Why are Hearing Aid Fittings Crucial?

Hearing aids are sophisticated devices that can dramatically improve your quality of life. It is not a good idea to order them over the internet and fit them yourself. Setting them up requires the help of a professional. Here’s why. 

You can get your hearing aids adjusted to meet your specific needs

Every person’s hearing loss is slightly different. Hearing aids offer a comprehensive array of settings that allow users to finely tune their devices to amplify sounds frequency ranges. 

Knowing what these ranges are a challenge. Discovering them yourself is nearly impossible. Fortunately, hearing health professionals have special equipment that they can use to accurately assess your hearing loss and create a settings profile that suits your needs. 

During the fitting session, the professional will adjust the settings on the device and then ask you how it sounds. Your feedback combined with data from their testing will give you the best experience of wearing hearing aids possible – much better than you could achieve if you set up your device by trial and error. 

You can ensure a proper fit

If your hearing aid doesn’t fit correctly, it can rub against the skin in your ear canal and affect the sound quality. Hearing health professionals, therefore, invest a considerable amount of time ensuring that your device fits well. If it doesn’t, you may not get all the benefits. 

Some devices, called completely-in-the-canal or CIC, fit directly in the ear. They do not have any visible exterior sections. Most others have an earmold – a part of the device that sits in the ear and holds it in place. 

If you choose a device with an earmold, your hearing health professional will take an impression of your ear and then use this to craft the hearing aid shell. Trying to do this yourself may lead to poor results. 

You can ask questions

A hearing aid fitting isn’t a passive experience; it’s a chance for you to ask the hearing health professional questions and gather information. Competent hearing health professionals will always provide you with helpful advice on how to change the settings, prevent damage, and look after your device. You can also talk to them about the different kinds of hearing aids on the market and which, in their experience, will add most to your quality of life. Some people, for instance, need hearing aids with lots of settings and features, while others benefit from more basic products. 

You can get the sound levels checked

The level of amplification that your hearing aids provide is essential. Too little, and they won’t help you hear as well as you would like too much, and they could be uncomfortable. 

If you aren’t used to wearing hearing aids, you often don’t know precisely how loud or quiet they should be. Hearing health professionals use a range of in-ear tools and hearing tests to determine the correct level of sound, instead of relying on intuition.

Fitting sessions offer a host of benefits that you do not get with DIY approaches.