Here is my hearing aid story:
I'm 60 and don't have severe hearing loss. But it is getting hard to hear in a noisy room. I have more loss at high frequency. I have trouble with some TV shows where there is a lot of noise behind the voices or the actor mumbles. In the quiet office, I can still hear conversations 3 offices away. I listened to loud music as a teenager. Although I hunted 1000 hours a year as a kid, it was mostly with a 22 single shot and my dad preached "1 shot 1 kill" so I never really hurt my ears much with firearms.
Truth is most people with my hearing wouldn't opt for hearing aids. Remember the TV ad where the guy has his daughter repeating everything for him at a party and the message is, "Many people who don't think they need a hearing aid already have one." So I compare my hearing to vision. If your vision is 20/60 you get glasses or contacts but if your hearing similarly degraded, most people don't get hearing aids. I'm in the process of getting hearing aids so that my hearing is returned to near normal.
I have tinnitus. It runs in my family. I can pretty much ignore it but if I think about it, it is always there.
2 years ago I had money left in my pre-tax medical account when my son's braces were cheaper than expected. Had no health issues so I went to my doc and asked if there were any advances in the treatment of tinnitus. He sent me to the Healthnet audiologist who did a hearing test, handed me my results, and sent me to an audiologist. She was busy that day but squeezed me in.
The office was all hardwood and leather. Very fancy. She showed me some $7000/pr, near top-of-the-line hearing aids from Audeo and said she had some loaners she could let me wear for 2 weeks. The $7000 included batteries for life and a lot of other "fluff" that I felt I could do without... I said sure, I'd like to try them. She sat down and typed in the frequency information from my hearing test in about 3 minutes and I was out the door. These are behind-the-ear models with a tiny cage that goes in the ear canal. Almost invisible if you have a bit of hair.
That night I went to dinner with 2 friends, one younger and one my age. There was a band playing in the restaurant and the background noise was high. Pretty soon I realized that I was engaged in conversation with my young friend and could hear everything going on. My older friend was sitting there with a blank look on his face because he couldn't hear/understand a thing.
The 2 week trial was great. I was sold. I looked up the model on the internet and found many places selling them at half or less the price I had been quoted. So I started hatching a plan. I can put money in a pre-tax medical savings plan that allows me to make medical expenditures with pre-tax money. I think this is available to everyone in some form or another.
I returned the hearing aids at the end of 2 weeks. I told her that they were great help to my hearing but didn't help my tinnitus....she said, "Oh Crap. I was in a hurry and forgot to turn on the tinnitus feature."
So I haven't tried the tinnitus feature. Last year I ended up using my medical spending account on something for my kids so this year I'm planning to do it. I am seeing my doc today and am going to request a fresh hearing test.
If you have more than the basic minor hearing loss, you will probably benefit from having a local professional help you.
Best of luck,
Jerry