- Hi guys, Cliff Olson, Doctor of Audiology
and Founder of Applied Hearing Solutions
in Phoenix, Arizona.
And in this video,
I'm gonna tell you everything that you need to know
to program your own hearing aids
without the help of a hearing care professional.
Coming up.
(upbeat music)
Now, I don't know about you
but I'm the type of guy that likes to do things myself.
In fact, one of the main reasons I love YouTube
is that you can pretty much learn how to do anything
if you watch enough videos,
but with the right hearing aids,
the necessary equipment
and a foundational understanding of acoustics,
you could actually program a set of hearing aids
to help you hear better
without the help of a hearing care professional.
Now, I should say that there will be many
and I mean many hearing care professionals
who will be upset with me for telling you
this stuff that I'm about to tell you
inside of this video,
nevertheless, America is a free country,
so if you wanna take a stab
at self programming your own hearing aids,
I say, go for it.
And if you need some extra help,
go and seek out the help of a hearing care professional.
But before I teach you everything that you need to know
about self programming your hearing aids,
if you could do me a huge favor
and click the like button,
I really appreciate it
because it gets these videos in front of a bigger audience.
And while you're at it,
if you have not yet hit that subscribe button
with notification bell,
go ahead and do that as well,
because that ensures that you never miss
one of my newly released videos
and I release multiple new videos every single week.
That being said, I really appreciate it.
Now let's go ahead and get into
some of the disclaimers for this video.
Disclaimer number one,
self programming hearing aids well can be very difficult.
There are literally endless adjustments that you can make
inside of today's modern prescription hearing aids
and if you make one mistake in the programming,
it can have a detrimental effect
on your overall performance.
Disclaimer number two,
if you have zero understanding of acoustics,
then some of the stuff I talk about in this video
will make absolutely no sense to you
and you're gonna have to spend some time watching
other videos on my channel,
and I will try to link some more important videos
down in the description.
Disclaimer number three,
if you do not have success
self programming your hearing aids,
please seek out the help of a hearing care professional
who follows best practices
because they will be able to make
those hearing aids work better for you.
With that out of the way,
let's talk about the things that you will need
to undertake this endeavor.
First, you will need an audiogram
and specifically the portion of the audiogram
that displays the X's and the O's on the graph.
This is what you will use to create
your hearing loss prescription.
I do recommend that you actually go in
to see a hearing care professional
to have a hearing test done.
Based on my extensive research,
there are no online hearing tests that are accurate enough
for you to actually self program
a pair of hearing aids and do it well.
And here's a pro tip.
Go in to see a hearing care professional
who does not give you a free hearing test.
I know, I know, you probably don't wanna pay
for a hearing test, but hear me out on this,
if you go to someone who gives you a free hearing test,
chances are they're gonna make you spend an hour with them
so they can pressure sell you on new devices.
Second, you will need a pair of hearing aids
that are actually capable of amplifying
to your full prescription for your hearing loss levels.
If you're going to be programming hearing aids
that you have purchased from a hearing care professional
based on your current level of hearing loss,
then they would've already taken this into account.
But if you're going to be purchasing hearing aids online,
you have to make sure that your hearing loss thresholds
fall within the fitting ranges
of the particular device that you're looking at.
Just remember many receiver in canal style hearing aids
have different levels of receiver strength
from standard to medium to power
and even maybe stronger than that.
This means that you have to make sure that
your hearing loss falls within the capabilities
of that particular receiver strength
to make sure that it's not too strong
and to make sure that it's not too weak.
If your level of hearing loss happens to exceed
the capabilities of a power receiver,
then you're likely going to have to switch
into a superpower or ultra power receiver
that will both require the use of a custom ear mold.
And there is no good way to purchase
a custom ear mold online,
you're going to have to go
to a hearing care professional to have that done.
You also have to make sure that
those receiver wire lengths
are the appropriate length for you.
So, if you end up getting a wire that's too long
that hearing aid will hover above your ear.
If you get a wire that's too short,
it will pull that hearing aid forward
and it will mess up the orientation of the microphones.
Third, if you can use
either a standard, medium, or power receiver
on your hearing aids,
you're going to wanna make sure that
you select the appropriate rubber dome
to use along with it.
Dome selection is a rather complicated subject
in and of itself,
so, I will have an additional video
down in the description that you can check out
if you feel like you need more help with this.
In general, there are tulip domes,
open domes, vented domes, and power domes.
Each one of them will come in different diameters
to make sure that you get good retention
of those domes inside of your ears
and they all have different acoustic properties
so it's important to select the right one.
Tulip domes and open domes are typically good
for individuals who have normal low frequency hearing
with a mild to moderate high frequency hearing loss.
Vented domes are typically good for individuals
who have a mild level low frequency hearing loss,
and up to a moderately severe high frequency hearing loss.
Power domes are generally reserved for individuals
who have a moderate level low frequency loss,
all the way up to a severe low frequency loss
and up to a severe high frequency hearing loss.
But keep in mind
if you are a power receiver user,
it is still a much better idea to get a custom ear mold.
Fourth, once you have your audiogram
and you have your hearing aids
with the appropriate receivers
and domes or custom ear molds,
then you are ready to actually program your devices.
Most modern hearing aids have the ability
to be connected wirelessly to the programming software.
If you have a Noahlink Wireless programmer
that will work for
a variety of different hearing aid brands.
If your hearing aids are not wireless,
then you're going to have to invest
in a HiPRO Wired interface
and the programming cables that are proprietary
for the brand of hearing aids that you use.
To obtain this equipment,
you are likely gonna have to go onto eBay
because this equipment is only sold new
to hearing care professionals.
Based on what I've seen,
you'll likely have to spend between 150 to 250
for a Noahlink Wireless
and between 150 to 500
for a HiPRO or HiPRO 2 wired programmer.
Proprietary programming cables are a toss up
and availability just depends on
if anyone's selling them at any given time.
In terms of hearing aid programming software,
you're either gonna have to go onto eBay again
to purchase either a CD or a flash drive
that has a programming software on it
or you're gonna have to go onto a third party website
that you can download the software from.
Pro tip number two, you have to make sure
that you actually get the right software
for the hearing aids that you have.
There are certain versions of software by manufacturers
that will not work with all of their brands.
So you're really gonna have to spend some time Googling
to find out which version of the software you need
for your devices.
The next two pieces of equipment
that I'm gonna be talking about right now
are not necessarily required
but they are a really good idea to invest in
to make sure that your hearing aids
are actually mechanically functioning the right way
and to make sure that they're correctly programmed.
These two pieces of equipment
are called a hearing aid test box
and real ear measurement verification equipment.
A hearing aid test box is used to identify
if your hearing aids are meeting manufacturer specifications
meaning that they're actually capable
of amplifying sound the way that they're intended to.
A lot of individuals who have issues with their hearing aids
is not due to the programming of the hearing aids
is that those hearing aids
are not mechanically functioning correctly.
Unfortunately, a lot of used hearing aids that you purchase
will not be meeting manufacturer specifications
and there's no way for you to identify this
unless you run them through a hearing instrument test box.
If you identify that your hearing aids
are not meeting manufacturer specifications,
they're going to have to go into a hearing care professional
so they can send them into the manufacturer
to get those hearing aids repaired for you.
Test boxes are a little bit more difficult
to come by on eBay,
but I've seen them ranging anywhere from $500
all the way up to $6,000.
Real ear measurement verification equipment
is just as if not even more important
than a hearing aid test box
because it will be the way that you can actually identify
if your hearing aids are programmed correctly
to your hearing loss prescription.
If you do not verify the amplification settings
of your hearing aids
when you're doing the programming
there is no guarantee that those hearing aids
are going to be programmed correctly
to your hearing loss prescription
meaning that your performance is going to decline
even if you have really expensive hearing aids.
This real ear measurement equipment can be found on eBay
ranging anywhere from around $2,000 up to $7,000.
While this type of equipment is expensive,
I think it's totally worth it considering
it's the only way to make sure that
your hearing aids are mechanically functioning the right way
and that they're programmed properly.
The last thing that you will need to do
before you start programming
is to make sure that your hearing aids
are fitting your ears properly.
Proper physical fit and orientation of your hearing aids
is extremely important
when it comes to programming your hearing aids.
Final determination of a proper physical fit
will depend on a feedback measurement
inside of the manufacturer programming software.
All right, now that you have
the initial physical fit of your hearing aids,
let's go ahead and get your hearing aids paired up
with the programming software.
Just keep in mind that a lot of the programming software
that's out there is all different,
so, the things that I'm gonna be telling you about right now
is very general,
it's not gonna be specific to one manufacturer.
When you open up the programming software for the first time
and you actually connect your hearing aids,
whether it be wirelessly or wired to that software,
you're going to have to find a place to enter in
your audiogram results.
Once you have these results entered into the software,
you're gonna have to tell the software
which prescription you want to actually use.
The most common and the most verifiable prescription
that's out there right now is the NAL-NL 2
and that is a non-linear prescription
and most appropriate for most adults.
Of course, determining the most appropriate prescription
for you depends on a lot of different factors
that I don't have time to get into in this video,
just make sure that you select one of them.
Once you get all of this stuff set up,
you're going to want to do a feedback verification test
inside of the software
while you're wearing the hearing aids.
This will tell you if the ear mold vent
or the style of rubber dome that you are using
are acoustically acceptable.
You're going to be hearing of a variety of different beeps
or even static noise inside of the hearing aids
and it's going to measure
how much of that sound leaks outside of your ears
and recycles back through the microphone.
If there is too much leakage of sound from your ears
during this test,
it can either restrict the amplification
from the hearing aids
or cause your hearing aids to whistle.
This means that you will have to reduce
the size of your vent
or change the size or style of your dome
to prevent the leakage.
Of course, if you end up trapping in too much sound
then you could end up experiencing the occlusion effect
where your voice sounds really boomy and loud to yourself.
Generally speaking, you wanna find the perfect fit
that allows you to prevent feedback,
prevent occlusion effect
as well as be able to amplify the hearing aids
up to your full prescription for your hearing loss levels.
To make sure that you can do all three,
this is really where real ear measurement comes into play
because this will allow you
to measure inside of your ear canals
if the hearing aids are amplifying sound appropriately
to meet your prescription.
Again, you can self program hearing aids
without using real ear measurement verification equipment
but there is no guarantee
that you're actually going to get
significant amount of benefit from your devices
if you do not use it.
Now, real ear measurement
can be a very complex thing to understand
so I do have several videos
talking about real ear measurement
and how I actually perform real ear measurement
in the clinic that you can find down in the description.
If you do not have this equipment,
it is basically going to be trial and error.
You're gonna be adjusting different frequency bands
inside of the programming software.
Just keep in mind that the high frequencies
typically give you more clarity to speech,
low frequencies give you more volume to speech.
Each manufacturer software will give you
a first fit estimate of what it thinks that you need
based on the hearing loss
that you entered into the software.
You also need to ensure
that your compression settings are set up appropriately
to make sure that you're not over amplifying loud sounds
and that you're not under amplifying soft sounds.
Just an FYI,
your perception of sounds will change
over the course of the next 30 to 45 days
from when you start wearing your hearing aids.
So the amount of amplification that you need now
will probably be lower than the amount of amplification
that you need in four to six weeks.
From a safety perspective,
I should also talk about the MPO
which is your maximum power output of your hearing aids.
You wanna make sure that the MPO settings are high enough
to make sure that you can understand speech
in a background noise situation
but you don't want it so high
that you run a risk of damaging your hearing.
In general you're going to want to keep the MPO sittings
below 132 decibels,
otherwise you are running the risk
of damaging your ears even more.
If you are verifying the programming
of your hearing aids using real ear measurement
then you are going to want to keep
the MPO sweep of pure tones
below your uncomfortable listening levels
that you can obtain from your audiogram.
Now, when you're doing all of this programming,
keep in mind that you wanna try to stay away
from the upward spread of masking.
This is basically an acoustic phenomenon that occurs
when you overamplify low frequency sounds
and they drown out the clarity
that you should be getting from high frequency sounds.
And yes, I do have a video talking about
this phenomenon in detail in the description as well.
Once you get these initial amplification settings
set up appropriately for your main program
inside of your hearing aids,
you may wanna consider adding additional programs
for things like being in the car, watching TV,
or going into a restaurant.
After you create all of these custom programs,
you're gonna want to go into each one of them
and adjust the digital features
and this could include the directionality,
the noise reduction,
the impulse noise reduction,
the expansion settings, the compression speeds
and even the feedback reduction.
These settings are critical
to make each one of these programs function even better
when you go into these particular environments
just be careful not to overdo all of the digital features
'cause that can actually reduce your performance
with the hearing aids as well.
You can also use the hearing aids software
to adjust how the push buttons work on your hearing aids
and to set up how the Bluetooth functions
with your hearing aids.
And you can even get an idea
of what the different beep indicators are
for different things that are happening
with your hearing aids
like low battery warnings and phone calls coming in.
Some hearing aids softwares also have dedicated programs
for streaming audio into your hearing aids.
One thing to keep in mind is that
if you're streaming audio
let's say phone calls or music
from your smart device into your hearing aids,
100% of the audio comes from your phone
or from your tablet or from your computer,
it does not mix with any live speech
or live music that could be coming into
your ear canals naturally.
So you're gonna wanna make sure that you have enough
low mid-end high frequency amplification
coming in from those streaming sources.
Once you get all of the settings set up
initially the way that you want them,
you're gonna wanna save the programming session
and keep in mind that these settings
will stay exactly the same inside of your hearing aids
until you go back into your programming software
and adjust them again in the future.
Okay, so hopefully this video gave you
some foundational understanding of how to actually go in
and program your own set of hearing aids.
And trust me, I get it,
it is a complicated subject
and I probably could have broken this video up
into 50 different videos
about self programming or hearing aids
which gives me an idea that maybe I should actually do that.
Well, if you feel like this is too complicated for you,
please make sure that you seek out
the help of a hearing care professional
because that is exactly what you pay them to do for you.
If you are going to seek out
the help of a hearing care professional,
then I highly recommend that you find
a HearingUp provider near you.
HearingUp providers formerly known as Best Practice Pros
are a network of hearing care professionals
who have been personally vetted by me
and are committed to following best practices
when selecting, fitting and programming your hearing aids
as well as providing you with best practice follow up care.
If this is the first time that you're hearing
about best practices,
then I highly recommend that you check out my video
that I will link down the description
because best practices are the only way to ensure
that you receive the maximum amount of benefit
from your hearing aids.
Unfortunately, less than 30% of hearing care professionals
actually follow best practices,
which makes it extremely difficult
to find one of these hearing care professionals.
To find a HearingUp provider in your area,
all you have to do is go to hearingup.com
and click on the find a provider tab.
There you'll be able to search the map
for the closest hearing up provider near you.
Once you do, give them a call
or shoot them an email to schedule an appointment
to get your hearing aids reprogrammed.
At the end of the day,
if self programming your hearing aids
helps you hear significantly better,
then I say, go for it.
And if you happen to run into issues
with doing the programming
or the programming is too complicated for you,
make sure that you seek out the help
of a hearing care professional
to make sure that you hear your absolute best.
That's it for this video.
If you have any questions,
leave them in the comment section below.
If you like the video, please share it.
And if you wanna see other videos just like this one,
go ahead and hit that subscribe button.
Also feel free to check out my website, DrCliffAuD.com.