Congrats! You’ve just become the proud owner of hearing aids – a great piece of modern technology. But new hearing aid owners will wish somebody had told them certain things, just like with any new technology.
Let’s assess how a new hearing aid user can eliminate the 9 most common hearing aid errors.
1. Not knowing how hearing aids work
To put it bluntly, learn your hearing aid’s features. The hearing experience will be dramatically improved if you know how to utilize advanced features for different environments like on the street, at the movies, or in a restaurant.
It might be able to sync wirelessly to your smartphone, TV, or stereo. It may also have a setting that makes phone conversations clearer.
If you use this sophisticated technology in such a rudimentary way, without understanding these features, you can easily become stuck in a rut. Modern hearing aids do more than simply raise the volume of external sounds.
Practice wearing your hearing aid in different places in order to learn how to get the clearest sound quality. Test out how well you hear by getting a friend or family member to help you.
Like anything new, it will get easier after a little practice. Just raising and lowering the volume won’t even come close to giving you the hearing experience that using these more sophisticated features will.
2. Expecting immediate improvement in your hearing
It’s not uncommon for a new hearing aid owner to think that their hearing will be perfect from day one. This isn’t a correct assumption. Some say it takes a month or more before they’re completely comfortable with their hearing aid. But stay positive. They also say it’s very worth it.
Give yourself a few days, after getting home, to get used to your new situation. It’s like breaking in a new pair of shoes. You may need to wear it in short intervals.
Start by just quietly talking with friends. Simple voices might not sound the same initially, and this can be disorienting. Ask your friends if you’re speaking too loud and make the required adjustments.
Slowly increase the time you wear your hearing aids and progressively add new places to visit.
Be patient with yourself, and you’ll have countless wonderful hearing experiences to look forward to.
3. Not being truthful about your degree of hearing loss during your hearing assessments
In order to be sure you get the right hearing aid technology, it’s essential to answer any questions we may ask honestly.
If you have your hearing aid and realize that perhaps you weren’t as honest as you could have been, come back and ask to be retested. But it’s easier if you get it right the first time. The degree and kind of hearing loss will identify the hearing aid styles that will work best for you.
As an illustration, people with hearing loss in the high frequency range will need a particular type of hearing aid. Others will be better for those with mid-frequency hearing loss and so on.
4. Not getting a hearing aid fitting
There are numerous requirements that your hearing aids need to simultaneously manage: they need to be comfortable on or in your ears, they need to be simple to put in and take out, and they need to boost the sounds around you effectively. All three of those variables will be resolved during your fitting.
During hearing aid fitting sessions, you may:
- Undergo hearing tests to adjust the correct power for your hearing aid.
- Have molds of your ears made and measurements taken.
5. Not tracking your results
It’s important that you take notes on how your hearing aid performs and feels once you get fitted. Make a note if you are having a hard time hearing in a large room. If your right ear seems tighter than your left, make a note of that. Even make a note if everything feels great. With this knowledge, we can personalize the settings of your hearing aid so it works at peak effectiveness and comfort.
6. Not thinking about how you will use your hearing aid ahead of time
Some hearing aids are resistant to water. Others, however, can be damaged or even ruined by water. Maybe you take pleasure in certain activities and you are willing to pay extra for more sophisticated features.
You can ask our opinion but the choice is yours. Only you know what advanced features you’ll actually use and that’s worth committing to because if the hearing aids don’t work with your lifestyle you won’t wear them.
You’ll be wearing your hearing aid for quite a while. So if you really need certain functions, you don’t want to settle for less.
A few more things to think about
- Consult with us about these things before your fitting so you can be certain you’re completely satisfied.
- You might care about whether people can see your hearing aid. Or, you might want to make a bold statement.
- Perhaps you want a high degree of automation. Or maybe you’re more of a do-it-yourself type of individual. Is an extended battery life important to you?
Many challenges that arise with regards to fit, lifestyle, and how you use your hearing aids can be dealt with through the fitting process. What’s more, many hearing aid makers will allow you to try out the devices before making a decision. During this test period, you’ll be able to get an idea of whether a specific brand of hearing aid would be right for you.
7. Not appropriately caring for your hearing aids
Most hearing aids are really sensitive to moisture. You may want to invest in a dehumidifier if you live in an extremely humid place. It’s not a good idea to keep your hearing aid in the bathroom where people take showers.
Before you touch your hearing aid or its battery, be sure to clean your hands. Oils found naturally on your hand can effect how well the hearing aid works and the duration of the batteries.
The hearing aid shouldn’t be allowed to accumulate earwax and skin cells. Instead, clean it according to the manufacturer’s guidelines.
Taking simple actions like these will improve the life and function of your hearing aid.
8. Not having spare batteries
New hearing aid wearers frequently learn this lesson at the worst times. All of a sudden, when you’re watching your favorite show, your batteries die just as you’re about to discover “who done it”.
Your battery life depends, like any electronic device, on the outside environment and how you use it. So always keep a spare set of batteries nearby, even if you just replaced them. Don’t miss something special because of an unpredictable battery.
9. Neglecting your hearing exercises
When you first purchase your hearing aids, there may be a presumption, and it’s not always a baseless assumption, that your hearing aid will do all the heavy lifting. But it’s not just your ears that are impacted by hearing loss, it’s also the parts of your brain in charge of interpreting all those sounds.
You can start to work on rebuilding those ear-to-brain pathways after you get your new hearing aids. This might take place quite naturally for some people, especially if the hearing loss was somewhat recent. But others will need a more structured plan to rebuild their ability to hear. The following are a couple of prevalent strategies.
Reading out loud
One of the best ways you can recreate those pathways between your ears and your brain is to spend some time reading out loud. Even if you feel a little weird initially you should still practice like this. You’re doing the important work of linking the words (which you read) to the sound (which you say). Your hearing will get better and better as you continue practicing.
Audiobooks
If you’re uncomfortable with the idea of reading something out loud yourself, then you can always go the audiobook route. You can purchase (or rent from the library) a physical copy of a book and the audiobook version together. Then as the audiobook plays, you can read along. You’ll hear a word as you’re reading it just like reading out loud. This will teach the language parts of your brain to understand speech again.
Resources
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK10900/