Tanya is being fitted for a new pair of hearing aids by her hearing specialist. And she’s feeling a little anxious. Not, you know, a lot of anxiety. But hearing aids are new to her, and she’s somewhat concerned about how comfortable she’ll feel with a high tech gadget inside of her ears, especially since she’s never been a huge fan of earplugs or earbuds.
Tanya’s worries are not unique. Fit and overall comfort are worries for many new hearing aid users. Tanya has every desire of wearing her hearing aids. Now she won’t need to turn up the television so loud that it irritates her family or even her neighbors. But how comfortable are those hearing aids going to be?
Adapting to Hearing Aids For The First Time
So, is wearing hearing aids uncomfortable? Simply put: some individuals find them to be a bit uncomfortable when they first use them. As with lots of things in life, there’s an adjustment period, which means your early level of comfort will vary. But in time, you’ll get used to how your hearing aids feel and become more comfortable.
Knowing that these adjustments will happen can help ease some of the concerns. Knowing what you should expect will help your adjustment period be easier.
Adapting to your hearing aid includes two phases:
In order to better your overall comfort and quicken the adjustment period, get in touch with your hearing specialist if you are having trouble with the physical positioning or sound quality of your hearing aids.
Can I Make my Hearing Aids More Comfortable?
Luckily, there are a few strategies that have proven to be quite successful over the years.
- Practice: The world might sound just a little bit different once you get your hearing aids. Adapting to sound, specifically speech, could take some time. In order to get the hang of it a little more quickly, there are a number of exercises you can do including watching a movie with caption or reading along with an audiobook.
- Get the right fit: Hearing aids are designed to fit your ears comfortably. You’ll definitely want to talk about fit with your hearing specialist right off the bat, but you’ll also want to see your hearing specialist for follow-up fittings to make certain everything is working properly and the fit is perfect. And for optimal effectiveness and comfort, you might want to think about a custom fit hearing aid.
- Start slow: You don’t need to use your hearing aids 24/7 right away. You can start gradually and build up from there. Begin by wearing your hearing aid for a couple to a few hours a day. Having said that, you’ll want to work up to wearing your hearing aids all day, but you don’t have to start there.
Making Your Hearing Aids More Comfortable
Your hearing aids might feel a little uncomfortable for the first few days or weeks. Before long you’re hearing aids will become a comfortable part of your daily life and the sooner you make the adjustments, the sooner this will happen. Wearing them on a daily basis is crucial to make that transition happen.
Before long all you will have to consider is what you hear, not how you hear it.