Generally speaking, the commissioning frequency for new users follows the principle of "1-3-6", i.e., once every one month, once every three months, and once every half a year; for experienced users, almost once every half a year; and for children, I suggest once every two to three months.
And for some hearing aid users who can clearly express their subjective feelings, the frequency of tuning is mainly based on the user's auditory experience to decide whether to tune as the basic principle. For example, if there is a period of time in which the hearing is not clear, the volume becomes smaller, the background noise increases, and so on, as long as the feeling is not good, and after sufficient adaptive adjustment still can not be improved, you can make an appointment to adjust the machine. Usually the user's feeling is relatively accurate.
What level of knowledge is required for a tune-up?
1, basic knowledge of audiology - basic audiological concepts (thresholds, comfort thresholds, uncomfortable thresholds, etc.), the nature of deafness, how to look at the audiogram, etc.;
2, basic knowledge of hearing aids - OSPL90, HFA, equivalent noise input, etc.;
3, computer technology and some new technologies (such as Bluetooth, App);
4, search and read the literature: encounter problems know how to find solutions.
Using the mastered knowledge of audiology and basic knowledge of hearing aids to solve some of the clinical problems encountered: for example, conductive deafness is the first treatment rather than fitting hearing aids, if the fitting of hearing aids to pay attention to what the debugging; sensorineural hearing loss will have a lot of resonance phenomenon, how to solve; how to solve the blocked ear; how to solve the whistling and other issues.
Of course, each user's situation is different, some users directly with the default settings of the hearing aid is very close to the level of the most in line with the expectations, and some have a number of requirements on the sound / noise acceptance. Tuning requires the dispenser to know how the hearing aid works, and if there is something else going on (e.g. middle ear disease, AN/AD, etc.) the audiologist needs to provide a solution based on the overall situation.
Can hearing aid users set their own hearing aids?
The biggest difficulty for users to adjust their hearing aids by themselves is the lack of knowledge about hearing and hearing aid products, which may not lead to the best results, or even cause secondary damage to the hearing because of inappropriate adjustments. Hearing aids are not FMCG products but medical devices. Some people simply choose the wrong hearing aid, some even do not understand their own audiograms to adjust their own, if you buy the most expensive hearing aids adjusted out of the results are not as good as the basic hearing aids, it is like driving an Audi into the Alto.
There is a need for professionals to understand the user's hearing condition, the expectations of the hearing aid, and to match the correct hearing device with the scientific process of fitting and adjusting the device on time. The user can do some fine-tuning on his/her own.
The fitting of hearing aids depends mainly on the experience and level of the dispenser, or the use of equipment technology and the degree of sophistication?
Nowadays it is all about evidence based practice.
A good audiologist is one who has objective verification (true ear testing, coupler measurement, speech mapping) plus personal experience.
Consultation is still important. Because wearing is a gradual process, encountered problems which need to be adjusted, which need to adapt to their own, the user to the audiologist to speak clearly or will promote the experience of adjusting the machine. This is actually very important, in general only about 10% of the people with a pair of once can be fixed, there are still a lot of people need to fine-tune.