Ever wish you could get the inside scoop on what hearing aids are actually like? How does a hearing aid feel when you’re wearing one, what does it sound like, and what does it feel like in your ears are all questions you may want to ask someone who already has hearing aids? If you really want to know what hearing aids are like, you need to come in for a demonstration, but for now, keep reading for a description of what you can expect.
1. Hearing Aids Sometimes Get Feedback
This isn’t the type of feedback that you get when somebody tells you how they feel about your performance. When a microphone and a speaker pick up each other’s signal, they interfere with each other creating a high-pitched whistling sound. It causes a sound loop that even modern speakers like the ones in hearing aids don’t know how to handle.
We’ve all heard this type of feedback just before someone begins talking into a microphone.
Although this can be uncomfortable, when hearing aids are correctly tuned, it’s rare. If you’re encountering it, the earmold may not be correctly fitted or you need to replace it.
Feedback can be removed, in some more advanced hearing aids, by a built-in feedback suppression system.
2. You Can Follow Conversations in a Loud Restaurant
If you suffer from untreated hearing loss, having dinner with your family or friends in a noisy restaurant can seem like you’re eating by yourself. Conversations are almost impossible to keep up with. Most of the evening, you may end up just nodding and smiling.
But modern hearing aids have the advanced noise blocking ability for background sound. The voices of your family and the restaurant staff become crystal clear.
3. Sometimes it Gets a Bit Sticky
When something is not right, your body has a way of responding to it. Your body will create saliva if you eat something too spicy. You will make tears if something gets into your eye. Your ears have their own way of eliminating a nuisance.
They generate extra wax.
So it’s hardly surprising that those who wear hearing aids often get to manage the buildup of earwax. It’s only wax, fortunately, so cleaning it isn’t an issue. (We’ll show you how.)
Then you’ll just put that hearing aid back in and start enjoying your hearing again.
4. Your Brain Will Also Get The Benefit
You may be surprised by this one. If someone starts to develop hearing loss it will slowly impact cognitive function as it progresses.
Accurately understanding what people are saying is one of the first things you lose. Then memory, learning new things, and solving problems become challenging.
Getting hearing aids as soon as possible helps slow this brain atrophy. Your brain gets re-trained. They can slow and even reverse mental decline according to numerous studies. In fact, one study reported by AARP revealed that 80% of people had increased cognitive function after managing their hearing loss.
5. You Have to Replace The Batteries
Those tiny button batteries can be a bit challenging to manage. And they seem to run out of juice at the worst times, like when you’re about to find out “whodunnit” in a mystery movie, or just as your friend is telling you the juicy details of a story.
But straight forward solutions exist to alleviate much of this perceived battery hassle. You can significantly increase battery life by employing the correct methods. The batteries are small and inexpensive, so it’s easy to carry an extra set in your wallet.
Or, currently you can purchase hearing aids that are rechargeable. Just place it on the charger when you go to bed. Put it back on in the morning. You can even get some hearing aids with solar-powered chargers so you can charge them even if you are camping or hiking.
6. There’s a Learning Curve
The technology of modern-day hearing aids is rather sophisticated. It’s much simpler than learning to use a computer for the first time. But it certainly takes a little time for your brain to adapt to new hearing aids and to get the configurations right.
It steadily gets better as you keep wearing your hearing aids. Try to be patient with yourself and the hearing aids throughout this transition.
Anyone who’s been using a pair of hearing aids for six months or more will tell you that it’s worth it.
This is what it’s actually like to wear hearing aids. Isn’t it time to find out for yourself?
References
https://www.aarp.org/health/brain-health/info-07-2013/hearing-loss-linked-to-dementia.html