Is an audiologist necessary?

Yes, it quite scary that one-sided statements may have significant influence for our lives… Now there is even invented fitting algoritm (one of the module of NAL-NL3) for patients with normal audiograms.

A tonal audiogram does not reveal all hearing characteristics. Speech understanding measures, such as WRS in quiet or QuickSIN, provide additional insight into a patient’s problem.

Clinicians felt very differently about fitting hearing aids on people with normal hearing 10 years ago.

It is not uncommon for APD to be comorbid with ASD. It would be nice if you could see an audiologist who has experience with that population. It also seems like a compassionate clinician would be open to starting out with a virtual consult so that you could get to know them a bit from a comfortable location before heading into the clinic.

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Be aware that all the tinnitus masking feature does is to add a special noise that covers up the tinnitus. To me, this made things noisier and worse.

There is real danger in self-programming hearing aids from scratch, particularly as a newbie. You can wind up permanently damaging your hearing. What should the MPO (Maximum Power Output) be for that particular hearing aid and receiver at every frequency? You have no guidance.

Yes, you need to visit an audiologist in some way.

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I think that always it’s good to get ENT and audi visits to exclude other potentially reversible conditions.

Reportedly that video is useful. Some general rules are universal for all HAs:

No very easy to do and set up, although it’s not for everyone.

Nonsense, how so? If you don’t know yourself on how things work then it’s not fair to advise others.

Again this is nonsense, MPO is determined by the software based on ones audogram, the software sets everything up all within safe limits, and there’s plenty of “guidance” within, so this all very easy to do, and your right, you need to visit a Audiologist to get a hearing test (Audogram) but that’s all.

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Amen to that. And you probably can even produce a decent audiogram yourself, if you can put your hands on a pair of Airpods Pro2- all audiograms have error margins around 5 db anyhow. As I pointed out above, do visually check if your eardrums are clean (and you can easily do that yourself, too, they are those bluish ovals on an otoscope).

There is also in-situ option to measure audiogram and UCLs, at least in Phonak Target, not sure about Resound software…

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Yes correct, all the manufacturers software offer’s it, this is something that can be done after entering ones audogram and using the software a bit to see what’s possible and things work, then In-situ can be done, surprisingly accurate at times as well.

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Do Hearing Aids Help with Tinnitus? Real Users Sound Off

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I think the key words here are “reverse slope”. I have RS mild in one ear, moderate in the other. I’ve been self programming from the beginning of getting my aids (4-5 years ago). Reverse slope is a very tricky loss to program for. I self learned as much as I could, self programmed best I could, then found an audiologist that specialized in reverse slope. I go for a check up once a year and it’s been a huge help for me. My audi knows I self-program and checks out my settings, changes them based on my hearing changes (got worse last year), and teaches me things I’m doing wrong. So, yes find a good audiologist to help you with the reverse slope.

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Nothing special about RS in the grand scheme of hearing aids, HAs and the software accommodate this no problem, now as you’ve already noticed being DIY, it’s the fine tuning that takes a bit to get things right, but this can be said for any fitting, your lucky to find an audiologist that’s happy to help you when doing DIY.

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I wonder if packing channels more densely into frequencies up to 1000–1500 Hz, to make a smaller frequency range for each compared to over 1500 Hz, would make adjustments easier.

My assumption is based on the fact that fewer Hz are needed to transition from a lower to higher octave in frequencies like:

  1. 100 to 200 Hz (with 100/12 Hz per semitone) than
  2. 1500 to 3000 Hz (with 1500/12 Hz per semitone).

Tu sum up, perhaps there would be better effect with channel and handle assigned to e.g. 4 semitones (~18 channels/handles from 100 to 6400 Hz range or ~21 channels/handles to 12800 Hz).

I theorize only, maybe someone more knowledgeable would add his/her three cents and corrects me.

We need Parametric EQ for heaing aids.

Yes, and that is weird- why preferring to have people come and visit you for a zillion (prepaid) sessions when you can just steer them into remission with a DIY kit? My audiologist just sat silent when I proposed her going DIY, and she would certainly not lend me a copy of Target. My suspicion is that DIY-vers are seen as a threat throughout the standard distribution chain, with manufacturers hating to shift their marketing model.

(OK, on a side note- I am using the sinister “remission” here ironically, because I think calling us “patients” is extremely heavy-handed. People who need a pair of glasses are never referred to as such…)

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No, that’s not true, most default RIC fitting algorithms (plus gain averaging) don’t address the shape of reverse slope losses properly. I’m not quite sure of the basis of your expertise in this area?

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Actually it’s not what I noticed, I can input just about any audogram into the software, as for if the algorithm is correct well that’s another matter, no doubt with some additional adjustments one would get the desired results, how can one tell which frequencies are not correctly fitted properly for RS, I’ve not noticed any of the software warning that it maybe incorrect, I’m basing this on a few that I’ve done.