There are special audiologic and hearing aid dispensing techniques to deal with impaired hearing when the ear(s) have hyperacusis and/or recruitment .

The first order of business is to separate out each of these two discrete but similar phenomenon.

There is one lady I know who has success treating hyperacusis: Dr. Marsha Johnson of the a href=”http://www.tinnitus-audiology.com”>Oregon Tinnitus & Hyperacusis Treatment Clinic in Portland.

I have a distant relative going to her for treatment after another audiologist named Rikki Green, AuD fit a pair of hearing aids on her severely hyperacusic ears… Without setting the SSPL-90 (MPO) because she did not measure UCL’s!

Michele, I would call or email Dr. Johnson for advice: If anyone can get you straightened out, it would be her.~

It’s the simple questions that you need answering: Which aid is best for me? How does this one sound? And so on. How can you answer those if you’ve never had first hand experience?

I wrote about this myself a while back: http://www.deafness-and-hearingaids.net/2008/09/07/do-hard-of-hearing-audiologists-have-an-advantage-over-those-with-normal-hearing/

I’ve been thinking about looking into training to become and audiologist myself for exactly this reason.

The other problem I have had is that often the audiologist conducting hearing aid trials–this was the case in January–seems to know less than I do about the features, etc. I lost all confidence after my audi insisted that the hearing aids were not synchronized. I had to look through the owner’s manual to show her that the ha’s come from the manufacturer preset and that she had the capability to disable that setting. She still argued with me and then stumbled onto the setting and then made light of it. I lost any confidence I had in getting a good trial at that moment.

I know not all audiologists are the same, but I have had many over the years, from my 20′s to now, and I’ve never been completely happy with anyone.

Good post!!
Michele