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Is an audiologist necessary?

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Took an online hearing test9 and it says I have mild hearing loss in a reverse slope. I tried this test on multiple devices with multiple headphones and the results were all within mild loss.
A bit of background before I get to my question: 10 years ago I got my hearing tested because of constant tinnitus and trouble hearing in noisy places. The audiologist told me I had slight loss on lower frequencies but nothing to worry about. So I assumed but couldn’t find a specialist at the time, and just lived with the issues.
My tinnitus has gotten worse in the last year so, after learning that hearing aids can be self programmed, I decided to buy a pair off eBay for the tinnitus masking feature (they and the noahlink wireless 2 will be here within a month). My plan was to set the aids to the lowest gain possible and turn on the tinnitus feature. Now I’m wondering if I need more gain than the lowest possible.
So, the question is, now that I think I have hearing loss, is an audiologist visit necessary when the hearing aid software has the in-situ feature?

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Doing what you’re suggesting does not sound unreasonable. However if you don’t get the results you want I think seeing an audiologist is a decent idea. It doesn’t sound like your loss has changed much.

There are a lot of self programmers here … there is a special section for it

I have been self programing my aids for about 20 years .
I think the in-situ is a very good way to program aids, it is about the same thing that you get in a sound boot with an audiologist.
However an is not the holy grail … after that you have to make small changes to get the best settings for YOU .

(Hearing Aid Self-Fitting and Adjusting [DIY] - Hearing Aid Forum - Active Hearing Loss Community)

What’s the barrier to getting a real, updated test and at least having them look in your ears and check your middle ear function and make sure things are still working as well as they can. Time? Money?

Yeah. That’s not nothing. Although getting an updated hearing test is usually less expensive that rolling the dice on ebay. And imagine if you just have ears full of wax that could be cleared out so that your hearing was back to where it was 10 years ago.

I’ve cleaned my ears weekly for a few years now after completely losing hearing in one of them from wax build up for a week. So I doubt it’s wax this time.
Honestly I’d love to see a professional, but I’m a dependent autistic adult, and it’s been decided for me that going to an audiologist right now would be “bad for my mental health.” So I’m doing what I can for myself at the moment; I just wanted to get outside opinions on whether or not this plan could work.
I do appreciate the advice though.

You don’t really need an expert to find out about excessive earwax. There are cheap (even with a Trumptax) wireless otoscopes that will send an image to your phone/tablet, letting you know if your eardrums are free of wax. If they are, it is extremely unlikely a medical intervention can restore your hearing.

IMG_5609

If do you have something sitting on your eardrum you can flush it out with lukewarm water using something like this (the setup prevents you from touching your eardrums with the spout).

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From my experience with Phonaks, Noahlink, my PC and Target I think that you can very well set up your yourself. Enter your in Target, connect your HAs (ensure you have no other Bluetooth connections active) and it will pretty much guide you from there. Be aware though that the initial setup may be too conservative (Target always assumes new users that mustn’t be overwhelmed), so you will need to tweak quite a bit from there.

In reply to @ParkAL

@ParkAL said:

on whether or not this plan could work.

Yes, it could work. Chances of damage with a mild loss are very low. You can run the in situ hearing test in the software once you have the devices and that will do a better job.

“Necessary” is a cloudy term here. Can you program hearing aids without an audiologist or other ? Absolutely. Are there variables outside of programming that can impact benefit? Absolutely.

In-situ are certainly helpful. I often use them to screen for changes in hearing during office visits, particularly if we were not scheduled for a diagnostic examination and/or we don’t have a booth available at the time. However, limiting the entire examination to in-situ, although not necessarily unsafe, does not account for other variables like physical fit and speech discrimination.

I think your approach, particularly given your situation, is totally reasonable, and consulting with an audiologist later can be beneficial if you run into problems.

In reply to @ParkAL

@ParkAL said:

it’s been decided for me that going to an audiologist right now would be “bad for my mental health.”

This comment got my attention. Could you please further expand on this.
How is mental health being measured, and would the negative impact they refer to you think be the experience of traveling, meeting, greeting, the analysis, the advice… what exactly would be the bad, and conversely what can be a betterment?

I don’t want to get too far into my life story, but I’m easily overwhelmed by new people, places, and experiences. There is already a lot going on in my life right now, so my mother’s opinion is that I wouldn’t be able to handle seeing an audiologist. I disagree with that. I’ll be uncomfortable for sure, but I think my anxiety around new people and places will ultimately lessen once I can understand what people are saying, and my tinnitus is soothed (assuming the hearing aids actually help in either case).

@ParkAL said:

I decided to buy a pair off eBay for the tinnitus masking feature (they and the noahlink wireless 2 will be here within a month). My plan was to set the aids to the lowest gain possible and turn on the tinnitus feature. Now I’m wondering if I need more gain than the lowest possible.

Which hearing aid did you buy?

In reply to @ParkAL

Hmmm
Sounds like good therapy would be to go to some mass gathering of thousands of foreigners all speaking a language you never knew, at the same time in crushing crowds for a day, and then going back the next day. That is what I recommend.
What is the worst that could happen… and then you could apply that experience the extremely mild encounters you could be likely to ever experience after that.
Maybe some church festival in another language.
I dunno. Wish I could help more.

In reply to @ParkAL

@ParkAL said:

I’ll be uncomfortable for sure, but I think my anxiety around new people and places will ultimately lessen once I can understand what people are saying, and my tinnitus is soothed (assuming the hearing aids actually help in either case).

I wouldn’t expect too much from the Tinnitus feature. My my aids, I switched it off, as it just seemed to add another noise.

However, if you get yours programmed full for your loss, your tinnitus frequencies will be hearing real sounds as well, which in my case means I hardly notice the Tinnitus.

In reply to @ParkAL

Quite decent, it’s alright if you get proper power receivers based on your .

A basic method of treating tinnitus is treating hearing loss, for example, by using hearing aids (). However, not all HA users are lucky enough to experience a lessening of symptoms…

I am surprised that you didn’t get hearing aids earlier.

When I got my hearing tested 10 years ago, the audiologist told me that my little bit of hearing loss was nothing to worry about, and that my trouble understanding speech was psychological. I took that second statement to heart and didn’t get checked again.
Now I’m wishing that I had gotten a second opinion and/or learned about programming earlier.

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