People typically don’t like change. Experienced through that perspective, hearing aids can be a double-edged sword: your life will experience a huge change but they also will allow exciting new opportunities. If your somebody who appreciates a very rigid routine, the change can be overwhelming. New hearing aids can present some specific difficulties. But knowing how to adapt to these devices can help guarantee your new hearing aids will be a change you will enjoy.
Tips to Help You Adapt More Quickly to Your Hearing Aids
Whether it’s your first set of hearing aids (congrats!) or an upgrade to a more robust set, any new hearing aid is going to represent a significant enhancement to how you hear. Dependant on your personal situation, that could be a big adjustment. But your transition may be a bit smoother if you follow these tips.
Begin Using Your Hearing Aids in Smaller Doses
As a basic rule, the more you wear your hearing aids, the healthier your ears will stay. But it can be a little uncomfortable when you’re breaking them in if you wear them for 18 hours a day. You could start by trying to use your hearing aids for 8 hours at a time, and then slowly build up your stamina.
Listen to Conversations For Practice
When your brain is first able to hear sound again it will likely need an adjustment period. During this transition period, it might be tough to follow conversations or hear speech clearly. But if you want to reset the hearing-language-and-interpreting portion of your brain, you can try doing techniques like reading along with an audiobook.
Get a Fitting For Your Hearing Aids
One of the initial things you’ll do – even before you get your final hearing aids – is go through a fitting process. Improving comfort, taking account of the shape and size of your ear canal, and adjusting for your individual loss of hearing are all things that a fitting helps with. You could need to have more than one adjustment. It’s important to be serious about these fittings – and to consult us for follow-up appointments. When your hearing aids fit properly, your devices will sit more comfortably and sound better. We can also help you make adjustments to different hearing conditions.
Troubleshoot
Sometimes adapting to a new hearing aid is a bit difficult because something’s not functioning properly. If there is too much feedback that can be painful. Or the hearing aid keeps cutting out (which can be infuriating). It can be difficult to adjust to hearing aids because of these kinds of problems, so it’s best to find solutions as soon as possible. Try these tips:
- If you hear a lot of feedback, ensure that your hearing aids are properly seated in your ears (it could be that your fit is just a little off) and that there are no blockages (earwax for instance).
- Consult your hearing professional to double check that the hearing aids are correctly calibrated to your loss of hearing.
- Charge your hearing aids every day or exchange the batteries. When the batteries on your hearing aids begin to wane, they normally don’t work as efficiently as they’re meant to.
- Discuss any buzzing or ringing with your hearing specialist. At times, your cell phone will cause interference with your hearing aid. In other cases, it could be that we need to make some adjustments.
The Rewards of Adapting to Your New Hearing Aids
Just as it would with a new pair of glasses, it may possibly take you a small amount of time to get used to your new hearing aids. Hopefully, with the help of these tips, that adjustment period will go a bit more smoothly (and quickly). But you will be pleased by how natural it will become if you stay with it and get into a routine. But before long you will be able to place your attention on what your listening to: like your favorite programs or music or the daily discussions you’ve missed. These sounds will remind you that all those adjustments are worth it ultimately. And sometimes change is not a bad thing.