I have A 94-year-old father who wears hearing aids. He complains that he can’t hear with the hearing aids. I have taken him back to the audiologist a number of times who will pair the hearing aids and then my father says he can hear. Then after a day or two he will say the one hearing aid is not working. I make sure that he has fresh batteries in the hearing aid when I go into see him daily. He told the nurse the other day he couldn’t hear with the hearing aids and she said when she took them out of his ears they were whistling and so they did have power in them But he says they’re not working. Other times he says everything is too loud with the hearing aids. I’m just wondering if the dementia is messing with his hearing capabilities. I have tried to research this but only find articles about people that are hard of hearing and how it can possibly make them a candidate for dementia.
Same thing, the audiologist would get both hearing aids to work and Mom was able to hear a tiny bit, but 2 days later, the hearing aids didn't work. My poor Dad went through battery after battery, usually losing half of them because the batteries were so small, trying to get the battery into Mom's hearing aids.
Oh that whistling, any time my Mom would put her head into the refrigerator, it would let out a loud whistling noise, but Mom never heard it. On a positive note, we knew where Mom was in the house :P
Mom also wanted her ears cleaned, but she couldn't stand the hot water that was used, so the lukewarm water was useless.... [sigh].
Mom kept thinking there was a hearing aid that would actually work for her. Thus, we were going from one audiologist to another, spending thousands of dollars. Mom refused to believe that her hearing was no longer correctable.
My Mom didn't have dementia. Thus, this is just a part of aging that some elders are going through.
Best of luck!