Three Tips for Adjusting to Hearing Aids

2020-10-14 If you’ve finally built up the courage to go see an audiologist regarding your hearing aids, you’re probably wondering if there will be an adjustment period to actually get used to them as well. Unfortunately, you will likely experience three to six weeks’ worth of time before you can get fully adjusted to hearing aids. The timeframe can be shorter, depending on how adaptable you are.  

Consider three tips to help you adjust to your new hearing aids.

Patience and practice are both important

As with many things in life, patience is one of the key components to adjusting to your hearing aids. It’s important to be as patient as you can when adapting to hearing aids because there will be frustrating moments and even embarrassing situations you need to deal with. When you start wearing your hearing aids for the first time, you’ll need to train your brain to recognize certain sounds and filter them out. Some sounds may seem different or new, especially if you’ve not had good hearing for a long period of time. It may feel uncomfortable, which is why it’s important to give yourself ample time to adjust to these new sensations that you’ll be feeling. It does require a bit of practice and you may even need to adjust the settings to your liking in order to feel more comfortable with them.

Dealing with the cosmetic side of hearing aids
We all know that hearing aids can look unsightly especially if you’ve picked a behind-the-ear model. It can feel strange having a device hooked to your ear and it might even feel uncomfortable knowing that you have a plastic curved machine near your ear. Thankfully, speaking with your audiologist and asking him or her for alternate options can solve many of these cosmetic issues. For instance, there are invisible hearing aids that are incredibly difficult to see, and there are mini behind-the-ear hearing aids that provide the same features and quality of sound as a larger device. Speak with your hearing professional if you want more options to help you deal with the cosmetic side of using hearing aids.

Have realistic expectations
Finally, make sure you set realistic expectations with your hearing aids. Yes, hearing aids can help you hear better. It won’t be perfect, but as long as you focus on improving your ability to filter sounds and train your brain to recognize certain things, you can easily shorten the learning curve by several weeks. For some people, it can take half a year or more to fully adjust to the use of hearing aids, so don’t expect to quickly adjust within a couple of days.