given a list where I could get them from, which included my doctors surgery.

The only snag is that the tubes need changing every 4-6mths. I tried to book with a clinic to get this done locally and found that the next clinic is in January and is all ready full up. There isn't another one until April! I cannot book this until the middle of December. I am having to go to another clinic some distance away .

Also you do not get seen again for another 5 years! I am not sure if they send for you or you have to request this.

I hope I never need hearing aids, I can't bear wearing earplugs, ear buds or anything else in my ears. They seem to make my ears throb, like I can feel my heartbeat in my ears.

I work with hearing aid wearers. If possible ask for blue tooth aids, this will enable you to connect to a smart phone or any other enabled device. Ask about having them programmed with a loop function, this will mean that you can hear better where a loop is installed, i.e cinemas, theatres, churches, lecture halls & banks etc.
If you do struggle in noisy environments, always sit against a wall if possible, there are additional devices you can use that will help. If you struggle to hear sounds at home, TV, doorbell, landline phone ringing or your smoke alarm, you can apply to your local authority for a sensory impairment assessment.
They may be able to provide you with equipment for all of the above.
Don’t expect it to be instant, it will take time to adjust. Wear them gradually for longer and longer each day.
Good luck

I don't know if your Costco in the UK has a hearing aid department, but most of those in the US do. My husband bought from them years ago after wearing some very expensive ones for a long time. The Costco ones cost about $1800. Worked better than the expensive ones.

Nonthewiser please would you be so kind and give me make and maybe when model number of your hearing aids? We have spent many thousands of pounds on different hearing aids in various countries and still DH has severe difficulties.

I decided that hearing aid were less aging than asking people to repeat themselves all the time which made me feel really old!

Thank you everyone for your thoughts, very helpful for when I have my appointment.
I had tried to approach this a couple of years through our GP practice, who denied that it was anything to do with the NHS and I would have to go privately - even when I mentioned that the NHS website says that it does hearing aids...
Previous posts I have put on here for advice was to do with extensive tooth replacement, and now having parted with a 4-figure sum for private dental treatment (with a mediocre outcome), I was loath (and too broke!) to spend anything else on self maintenance. However, as proof that your phone does listen to your conversations, after a conversation with brother-in-law, who has very little hearing and was singing the praises of his local NHS audiology dept, lo-and-behold - an advert came up the next day on my Facebook feed, with details of a NHS funded audiology service in our city, and inviting people to contact them for an assessment. This I duly did and now have an appointment for mid Nov. So fingers crossed, if it is deemed necessary for me to have hearing aids, then everyone's comments on here about NHS aids is very reassuring. Thank you all.

Missdeke I have that same problem, have never been able to use ear buds for listening to music etc, (make my ears ache horribly after a few minutes) and never been able to use earplugs, as recommended, when riding my motorcycle, which has probably contributed to the issue. I have been told I have tiny ear canals, but hopefully the audiologist will be able to sort out something suitable for me.

I am almost deaf in one ear, got a nhs hearing aid, it did help my hearing but I have suffered with tinnitus for years and found the hearing aid amplified it to an unbearable level which continued when I took the hearing aid out for several days, so I don’t use it.

Grossmama, I bought mine from Amplifon, the model is ampli-energy R5, which is actually a rebadged ReSound Nexia ( a top quality aid). While it is fine for my needs, it might not suit your DH. A good audiologist should be able to advise on what would be best for him.

win

Jeanieallergy21

I think the type of gearing aids supplied by the NHS can vary depending on which Trust area you live in. This year my old aids were replaced by fancy new bluetooth ones which I can adjust to various settings using my smartphone. I can also use them as Bluetooth earbuds to answer my mobile calls, listen to music, etc. They are brilliant and free on the NHS. I would recommend that anyone with a hearing problem should try the NHS first and go elsewhere if they are not happy with what the NHS supplies.

100% agree they are as good as any these days. Hearing aids will never be perfect but the NHS ones offered now are very good.

Are the NHS ones in the ear or behind the ear.

I was issued with NHS Phonak aids in April and have had no problems at all. On the contrary, the Bluetooth function is wonderful as sound is carried straight into the ear and adjustments can be made on the app for various situations. NHS phones are the same as privately bought ones except that they are more likely to be last year's model. As advised by others, it makes sense to try them before going paying a lot of money.

Specsavers are each run by different "owners" in conjunction with company that founded the whole thing.
Huge variation in how people find different branches. Add to that how different NHS trusts vary in what kind of aids they go for and your experience could be anything.
Suggest you start off by going to Specsavers. They will tell you how to proceed in getting NHS aids which I would think best to start off with. You have to get a referral from your GP. Don't let GP tell you what audiologist to go to. It's entirely your choice. Good luck.

In our area, Specsavers do not do NHS hearing aids, only private ones. There is a long delay to get an NHS appointment.

I have tinnitus, which started the day I had a free hearing test at Specsavers. Can that be a coincidence?

NanTheWiser

I went down the private route, as I could afford to pay for the latest technology. I have been high-tone deaf all my life (discovered by an audiologist visit to primary school when I was about 7), but as I have aged, my deafness has got a lot worse, so decided to bite the bullet 4 months ago.

My aids (behind the ear, receiver in the canal) are really tiny and unobtrusive, and are rechargeable overnight. There were a few hiccups, due to the wax filters constantly clogging up, but I’ve now solved that problem, fortunately.

I can say, it has been quite life changing, being able to hear the TV clearly, and a friend’s voice (who can be a bit of a mumbler!) the doorbell, and birds in the garden (not so much the crows…)

To begin with, everything sounds awfully loud, but you adjust, and the advice given to me was to wear them all the time.

I don’t have experience with NHS aids, but have read that they can be very good, but there does seem to be a post code lottery as to which aids you are offered, depending on your local health authority, and how long you might have to wait.

I am quite new to hearing aids - the wax filter on my NHS hearing aids blocked up after 2 months.
Friends who already had hearing aids told me I needed to clean out the tubes with a special straw like tool but when I went back to Specsavers they told me I can’t clean these type of hearing aids in this way - instead there is a filter which has to be changed. They won’t let me have any spare filters as they said they are quite tricky to take apart and if not fitted back properly the end could fall off into the ear canal ,,,,,,,,,,, so am wondering how you solved the issue of wax in the filter ?
Luckily the Specsavers shop is fairly close to me - they told me some people with a lot of wax may have to go back every couple of weeks!

If you need hearing aids, then go for it. I have worn them for some time now and they make a huge difference. I have had hearing impairments most of my life for medical reasons and I really like these modern NHS aids. I have the behind the ear type - and very small and unobtrusive they are these days, too - and ear moulds as they are much better for me. The only problem I have at the moment is that I have had yet more infections and have been referred yet again to ENT - l must be one of the longest serving members of the ENT club. This has meant that my hearing has deteriorated considerably so that I need stronger aids. I find this extra hearing loss especially frustrating because I am a professional classical musician

Obviously NHS first every time, but the receptionist at my GP told me 'we don't do hearing aids, you have to go to Boots or Specsavers'. I contacted the local NHS audiology department online, only to be told that everything must be arranged via my GP.

Jennerdysphoria Boots in our town only do private hearing aids, I don't know if it varies.

We go to Scrivens who do NHS and private.
They had to write to my GP who authorised me being allowed the free NHS aids, but actually I think it was only my NHS number that was required!

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Frogs, I can only tell you how I change the wax filters on my aids, which might be quite different to yours. I don’t have tubes, just a wire to the receiver. The receiver is covered by a silicone dome which is removed to expose the filter, I’ll attach a few photos to show mine which might be helpful including the pack of wax filters. My problem was that the domes would clog with wax on insertion, leading to the filters also clogging, so following a tip on a hearing aid forum, I just change the domes (I have spares) every few days, and when I have 6 or 8, putting them in a tub of hot water, which dissolves all the wax and debris, before drying them out for another day.

I’ll also attach a short YouTube clip showing how it is done.

I am very surprised Specsavers couldn’t be more help! Maintenance and upkeep of aids is very important.

Link: www.youtube.com/watch?v=z9cSbGYU6_Q

It is a free service to change the filter with my Specsaver. But I got a set of them and do it myself now.

Thank you NanTheWiser for taking the trouble to reply - I will take a look at the video but think I’m stuck as Specsavers say I need to go into the shop to get the filters changed.
Ahhh well it is a bit of an inconvenience but at least the service is free.

Go to the NHS for a true and honest assessment - they have no interest in selling you anything and won't try to get you to spend oodles of £££s on expensive 'invisible' aids.
Then, if you find you really do need a hearing aid, and have the money, you will have the knowledge to pick and choose between the bewildering choices on the market and are less likely to be sold expensive rubbish.