Online Hearing Aids Care - Advantages & Disadvantages

I understand, was the same for me.
But think of as what they earn with the overpriced aids. Although with an other customer.

@tenkan said:

This is not correct, REM is not a “critical” part of useful programming of your HAs, as a DIY yourself, you’ll know that you can in fact set your HAs to sound just how you like them without it, it’s just another tool in toolbox for the clinics, but not the holy grail of fitting.

True. The typical consequence of forgoing real-ear measures and/or self-fitting is that the gain is underfit. But it’s not like you still aren’t getting benefit from the hearing aids, you just aren’t optimizing them. So if you’re fine with that, then no problem. I typically suggest people think about DIYing their second set of hearing aids, but see a professional for their first set. If you’ve been living with hearing loss for a while, appropriate gain settings might sound strange and sharp to you and you need time to adapt. It can be tricky to force yourself to do that on your own, especially when you don’t even know what those settings are. However, an experienced user who has already adapted to an appropriate gain prescription will be less likely to underfit themselves when self-fitting.

@paulpuente said:

Is this only necessary when there is a problem or is it part of tuning every HD?

Every fitting. All troubleshooting. Annual performance verification. Hearing aids can malfunction in a whole bunch of little ways. For example, this week I saw someone whose hearing aid was broken only at frequencies above 3kHz. From the user’s perspective, the hearing aids were functioning fine, they just felt that their hearing had declined a bit, but they’d lost about 11% of speech sounds with that high frequency malfunction.

P50s are fine.

I am from Germany and I am currently wearing Phonak P90 for trial.
They are the best I have found so far.
The software is available on the internet and the programmer costs about 99€.
The software also supports calibration of the audiogram.
Unfortunately, the audiologist in Germany charges over 6000€ for these devices.
But there is an online offer from Holland 1400$ look here:
online hoergeraet .de

On Real Ear Measurement - From The Center for Audiology:
" Whether or not real-ear measurements were included as part of the initial fitting is usually the reason hearing aids are worn or not. What are real-ear measurements? Real-ear measurements, sometimes called probe microphone measurements, is the gold standard used to determine whether or not a hearing aid user is receiving the precise level of amplification needed at every frequency in order to achieve the best hearing improvement possible. Depending on the level of hearing loss, 100% improvement is not always possible, but the goal is to maximize the benefit to get as close to 100% as possible.

During real-ear measurements, a thin probe microphone is inserted into the ear canal alongside the hearing aid. The audiologist obtains readings of the exact sound levels the user is receiving from the hearing aid while listening to various recorded speech samples. The audiologist can then precisely adjust the sound levels to match target amplification levels based on the hearing aid user’s hearing loss across the speech frequencies.

Performing this verification during the initial fitting process helps ensure that the user is receiving a “just right” level of amplification- not too much where everything is too loud, and not too little where the user has significant trouble hearing speech even with the hearing aids on."

At every fitting after a new hearing test and sometimes more often than that, my audiologist conducts a real ear measurement and then tweaks the settings based on my feedback. It is a useful tool to have when fitting hearing aids. If you have the option of using it, my suggestion is to do so. I can’t think of a down side.

@Juergen said:

I created my own audiogram with the Paradise P90 and Phonak target. It turned out that there are deviations of up to 15 dB between what the audiologist set and what I measured myself.
The audiologist had set it too loud and everything sounded very unnatural and shrill.

Alternatively, your audiologist set it correctly to maximize your speech intelligibility and you subsequently turned everything down to prioritize comfort rather than giving your auditory system time to re-adjust.

Running your own audiogram in situ will absolutely result in lower thresholds. But prescriptive targets weren’t developed from/based on in situ self-run hearing tests but on traditional audiograms. They are not equivalent.

Many thanks to all of you for your advice, suggestions and comments. I have learned a lot from each of you. I have an additional topic for which I would welcome replies. I have decided to start a new topic with the heading "Life Style Changes for First Time Wearer". I hope to see you in the new thread.

@Neville said:

P50s are fine.

Others have suggested indirectly that perhaps the P50s are not suitable for my hearing loss. Why do you think they are sufficient for me?

@paulpuente

I’ve actually not heard as well since I had my old Phonak Naida S III in 2011 which are entry level. They were programmed very well but I have since upgraded but still don’t hear as well. I wear near top of level hearing aids, one under from the top.

@Neville is right, not always needing the top of the level Aids is very true.

I still wish I had my old Phonak Naida S III Aids.

Why don’t you go to France? At Unisson a pair of premium hearing aids costs 2380 € and nowadays you can have your aids adjusted remotely via the manufacturer’s application.

@Val said:

Why don’t you go to France?

Thanks for the suggestion. I’m not sure if our Swiss AHV (old age pension scheme) would pay for aids purchased in another country. I am definitely going with an online company because the cost with an in person audiologist is just too expensive for my purse. I found a pair of Phonak PR T 90s in Switzerland for CHF 2780 (€ 2670) but with the AHV payment it reduces the cost to CHF 1543 (€ 1480).