[Closed] Hearing aid users/gurus

I have moderate loss in one ear and use am NHS supplied Oticon hearing aid. The service I got from the NHS was brilliant, very happy.  Oticon are one of the brands that hearfocus supply, so no reason to assume that a privately supplied one would be better.  I would also (perhaps wrongly!) assume that there would be a community nurse able to carry out a test at his home if he is not overly mobile.

Has he had any follow up appointments since getting the aids? They can be tuned and retuned to suit the loss "profile" so he may just need to go back to the audiologist for a retest.

My son (Thump, age 14) has NHS digital hearing aids:

This is what I know;

His hearing aids are old models - five years old, made by a major manufacturer.

This means that newer models must be available for private users - but I would optimise his current ones first.

They are digital and can be tuned by a mobile phone app.

The beauty of this is that they can be tuned depending on the situation .(volume up and down, background noise removal etc). Thump has settings for home, class, sport etc.

Find out that model hearing aids your dad has and download the app. Thump's hearing aids are optimised for Samsung/Apple phones but we sideloaded the app onto his old phone. He now has a Samsung phone but the only advantage is he can stream music.

With progress in software I imagine newer hearing aids are a massive stepup in handling background noise - but I would tune the existing hearing aids first. The MILs hearing aids are minute in comparison with Thump's but then she also loses them regularly - and are paid for by her Canadian health insurance.

NHS supplied hearing aid user here too (Oticon).
Really happy with service & tests from NHS.
Luckily I only suffer with a weird low frequency loss so without my ears on, films seem a bit mumbly and I miss the odd word (usually the crucial one!) in conversation. However, I find the Oticon aids make a positive difference.

I'm not sure commercial ones would be any different. They may look a bit nicer & maybe have some useful features but I've never seen the point in paying £,000s. They're not going to provide a magic solution or work any better.

Don’t waste your money on private aids. The NHS is the largest buyer of hearing aids globally and has the buying power to get digital aids just as good as private sector. The huge benefit of NHS is that if after a month or so of use it is not right for whatever reason you can just change for a different one. Wearer of aids for over 40 years my first digital one after analog was the most powerful one at the time but not really enough. Oticon brought out a super power one and I just switched to that. NHS also make the best earpieces 🙂

For me, getting hearing aids in my mid forties really made me realise how much I was missing. I have used Oticon private ones for about 18 months now and they’re better again than the NHS ones I started with - and should be for the price! The iPhone app is useful but as they’re Bluetooth, and because of the tech, there’s a right bun fight when you introduce the Garmin, so I turn the HAs off before trying to upload the ride...or just wear the NHS ones.

Back on topic, my local (provincial) health hub, who were great in diagnosing my hearing loss and my initial treatment referred me to a more metropolitan hospital that did private work and they’ve been excellent supporting me. @UrbanHiker - might be worth looking at the options at local hospitals if it’s appropriate?

NHS Hearing aids are good, and will be around mid range compared to private.
Private HA Can be a lot better, if you spend over a certain amount. But it depends what you need them for. Top end Ha’s constantly scan the sounds coming in, communicate with each other, and set up different programs to best match the surroundings. They will be more accurate at ‘directing’ the mics at what you want to hear.
They also have a lot more channels, so are more accurate.
Eg in a car they will block out The engine noise and focus on someone speaking from the left or behind. In noisy restaurants they can focus really well on a person in front
Of you and cut out background noise.
As well as sounding better, they look better, are smaller, can be rechargable (so you don’t have to fiddle with batteries) and blue tooth linked to phone, TV etc.
But...
If he doesn’t need that stuff, the NHS ones are brilliant.
I am a partner in a HA business (Specsavers)
The HA guys who come to your home tend to be more pricey, our absolute top end branded HA’s come in at a tad under £3k. We’ve seen people pay twice that for the same thing.
Specsavers do NHS Hearing Aids and will do home visits but only if your Dad is officially house bound.

Everyone, thanks very much for all the info. Really helpful, especially about the trade off between the NHS and private HAs. I get the feeling his hearing is so bad that, although the NHS ones improve things, any little additional improvement would help. And it sounds like the top of the range privates will be better than the NHS ones. Though I'll check what models he has.

The ones he has have been tweaked a number of times, which does improve things, but they still fall short, even in quiet environments. So need to take them up a notch somehow. Fortunately for him, money isn't particularly limiting.

Jkomo, interesting re home visits on the NHS. I'm not sure regarding his actual status regarding being house bound. Will check with him.

Thanks again everyone.

You can of course get the NHS ones see how it goes, ours get updated every year or two, so if his are a few years old the new ones will be much better. If you get the home visit people round, try and be there with him. Not just to make sure he’s not ripped off, but if he gets the aids to find out about simple maintenance.
If you want to PM me I can check he’s getting a good deal etc.
We are in Oxfordshire btw

So his current ones are Oticon Sprint Synergy.

I can't find much info online regarding them, but they seem to be on hardware that's at least one major version old. I'll have to have a proper conversation with him about it. It might be that an update NHS one would be a considerable improvement, that may be an option, especially if he can wrangle a specsavers home visit.

He's just bit too far from Oxfordshire, Bath area, but thanks for all the info.

If he is struggling in a quiet room then it may just be he needs something with a step up in power which NHS will be able to help with. Also worth booking an appointment with the local GP to check his ears for a blockage - in the ear aids by their nature push things down the ear canal causing a build up. If the aid is whistling a lot that is a telltale sign of blockage. If they suggest water irrigation decline it and seek out micro suction (Specsavers offer this) - much less likely to get an infection this way. The other thing to remember is that if your NHS aid is capable of Bluetooth/streaming the auxiliary devices will not come on the NHS but they have a private department within the NHS that you can buy these from - which is what I have done. Good luck either way - hope you can find a good solution for him.

Pardon .... what d'you say ?

(this place is going to the dogs I tell you, 12th post before that "joke".... rubbish)

No, someone made the joke but it was removed (voluntarily or otherwise).  Mocking a disability is a dick move.  Hearing loss is horrible, even relatively mild loss like mine.  It's frustrating, upsetting at times, but because it's "only" deafness it's considered a bit of a joke by some.

Wow .... We are all going to go Mutt n Jeff to some degree as we get old.

Life is a joke .... It's NOT a personal joke

Nice, stay classy Ro5ey

Honestly, I'm sorry I've upset you.... I stopped arguing on here or anywhere online some years ago.... But I feel my conscience is clear

Have a good one

I just stick with NHS because I'm a tight-arse and have better things to spend 3k on! 🙂

I use NHS one - i have bugger all high frequency hearing.
I have found the service great from my local Audiology dept - and my hearing is not that bad that I fee I need to go elsewhere.
My brother's hearing is rubbish - and finally after spending god knows how many thousand on hearing aids, is being serviced by the NHS - and at least he can vaguely hear what I say!

Initially I went to Specsavers - and was given a really hard sell. And the chosen pair where just rubbish - even after many tuning sessions, everyone still sounded like a Dalek. Fortunately , the free return within 30 days worked ....

I would suggest an appointment with an Audiologist - but the are only doing phone ones at the moment, so it is a compromise.

Initially I went to Specsavers – and was given a really hard sell.

I go through Specsavers for my NHS one and they've been really good. No hard selling to get me to go private. At the end of the day a sale is a sale whether through NHS or direct.

So it would seem to me that a modern NHS would probably be a step up from the one he currently has (Oticon Sprint Synergy), but a private top of the range would be an even bigger jump in performance.

Cheers for the input everyone, will pass the info on to him.

So it would seem to me that a modern NHS would probably be a step up from the one he currently has (Oticon Sprint Synergy), but a private top of the range would be an even bigger jump in performance.

Cheers for the input everyone, will pass the info on to him.

Depending on what his hearing issue are!
The current offering is only Oticon Sprint next generation - but for me they work fine. He needs to talk to Audiology ...
And next stage private is big bucks - 3k upwards ...

So, had a good chat to him about the problems he's been having. Turns out one side is fine. The other side he gets lots of echos and feedback, and also feels that the earpiece bit doesn't fit properly. I'm guessing that bad fitting might cause the noise issues?

Managed to persuade him continuing with the NHS was the best way forward, at least to see if the fit issue could be sorted by them. We're going to push for a home visit, but otherwise I'm offered to put him on the tag-along!

Might not require new aids after all, fingers crossed.

Cheers for all the input, really helpful. I'll give feedback (intended) once the NHS machine has limbered up into action.