Top Tips for Adjusting to Hearing Aids

Life adjusting to hearing aids isn't always easy, but when you first start hearing better with hearing aids, it can be easier to get used to them. When your hearing health professional talks you through your hearing aid appointment, they should run down with you everything that you should expect from being a hearing aid wearer. It's a new device worn in or behind your ear, which means that it is going to take time to get used to. There is an adjustment period that you need to go through, and below, we've got some tips to help to make your adjustment easier.

They may feel funny

Having something in or on your ear is not going to feel natural to you. However, you need to consider how they are working for you. Your ears need time to adjust to the feeling of the hearing aids, in the same way glasses may have taken time to adjust to over time.

Start small

Wearing your hearing aids for a few hours a day at first is always better than trying to do the whole day. It's okay to let yourself adjust to wearing hearing aids, and your hearing health professional will talk you through how long to wear them to start with. Your brain can acclimate faster as you wear them more often.

Adjust slowly

Quit playing with the volume on your hearing aids too much. They will adjust to different situations as you will, so they shouldn't be manually changed very often. Try not to make the volume too loud when you do adjust them, and don't try to make them do what your ears would do if they could hear. Too loud, and your hearing could be damaged.

Practice makes perfect

The best thing that you can start with is having conversations with family and friends as their voices are easy to pick out and identify. Hearing aids don't stop you from needing to listen actively, so you need to do what you would usually do and look at them and interact. This can help you to retrain your brain into how to listen to a conversation.

Keep life normal

The volume on the radio or the television both need to be kept at a reasonable level so that you can enjoy it with your hearing aids. Having it really loudly is going to prevent you from getting used to your hearing aids and hearing at the same level as a person with hearing does.

Subtitles on

When you are watching television, put the subtitles on so that you can retrain your brain to connect words and sounds together. It may be annoying for other members of the house, but it's going to help you to learn how to match words and sounds again.

Gradually wear them all-day

Start slowly, and after two weeks, you should be wearing your hearing aids all day long. This can help you to remain consistent when it comes to listening to the world around you. You hearing health professional may also provide you with a schedule for when to wear your hearing aids to help you become better accustomed to hearing the world around you again.