d rooker

I'm a recent HA user, been wearing Starkey ITC aids for about 5 months.
I have almost a standing weekly appointment with my dispenser (not an
audiologist) to tweak, rebuild, adjust, etc. Overall, I'm happy with the
general hearing side of the equation, and when I forget and don't put
them in before I go to work, I quickly discover why I bought them, but
my own voice is driving me up the wall.

By end of day, the resonance of my voice begins to actually hurt. We've
tried different settings, different vent sizes, new molds (three for one
side) and still haven't come terribly close to a happy result. My
hearing loss is moderate, and only in the high ranges. For years, I was
advised to not try hearing aids, but in the last few years it has become
apparent that I need them.

Any suggestions. I can't decide if I'm just a strange case, or if my
dispenser is not up to task. He is totally willing to keep trying, and
seems to have infinite patience, but I'd like to find a solution so both
of us can move on to other things. <g>

David Rooker, TX

p pron

.................

I normally use two "half-shell" HAs (Siemens ****ogue), and after a year or
so, I've finally got used to the occlusion most of the time.

But I'm a trainer and on training days I have the same problem as you, if I
wear the Siemens aids - to the extent that by late afternoon I have no idea
how loudly I'm talking. I've tried using only one aid, and find the symptoms
are much reduced

agr1not@mac.com

This sounds like the problem I was having with Phonak Claros before they
got properly tweaked--and even with Adaptos--my voice plus other sounds
sounded too resonant, strident--there was a harsh sound, almost an
overtone that was painful---at least with the Phonaks. I don't think
that's occlusion trouble. But what IS it. Must be fairly common. What
kind of tweak-ups would the old timers here suggest. Anne

dbasing51@msn.com

D

I know just what you are talking about. I have a conductive loss in
one ear and my hearing aid is great in that ear, but the aid for my
ear with sensory neural loss drives me crazy because of the way I hear
my voice when I wear that aid. I sound like I'm in a drum and all
stopped up. It doesn't sound that way in the ear with conductive loss
though. I never have been able to live with it or get it adjusted so
I just wear one aid in the ear that I sound "normal" to myself. I wear
Phonak Claro ITC.

Deborah

d rooker

Well, I just got my third try on the right ear back, and he tweaked the
lows a bit and turned up the gain at my request. The new HA is a good
1/8" longer than the last fit. My ear c**** twists like a roller
coaster, and the extra length seems to help quite a bit. I'm still
getting the resonance, but it doesn't seem quite as bothersome. I have
yet to go through a day when I talk a great deal. That's when the
resonance becomes painful, similar to what P Pron mentioned, when I have
to speak to a group, it becomes uncomfortable.

Hopefully this will improve things. Is it possible, that after 5 months,
I still haven't grown accustomed to the general sound of the HAs? If
so, my HA dispenser has the patience of a saint. He never hesitates to
tell me to come back for more trial & error.

p pron

Fool that I am, I inadvertently hit "Send" before I got to the end......
See finished version below..

Paul

<>

I normally use two "half-shell" HAs (Siemens ****ogue), and after a year or
so, I've finally got used to the occlusion most of the time.

But I'm a trainer and on training days I have the same problem as you, if I
wear the Siemens aids - to the extent that by late afternoon I have no idea
how loudly I'm talking. I've tried using only one aid, and find the symptoms
are much reduced - although at the expense of how much I hear, which is far
from ideal!

I can think of a couple of reasons for my problem - first that when I'm
running a course, I'm speaking more loudly than I usually do, so the HAs are
getting more of my voice, and feeding it back in. And they're pretty basic
****ogue models, with slower "recovery time" from loud sounds than would be
the case with a digital model.

I'm also sure that the fact that they're ITE rather than BTE makes a
difference - are they picking up and amplifying the physical vibration of my
voice from the inside the c****, as well as through the air? I don't get
anything like the same problem using BTEs instead - but when I do, I find
the atmosphere in the room changes, and I feel the fact that I'm an HA user
becomes more interesting than what I'm saying. I should probably just switch
to BTEs and ignore the way that people start speaking to me in BLOCK
CAPITALS, but I'm not one of nature's crusaders, I'm afraid...

Paul

ken funk

Do you have molds that are not vented? They give you the feeling of fingers
in the ear and you hear you voice "in your head". I had that difficulty
years ago until I got vented molds. Now I don't have that. I use BTE Widex
Senso C19.

Ask about that to see if that will help.

Ken

On 6/25/03 5:29 PM, in article
a60f12a9.0306251629.13afcf5f@posting.google.com, "Musicden"


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