There’s no question that hearing aids are a great solution for most common forms of hearing loss. Research has shown that hearing aids will improve your quality of life by improving your health, mental state, and relationships. While the benefits of hearing aids have been proven, some hearing aid wearers experience disappointment when they buy their first pair.
In most cases, new hearing aid wearers become frustrated because of the adjustment process that comes along with wearing hearing aids for the first time. If you are new to wearing hearing aids, here are 5 tips that will help you learn to love them.
1. Set realistic expectations.
When you have hearing loss, it can be easy to order a pair of hearing aids and expect to have incredible hearing the first time you put them on. Unfortunately, in most instances, this is not the case: As much as we’d like hearing aids to entirely resolve our hearing loss, they won’t.
Once you experience hearing loss, your hearing will never be the same. That being said, hearing aids can greatly improve your hearing and make your life easier. Just set realistic expectations, and remember that hearing with hearing aids is going to be better but different.
2. Give yourself time.
They say that patience is a virtue, and for good reason. Even using new hearing aids requires patience from a wearer. The reality is: Your brain and ears need time to adjust to your newly regained ability to hear.
Think about it this way: As a child, to learn how to walk, you first had to crawl, waddle, and maybe fall a few times, but now, you don’t think twice about it. Your ears and brain call for the same process to adapt to your hearing aids.
With a little time, patience, and a bit of a learning curve, wearing hearing aids will become as simple and natural as taking a stroll down the street.
3. Wear them in all listening environments.
If you only wear your hearing aids in one listening environment, your ears will only acclimate to that environment. However, the world has a wide variety of listening environments to offer, and to experience them, you’ll need to expose your ears to different situations and sound levels.
Adapting to new listening environments can be frustrating. For example, the first time you enter a listening environment with more background noise than your normal environment, all sounds may be amplified. You may be tempted to adjust your hearing aids, but instead, be patient, give it time, and your ears will adjust naturally.
4. Take it slow, and take some breaks.
As noted, adjusting to new hearing aids takes time. There are two common methods of adjusting to new hearing aids: the Quick Start Method and the Gradual Method.
As in the name, the Quick Start Method is ‘quick’ in the sense that you start consistently wearing your hearing aids immediately, but with occasional 30-minute breaks. On the other hand, the Gradual Method means that you only wear your hearing aids for a few hours, increasing the number of hours with each wear.
In either case, the key to acclimating to your new hearing aids is being okay with taking a break or taking your time. Choose the method that works best for you, and go from there for the best results.
5. Read aloud to yourself.
Strangely enough, one of the most difficult things to adjust to hearing again is your own voice. Now that you have hearing aids, you’ll have to re-adjust to what your voice sounds like and how loud you should speak. One great way to do this is by reading aloud to yourself.
Reading aloud gives you the time and space to learn how to re-adjust the volume of your voice, as well as to train yourself to recognize what common words sound like again.
Ready to get some hearing aids?
Advanced Affordable Hearing seeks to help people hear at a price they can afford. If you have yet to purchase hearing aids, or you have further questions about your hearing aids, we’ve love to help.
For more information on using your hearing aids, please read: