 Following a trip to the ENT consultant in December I was placed on the waiting list for a hearing aid, but warned it could be several months before I would get one - a large backlog of patients has built up as a result of the transfer from analogue hearing aids to more sophisticated digital models.
Imagine my surprise then when only about six weeks on from that initial referral I find myself all kitted up with a nice shiny new aid, like the one pictured here. It is the Oticon Spirit II, a moderate power aid which has more than enough juice to overcome my relatively mild hearing loss.
Unlike the large and somewhat crude analogue aid I wore as a child, which merely amplified everything to try and overcome the conductive hearing loss, this new model is smaller and uses digital sound processing to try and cut out background noise wherever possible and make the speech you are trying to hear more prominent. It also features two directional microphones, allowing me to reduce the sound from behind if intrusive background noise is coming from that direction. It does not have a volume control, which may take some getting used to, since it is supposed to adjust for the ambient sound volume automatically.
It’s still a bit early to tell whether it is helping a lot. The mould is not 100% comfortable, but I was warned that those who have had a mastoidectomy like myself sometimes find the mould a bit uncomfortable - hopefully that will decrease with time. I’m also finding that it seems as if it is amplifying the sound more from behind than in front of me, but that could be just due to the sensation of having much better rear-facing hearing than previously. In a few weeks I will be better placed to say if it is being beneficial or not.
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