Getting Used to Your Hearing Aids

You’ve been through the diagnosis process.  You’ve had your hearing tests, met with the audiologist, and have been fitted with new hearing aids.  Now, it’s time to get used to wearing your new devices.

New Hearing Aids – The First Days

Just like wearing glasses or contacts for the first time, wearing hearing aids will take a period of adjustment.  If your hearing loss has been gradual over a long period of time, then your brain is no longer accustomed to hearing many sounds.  With the sudden influx of sounds, you and your brain may be left feeing overwhelmed.  It’s ok and that’s perfectly normal.  Here’s what you need to do at first:

Start with Silence.  The sound of silence may suddenly be quite loud.  That’s because the background noises like the whirr of a fan, the ticking of a clock, or the rustling of a newspaper may suddenly seem loud.  It’s a good idea to sit in a “quiet” room to adjust. This will help to give your brain the time it needs to adjust to background noise.

Read a Magazine.  Your voice will probably sound funny to you.  You just need to adjust to hearing it the same way that you adjust to background noise.  Take a magazine and read an article or two aloud.  Ask a friend or family member to listen as well. This will help you adjust the level at which you are speaking.  Ask them to let you know if your speech is too loud or too soft.  You may also notice that you suddenly hear the sound of your own eating and drinking.  This is also normal, and within a few weeks you will tune it out once again.

Talk to Friends.  Visit a friend or three.  Listen to people speak who have different speech patterns and tones.  This will help your brain re-learn to distinguish speech-related sounds.  Invite a friend over to watch TV. Ask them to adjust the volume until you find an acceptable level. Let them fumble with the remote, you concentrate on discerning just the right level of sound you need.  Go to the mall with a friend and have them chat with you as you walk around. This will also help your brain re-learn listening to speech.

Take Your Time

Make wearing your hearing aids part of your daily life.  Wear them in situations where it is more difficult to hear, such as crowded restaurants and parties.  Don’t be frustrated if you still have trouble hearing at first.  Even people with excellent hearing find it difficult to hear and follow conversations in loud restaurants and at parties.  Don’t expect to hear a whisper from across the room. Even when your hearing was perfect, you couldn’t do that!

Be sure to wear your hearing aids for as long as you can each day.  And each day, be sure to wear them a bit longer.  Just be patient with yourself.  Remember that it’s not just your ears but your brain that must “re-learn” to hear again.  If for any reason your hearing aids cause physical discomfort, call your audiologist immediately.

Keep a Journal

During your first few days and weeks, keep a journal and make a note of any particular problems you encounter.  This will give you a record to take on your follow-up visit. Be sure to discuss any outstanding issues with the audiologist.

However, you may find that many of the “problems” you identified in the first days are no longer problems.  For example, you may find that that things that sounded “tinny” and odd in the first week are no longer noticeable. That is because we normally first lose our ability to hear high-pitched sounds.  If the average person takes seven years to see an audiologist and be fit with hearing aids, that is quite a bit of time to not hear high-pitched sounds. So when you begin to hear them again, they sound particularly odd. But your brain is quite capable of relearning and adjusting to sounds again.  If an issue on your list is resolved, draw a line through it. This will remind you to let the audiologist know it was a problem that self-resolved.

Be Patient

Wear your aids every day. Don’t get frustrated.  Give yourself from two to six weeks to adjust.  You will find the benefits of wearing your hearing aids outweigh any problem you encounter.