Just got my first hearing aids from Costco Phillips 9040s. I see on the form and on YouTube that it is very common and almost recommended to go back a few times after you get your first hearing aids to get them tweaked for better sound. I asked the audiologist, Or should I say the fitter at Costco about this. They told me that they fit and program your hearing aids to your hearing loss. And that the way they are set is most specific to your hearing needs. And if you need to come back, they will make adjustments but they are usually so that you can get used to hearing sounds the way you’re supposed to based on your test. But actually, you should Try to get used to the way they are program As that is correct.
My question is are tweaks, taking you away from The optimal correction for your hearing loss? And what type of tweaks are other people getting done that improves their hearing? If a tweak is taking you away from your prescribed hearing loss how is that helping? Or is it just taking away distracting noises that you haven’t heard for the first time? hopefully you can see my dilemma or confusion. I don’t feel that I got a very good answer from my Costco fitting person.
@TomsOn Welcome to the forum and I hope you will find here what you are looking for.
Excellent questions, I am sure the smashing people on this forum will help dissipate some of the confusion.
My understanding is if you’ve done REM (Real Ear Measurement) then you could technically be happy with the result, assuming you’ve been wearing hearing aids for a good period of time, so you will know what to expect, but if you are a new user, then I suspect some further adjustments could be necessary.
I don’t think this is exact science, but a follow-up is recommended in most cases, see screenshot below extract from “WHO Hearing aid service delivery approaches”:
In term of adjustments, I think most people will try to tweak:
Hearing in noisy environment
Hearing soft speaker
Hearing in a group
Adjusting high frequencies
Reducing road noise while driving
Reducing wind noise
Phone call & Bluetooth
…
Some are happy with first fit, so it all depend on the person, if you are finding issues, then it is best to make a list of the issues and voice your concern to the hearing care provider, bear in mind that your brain needs time to adjust to the new sounds/noises, so you might need to take this into account.
Good luck
Usually adjustments are done based on the user saying something is still not right, after they’ve had a bit of time to acclimatise to things. I am a new user of 9040s too and for the first few days I found them very loud and didn’t like hearing myself breathing and my coat rustling super-noisily and that kind of thing, but I quickly got used to that and in the end it did not need to be adjusted because my brain adjusted instead. What I did not get used to was (1) the way music sounded warbly and tinny, so I asked for the “hifi music” program to be added and that really helped, and (2) a sort of feedback/floor noise at a particular frequency when my aids picked up quiet background noises, which my audiologist tried to help by decreasing the gain in certain frequencies and changing the “soft sounds” setting. That improved things a bit but might still require further tweaks so I’m not totally done yet. But overall, you need to go back with a specific issue… e.g. “I can’t hear my kids well enough” (they might increase the amplification for those higher voice frequencies) or “when I’m in a restaurant I still don’t hear what people are saying” (they might add the “speech in noise” program and then tweak that specific program till you’re hearing better in a noisy environment while still leaving the general program unchanged, then you switch programs when you need to). But they won’t just tweak for tweaking’s sake - it will be based on something that you’re still dissatisfied with, after you’ve had time to adjust to the aids in general. The only other thing they might do is if they started you off on a lower setting than is optimal, just to not freak you out with how loud everything is at first, then they will increase it at the next appointment. My audiologist was of the opinion that it’s best to put people at 100% from the start because they adjust quickly and then don’t have to adjust a second time when it’s increased, but not all fitters do the same thing.
