Adjusting to Your New Hearing Aids

Congratulations on actively pursuing better hearing health! It’s a decision that doesn’t come easily to most folks, who wait a decade on average before choosing to intervene in hearing loss.

Although approximately 30 million Americans live with hearing loss, making it one of the leading chronic health conditions in the United States, accessibility continues to create a barrier between treatment. A study conducted by the Hearing Health Foundation revealed that almost 60 percent of people didn’t know where to begin their search for hearing loss treatment, while slightly more than half gave evidence that they were uncertain how to navigate the hearing aid selection process.

The Benefits Of Treating Hearing Loss 

Now that you’ve decided to treat your hearing loss, you’ll experience the numerous benefits. People who choose interventions like hearing aids or cochlear implants often report improved relationships as a result of their investment. 

Moreover, people who treat hearing loss are expected to have more positive health outcomes, like fewer accidental falls within the home. Perhaps most compelling of all, intervening in hearing loss significantly lowers your risk of dementia.

Expect An Adjustment Period

While you may expect popping your hearing aids in on the first try to change your hearing the way putting on a pair of glasses immediately adjusts your vision, that isn’t the case. We can draw comparisons between the value of maintaining vision and hearing health, but treatment of the two vary widely.

Hearing aids can require an adjustment period that requires patience. At first, wearing new hearing aids can feel like an overload to your brain, providing previously lost sound information. You may even need to treat the entire adjustment period as a ‘relearning,’ as your brain becomes used to the new stimulus.

Exercise Your Hearing Muscles

So you don’t really have hearing muscles, but you can still apply the fundamentals of exercise to adapting to your new hearing aids. People who wear their hearing aids more often tend to have more successful outcomes down the road. The more often people wear hearing aids during the beginning of their journey can have a massive impact on the results they get. Wearing them at a steady rate, consistently, helps to train the brain’s speech recognition ability and increases overall satisfaction, according to studies.

Begin by wearing your hearing aids at a low volume in quiet places for short periods of time. Gradually, you’ll work up to longer durations and within settings of varying volumes. Working with your audiologist, you can also incrementally increase the volume settings of your hearing aids as your brain adjusts.

Create A Tool Kit And Establish A Habit

One potential barrier that stands in the way of enjoying your hearing aids is the way you adapt to them as a new habit. We can either view caring for these devices as a chore or hassle, or we can see this as showing appreciation for a tool that serves us well. 

To observe the latter, find a bag, kit or carrying case that appeals to you and feels special. Stock this bag with all of your hearing aid accouterments, like extra batteries or charging equipment, soft cleaning clothes, and a drying case. 

Keep this bag in a convenient place and always store your hearing aids here when you aren’t wearing them. Develop the bedtime ritual of carefully wiping down your hearing aids each night, so that they’re ready to work hard for

Connect With Your Audiologist

Many hearing health centers host free educational events to help people learn more about their hearing aids. This is particularly helpful if you’d like to feel more adept at the technical aspects of your new devices, like bluetooth connectivity or app features.  

Most importantly, keep follow-up appointments so that your audiologist can continue to tweak your hearing aids to best suit your experience. While most of today’s hearing aids are fabulously smart, with some even adopting AI capabilities, most devices are not a one-size-fits-all product. Ongoing adjustments and dialogue with your hearing health experts can fine-tune the process and lend more comfort to the wearer.

Comfort is a leading factor in predicting whether people will continue to wear their hearing aids, according to a study that appeared in the International Journal of Audiology. Set yourself up for success by participating in the adjustment process, and report your experience honestly to your audiologist so that they can make the proper changes.

Ready to learn more about your new hearing aids? Get in touch with our team today!