Tips for Adjusting to Hearing Aids

If you’ve just been fitted for your first pair of hearing aids, congratulations! You are on the road to better hearing health. And if you are a seasoned hearing aid wearer with a new pair of hearing aids, then you’ll know the benefits you are about to experience!

New hearing aids require a period of adjustment for you to get used to the sounds and the experience of wearing them. Here are a few tips for adjusting to your new hearing aids to ensure an optimal experience.

Hearing aids provide excellent amplification for the sounds in your world – sounds that you have missed with hearing loss. When you first put on your hearing aids, you’ll notice that sounds are louder than when you don’t have the hearing aids.

Based on the configuration and degree of your hearing loss, your hearing specialist has fitted you with the appropriate hearing aids to meet your needs. Try to avoid adjusting the volume of the hearing aid – unless it is extremely painful and uncomfortable. Instead, get used to the experience of clear, amplified sounds.

You’ll want to begin wearing your hearing aids in a quiet location, as loud spaces could be overwhelming as you adjust to amplified sounds. Begin by wearing them around your house for a few hours at first, then work your way up to an entire day.

Another way to practice your hearing aids early on is to watch TV and movies with the captions on. As you’re watching, focus on how the sounds appear in your hearing aid – and compare it to what you’re reading on screen. This will help you grow accustomed to different sounds and speakers’ voices.

Adapting to hearing aids will take a different amount of time for different people. Work on a timeline that is comfortable for you. Start by wearing your hearing aids a few hours a day around the house. Once you’ve grown more comfortable, try wearing them out for a walk in your neighborhood for a short amount of time.

Slowly increase the time you wear your hearing aids until you have become accustomed to wearing them for most waking hours of your day.

As you’re getting used to the sounds of your environment, you may also notice that the sound of your own voice is strange with hearing aids! This is normal, as you will also have to adjust to your own “head” sounds. Get used to wearing your hearing aids while you’re chewing, or yawning.

And, to practice getting used to your own voice, try reading aloud to yourself for a short period of time each day. This will get you more accustomed to your voice in future situations when you are conversing with people.

Once you’ve grown more comfortable with your hearing aids, try taking them out into different environments. There are many different noise environments that often prove difficult for people with hearing loss and may be overwhelming when you first get hearing aids.

Practice wearing your hearing aids in spaces like grocery stores, public transportation hubs, museums, movie theaters, auditoriums, and houses of worship. These different acoustic environments affect the way sounds appear to us. Get used to the different acoustics with your new hearing aids by taking them for a spin in these places.

Some hearing aids have wireless connectivity and allow you to stream phone calls directly from your smartphones to your hearing aids. Other hearing aids do not offer this option, but will work quite well if you just put a phone up to your ear. Practice having conversations on the phone with your loved ones, with your new hearing aids. This will help both with the experience of using another device with your hearing aid and also with understanding speech.

If you have questions or concerns about our new hearing aids, contact us at Custom Hearing Solutions – your leader in hearing healthcare and hearing aids in Nebraska. We are here to help your transition with your new hearing aids.