So you don’t use your hearing aids very often? Maybe you put them in when you go to a party or go to the theater, but otherwise, you leave them in the drawer. Do you really need to use them more often than that?
Over the long term, you make difficulty for yourself if you’re not wearing your hearing aids on a regular basis and that’s an issue. Your hearing may get drastically worse. Social isolation and cognitive decline could be the outcome. You might compromise your overall health. So, if you aren’t using your hearing aids, you should definitely be reading this.
Why Are Your Hearing Aids Not in
If your hearing aids are sitting unused in a nightstand drawer somewhere, you likely have a reason. Sure, perhaps you haven’t really been forthcoming about what those reasons might be. Maybe, when your family questions you, you even say something generic and elusive, like, “I just don’t like them”.
Stilted dialogue to the side, we know that’s not the full story, right? If you go a little deeper, you’ll most likely find that there’s a specific grievance at the heart of your irregular hearing aid use. Specific issues are good because they generate the possibility to find an equally specific solution.
Some of the most typical complaints include the examples below;
“My Hearing Aids Feel Uncomfortable”
One of the most commonly mentioned reasons that individuals stop wearing their hearing aids normally is discomfort. Perhaps the hearing aid keeps falling out of your ear. Or maybe tenderness and pain are happening in just the wrong spot with your over-the-ear model.
Hearing aids aren’t supposed to be unpleasant, so something is definitely wrong if they are creating any kind of irritation. And it’s understandable that you wouldn’t want to wear a piece of technology that causes soreness, pain, or frustration.
Possible solution: If you’re uncomfortable with your hearing aids, consider scheduling an additional or follow-up fitting session. It’s quite feasible that the way your hearing aid fits just needs a few quick adjustments. Some designs can even be completely personalized to the shape and size of your ears. The more comfortable your hearing aid is, the more likely you are to keep it in place for long periods of time.
My Hearing Aid Has Poor Sound Quality
Perhaps you experience the sound of your hearing aid to be too fuzzy or tinny so you don’t use them that often. It’s not shocking that you have decided to put your hearing aids away for a special occasion, if that’s the case.”
This fuzzy or tinny sound can happen because hearing aids are carrying out complicated auditory processes at all times, amplifying some sounds while filtering out others. So the sound quality might seem unreliable if your settings aren’t correctly adjusted.
Solution: This difficulty has two possible solution: calibration and upkeep. It could be that your hearing aids are broken in some way or another and require repairs. But it’s also possible that they just need a simple calibration (usually this is something your hearing specialist can do for you).
Voices Seem Muffled With my Hearing Aids
You need to hear voices with clarity. That’s the entire reason why you bought hearing aids in the first place! You needed to make sure you didn’t miss any important discussions. So if all the voices you hear are difficult to comprehend and sound muffled it might be a bit annoying.
This normally happens when you first get your hearing aids because your brain and ears aren’t necessarily used to communicating very well anymore (it’s like they had a disagreement or something).
The Solution: Keep practicing. Your brain is going to have to become accustomed to hearing language again, so anything you can do to get some repetition will help. Try reading along with an audiobook or reading along with the closed captioning while watching NCIS. Merely having more conversations with the people who are around you is a very good way to get some practice, as well.
Getting Solutions
The point is that no matter what your justification for not wearing your hearing aids maybe, there is an answer somewhere. And it is imperative, both for your hearing health and your cognitive well-being, that you wear your hearing aids routinely.
So if your hearing aids don’t seem to be working very well for you? After identifying the problem, find a solution, so you can make your hearing aids, and all that they help you hear, part of your everyday life. If you believe your hearing aids require adjustment, consult your hearing care professional right away.