Hearing loss

[Wakester]

I'm not an expert, but I think if you have tinnitus, you probably have hearing loss.

What? did someone say something? speak up I didn't hear you. I know I have some hearing loss. Like I said, It's been noted since I was a kid. The chronic tinnitus may be the result of a yet to be diagnosed neurologic condition. My mother has had it for a few years, and she has had excellent hearing. In her case, it was one of the symptoms of her dementia.

 

[alantig]

I've had tinnitus since I was real young. I never thought much about it at the time, I just thought it was from having colds and strep infections all the time. My ears were constantly plugged. Hearing test showed a hearing impairment, but not enough to warrant hearing aides. When I was Active Duty in the Navy, one hearing exam said I had a "Significant Threshold Shift" and they tried writing me up for not wearing my hearing protection. My Supervisor went to bat for me on that and got them to back down. When I went into the Reserves after being 4 years out, they said my hearing was perfect, for what I don't know. I wear plugs at concerts anymore, it just overloads my eardrums if I don't. I usually use the foam ones they sell in the safety aisle of HD or Lowes. If I find them, i use the PRS Attenuators I got for next to nothing. They work ok, but plugs are better in some situations.

My wife thinks I should have my hearing checked. I think I need to not tune her out as much. I get focused on something and tune most everything out, including her. It also doesn't help that when she is talking to me at a normal volume, I am on the other side of the house watching tv with 3 walls between us.

I’ve been wearing Vibes plugs. PRS has rebranded ones on sale right now. There are updated versions as well, but the work very well for me.

 

[Martin Lenihan]

I'm coming to terms with the fact that the near deafness that everyone on my mother's side had is coming to me. In my 50s and I've been struggling a bit to really understand conversations well (had been for years in noisy spots but now it's in quiet ones too). Got my ears checked and yeah, my hearing is okay at low frequencies but increasingly terrible at high ones. Age related, it's been getting worse for years and will continue to. Doc said i'd hear lower tones well, like men's voices. But higher ones, like my wife's I might not be able to hear. I said 'Okay, to that's the upside, is there any downside?' Kidding!

I have a pair of headphones with equalizer in them so I created a profile to mimic my loss so my wife could hear. Played a vocal podcast and a couple of songs for her. She said she could understand stuff but it sounded like everything was under water and muffled. That's how I hear all the time, I guess.

So I'm getting hearing aids. I'm wondering what I should expect from a musical perspective. I suppose everything will sound different, maybe bad because the aids are optimized for voices not wideband music and they have compression to boot. I suppose I'm used to everything having lots of bottom and it won't anymore. I don't know what that will do to my playing. For example, I have typically been playing in the neck pickup a lot because it sounds so good to me. I guess that's because it's what I hear the best. With correction that could flip. So what does that do to what I like to play? Will I discover that my gear is all trash? Anyone have experience here? Kinda curious how it changed music for people.

I have Phonak hearing aids and I love them. They are very light and incredibly adjustable by using the app that is provided. They are also virtually invisible. The sound of my guitars changed immediately. It's amazing how much high frequency hearing loss dulls the sound of music etc. However, these hearing aids are very expensive. That's the only downside to them. (It's ridiculous that hearing aids are not covered by insurance, including Medicare). Some people have loss that is so severe they made need a cochlear implant. Health insurance does cover that procedure thankfully.

 

[alantig]

I can't recommend the movie "Sound Of Metal" highly enough for this subject. One of the few I've seen where they attempted to portray the sound heard by someone with severe hearing loss, and with the results of his cochlear implants. For me, with my love of music and my longtime fear of hearing loss, it was not the most comfortable thing to watch because it just reinforced some of those fears, but it is very well done.

 

[11top]

I told my band I was quitting. Our drummer told me he has electric drums, and will start using those. He convinced me to give it a go.

I don’t mind playing out loud (with plugs) every once in awhile, but semi-weekly practice has to change to much lower decibels.

 

[Slowhands]

I have Phonak hearing aids and I love them. They are very light and incredibly adjustable by using the app that is provided. They are also virtually invisible. The sound of my guitars changed immediately. It's amazing how much high frequency hearing loss dulls the sound of music etc. However, these hearing aids are very expensive. That's the only downside to them. (It's ridiculous that hearing aids are not covered by insurance, including Medicare). Some people have loss that is so severe they made need a cochlear implant. Health insurance does cover that procedure thankfully.

Today I got the Costco Kirkland Select 10 hearing aids. They are basically repackaged Phonak Paradise 90 hearing aids with a few features cut, particularly tinnitus control . But very similar to what you what you have but Costoco sells them quite a bit cheaper than the Phonak branded / full featured ones.

So I plugged in tonight and by god you are right. I had been playing on the neck pickup a lot over the last few years because I thought it just sounded better, richer.. But with proper hearing the treble side came to life. It doesn't sound artificial at all, just clear and I guess a good word is alive. I am mindful of using a hearing aid with an amplifier, don't want the hearing aids to actually hurt my hearing. But just keeping the amp low, well, I think it will be fun reacquainting myself with a whole set of tonal options I had given up on, thinking my tastes had changed when it was my hearing that had made them do so.

In the meantime I'll have to get used to lots of things, like how damned loud my footsteps are, or turning a door knob. All around me stuff that I either didn't hear at all or didn't hear well are now in my face. I think it's like when you are a kid and your mom makes you wear a sweater or wool pants and you itch and itch and hate it. But somewhere along the way the brain figures out that it shouldn't be wasting energy processing the feel of your clothes and just stops. You don't really feel them anymore unless you think about them, then you do. But only then. I think with noises it's the same. Your brain figured out which ones to sort of downplay and that mental programming is gone now. So I have to learn it again. In the meantime I will stop typing because the sounds of the keys clicking is starting to bug me.

 

[Slowhands]

This is borderline necro-thread but wanted to offer a final update. From a purely music perspective these hearing aids have been amazing. Listening to songs I loved as a kid and thought 'it sounds so flat abd muddy, why did I ever like it?" and hearing them come back to life. I listening to everything all over again, old stuff and new stuff and hearing it ... actually hearing it ... again for the first time in years or for the first time ever. You can mute the mics in the hearing aids and when I toggle that while listening to music I truly realize just how much I was missing and how it was suppressing my enjoyment of music. Some parts of songs are actually inaudible to me without the hearing aids and I only know this now because I can actually hear them.

I was not a sever case. I can hear conversations with the occasional 'what'? thrown in ever fifth sentence. I didn't "need" hearing aids. But by god I'm glad I got them. All I can say is that if you think you may have some loss, get tested and find out. It could be life changing.

And I can certify this: my playing still sucks, they didn't fix that.

 

[Simon Says]

I have lost hearing for 6 weeks earlier this year as a result of covid complication so I can relate how scary this is. All I can say is I'm thinking warm about you and wishing you all the best

 

[Slowhands]

I have lost hearing for 6 weeks earlier this year as a result of covid complication so I can relate how scary this is. All I can say is I'm thinking warm about you and wishing you all the best

I didn't know COVID could give you hearing loss but I should stop being surprised at what that thing can do to people. Must have been nerve wracking to not be sure if you'd get it back. My loss was very gradual, over decades (first noticed issues only in certain circumstances - specifically hearing conversations in loud bars - starting in the mid '90s). So it was easy to pretend it wasn't happening. Sudden would be scary, lasting for weeks would be doubly so. Glad it didn't stick with you.

 

[Simon Says]

I didn't know COVID could give you hearing loss but I should stop being surprised at what that thing can do to people. Must have been nerve wracking to not be sure if you'd get it back. My loss was very gradual, over decades (first noticed issues only in certain circumstances - specifically hearing conversations in loud bars - starting in the mid '90s). So it was easy to pretend it wasn't happening. Sudden would be scary, lasting for weeks would be doubly so. Glad it didn't stick with you.

Yeah, this one was acute. Zzzzzip, nada. They scanned my brain but other than brain itself, they found nothing. They said its eustachian tube dysfunction. Apparently common after viral infections. I tho I'm bleeding to my head, I never heard of bilateral ETD before... anyway, took weeks to clear but I'm back to normal now

 

[Deleted member 5962]

This is borderline necro-thread but wanted to offer a final update.

You've got to be kidding! I got a "like" at The Gear Page last week from a post I made in 2012! The thread got bumped and with new people reading it, I got a like on a 9 year old post.

More importantly, glad to hear your hearing aids are working out so well for you. I fear the day when this could happen as well. Glad it's going so well for you.

 

[Mike J.]

My dad's hearing was fine his whole life, but my mom was darned near deaf when she passed away in March of this year. So I guess my chances of hearing loss is 50/50. I'm 68 and other than a mild ringing in my ears I'm doing okay. The ringing varies day to day but it's nothing that drives me nuts. But if I get exposed to a sudden loud noise the ringing gets quite loud. Even is I'm next to someone and they clap their hands hard the ringing will intensify for a while. But I do have some trouble hearing people who talk very quiet.

I played in LOUD rock bands during the 70's and early 80's and about halfway into my playing career is when I started plugging my ears. The only times I didn't plug my ears was during sound checks. That way I could hear what the room sounded like and I could get my tone set accordingly. But once it was show time in went the ear plugs. Once the band days were over I spent 30 years in noisy CNC machine shops. Plugged my ears everyday and I'm glad I did.

I practice a lot with headphones on and have learned to keep the volume low because if I don't the ringing will intensify. So I'm okay as long as I take precautions. I even wear earplugs when i mow the lawn these days!

 

[Jakles]

For many years I have suffered from hearing loss. When I was a child, I had to wear a hearing aid to hear my parents talking to me. Now I am an adult with two children. I'm afraid that my condition may have been passed on to them since I have many people in my family who have had hearing loss. I have never saved money on hearing aids, so I can probably hear many sounds close to hearing a healthy person. I'll go to the hearing clinic near me again this year and get myself and my children checked.

 

[Em7]

My wife's family has hearing loss issues as well, and she's needed much higher volume watching TV or movies than most. Honestly, I can't be in the same room, she plays it so loud!

That is the way I was when I met my girlfriend. She listened to the TV at more than twice the sound pressure that was comfortable for me. I kept telling her that she would benefit from a hearing test. She ignored me and suffered from complete sudden onset loss of hearing in one ear. It has to be hereditary because her 30-something daughter listens to TV at what I find a painful sound pressure level. She also speaks very loudly. I am 60-something and I clearly have better hearing then shes does and I played in by loud bands in my teens and twenties. However, I tended to use sound suppression. I leave the room when they turn the TV on. I value my hearing.

 

[László]

That is the way I was when I met my girlfriend. She listened to the TV at more than twice the sound pressure that was comfortable for me. I kept telling her that she would benefit from a hearing test. She ignored me and suffered from complete sudden onset loss of hearing in one ear. It has to be hereditary because her 30-something daughter listens to TV at what I find a painful sound pressure level. She also speaks very loudly. I am 60-something and I clearly have better hearing then shes does and I played in by loud bands in my teens and twenties. However, I tended to use sound suppression. I leave the room when they turn the TV on. I value my hearing.

The only saving grace for me is that she doesn't object to my playing very loudly when I record.

But she won't get a hearing test, and refuses to discuss hearing aids, which I think she obviously needs. Meantime I have to repeat what I say to her several times quite often, and finally in exasperation, I will practically shout.

Then she says, "Stop yelling at me." I can't win.

 

[Daryl Jones]

I found out I had hearing loss when I was a commercial pilot. That was over 20 years ago and I know (even without another audiologist report) that it has gotten worse with time. I have tinnitus as well (probably goes hand in hand, but that has been 3-4 decades now). My wife has a hearing aid, and I'm probably looking at that in the not too distant future, but I'm not jumping on that wagon just yet. Hopefully once I hit the magic 65 (this fall) there will be some compensation available with my health insurance to ease the bite. So far daily stuff doesn't affect me and I have no issues with playing or "hearing" what I'm doing with it.
It is amazing what damage I did running a high speed meat saw for 25 years, but never realized it until my hearing test for my aviation medical. The audiologist nailed it.

 

[Slowhands]

The only saving grace for me is that she doesn't object to my playing very loudly when I record.

But she won't get a hearing test, and refuses to discuss hearing aids, which I think she obviously needs. Meantime I have to repeat what I say to her several times quite often, and finally in exasperation, I will practically shout.

Then she says, "Stop yelling at me." I can't win.

That's exactly how it was with my mom when I was growing up, except she did have a hearing aid but would only wear it for phone calls and the office because she said she didn't need it at home and it made things sound weird. Hearing aids in the 80s weren't that great.

I knew I really ought to get mine checked for a while but I resisted it for one reason: I could read okay but had to squint a little sometimes so I got readers. After that I rapidly lost the ability to read anything without them. I was worried my ears would become totally dependent on the hearing aids like eyes did on the readers. Maybe they will, but I finally figured out that preserving crappy senses when they could be made much better with a simple helper made no sense.

 

[watelessness]

i've been watching my left ear decline steadily the last few years. not happy with it. not happy at all. if i don't have working ears and hands then i have no idea what i'll do with my retirement

 

[Wakester]

My Dad had a VA certified hearing loss when he Retired from the Air Force. The doctors said the three little bones that connect the eardrum to the tympanic nerve had fused in his left ear. They offered to do Surgery to replace the bone with wire and guaranteed he would have improved hearing after things healed in a few weeks. A week after the surgery, my Dad sneezed and blew the wires out. He wore a hearing aide from that point on. Lost them or stepped on them at least twice a year.