In article <3reucp$lv6 at hollywood.cinenet.net>, erc at cinenet.net (Eric Smith) says:
>I have a related question about the Resounds. What range of hearing
>losses do they fit well? Especially, what is the worst hearing loss
>that can be corrected by a Resound well enough for the person to use
>the telephone? If a deafened person, with good speech and past
>understanding of speech, can't discriminate speech at all now with a
>normal hearing aid, can a Resound work well enough for that person to
>let them discriminate speech well?
ReSounds can be fit for varying losses. They are somewhat conservative
in style, with somewhat limited gain for a certain style as compared to
other hearing aids of the same style. In other words, a ReSound in an
ITE case should only be used for losses up to 50 dB. Other ITE can
incorporate much strong amplifiers. The most popular style of the
ReSound is the small BTE called the BT2, which can accommodate losses
up to about 70 dB. After that, the power BTE, called the BTP is used
for severe to profound losses. The KEY issue here in dispensing these
devices is the future need of more gain. If a patient has a mild loss,
and wants an ITE, if the patient's hearing declines in the future, the
reserve gain in an ITE may be "maxed out", which is generally not the case
in a BT2. Since we are dealing with a higher than usual cost here, it is
advantageous to get a BT2 with more reserve gain for future need.
My advice to anyone interested in seeing what ReSound is all about is to
contact a local audiologist who dispensed the device. You will need an
updated audiogram in order to see how much gain is required on the day of
the demonstration. It will be up to you to decide whether ReSound provides
more benefit that your current amplification.
Jeff Sirianni @(((<{
University of Texas at Austin
Communication Sciences and Disorders
CMA, 2nd Floor Clinic
Austin, TX 78712-1089
sirianni at uts.cc.utexas.edujgsaudio at aol.com
