Hearing Aid Fitting
At your fitting appointment, the audiologist will check the hearing aid for comfort and fit. The hearing aid will then be adjusted using a computer and a small microphone that fits in your ear. Your hearing aid has been especially prescribed for your hearing loss and therefore not suitable for anyone else.
The audiologist will do some sound checks with your hearing aids on and then instruct you on how the aid works. Time will be given to practicing inserting and removing the hearing aid from your ear. Maintaining, battery change and cleaning the aid will also be demonstrated.
Adjusting to the Hearing Aid
Generally it is not advisable to wear the hearing aid home from your fitting as you will find environmental noise, particularly traffic, a little unusual.
Since your hearing loss has prevented you from hearing some speech sounds and noises as normal hearers do, initially the quality of sound will be unusual to you. It is important to remember that the hearing aid is not giving you 'normal' hearing, but amplifying those sounds you do not hear well. As everything will sound different, there is a period of time that your hearing system and brain will take to get used to this new sound quality.
At first, your hearing system will be distracted as it learns to recognise sounds in a new way, but after a while you'll no longer find yourself distracted. For this process of adaption to occur, it is important to wear the hearing aid as much as possible, even if in the long term you don't envisage wearing it all the time.
The First Day
The first step is to wear the hearing aid in a quiet environment. Put your hearing aid on and adjust the volume to a level that you can hear better. Walk around the house and get used to different sounds - your footsteps, kettle, fridge motor, etc.
Watch TV with the hearing aid and reduce the volume of the TV until it is comfortable. Four hours of usage at least on the first day should have you ready to try for longer the next day!
The First Week
Continue the rest of the week wearing the hearing aid each day for as long as possible. If you're going out anywhere that will be particularly noisy - shopping, meetings, social outings - don't try your hearing aid just yet.
Allow yourself time to feel comfortable and adjusted to all the sounds of home first. Even when alone, still use your hearing aid to practice adjusting to and ignoring or filtering out unwanted noise.
The Second Week
Now you're ready to try the hearing aid in noisier places, but remember to keep up the regular practice at home. Your first experience in a noisy place may be challenging, but like the first week, it takes practice. Each time you try it in a noisy place you'll find it becoming easier. Remember that hearing in background noise is hard for everybody, even those with normal hearing.
The Two P's
Your audiologist's role is to help you choose a device that meets your requirements and listening needs. These were discussed in your first test appointment. Your role as a novice hearing aid user is to be patient with yourself and persevere - the two P's! Your normal hearing cannot be recovered but a hearing aid can assist in making listening easier and conversation and company more enjoyable.
Will hearing aids replace normal hearing?
Hearing aids will not restore 'normal' hearing, but it will amplify those sounds that are not heard well.
- I still may have trouble hearing in some noisy situations
- I may have to modify my environment for better hearing
Conductive hearing losses result from a problem in the outer or middle ear and usually only result in a loss of loudness for the sufferer. Once the speech or sounds are loud enough, they have no difficulty following conversation.
Sensorineural hearing losses result from damage to the inner ear. This type of loss results in not only a loss of loudness but also a loss of clarity due to the sound distortion in the hearing pathway. This means that simply increasing the loudness or volume will not necessarily make it any easier for the listener to understand conversation since it may still sound distorted.
What can I expect from hearing aids?
- Hearing in quiet should be improved
- Hearing in moderate background noise should be improved
- Hearing in noise will not be as good as hearing in quiet
- Hearing in loud noise should not be any worse than without the hearing aids
- Soft speech should be audible, conversational speech comfortable, loud speech not uncomfortable
- Own voice should be acceptable
- Ear mould should be comfortable
- No whistling should occur if hearing aids are seated properly
Note: It takes time to adjust to the feel and sound of hearing aids. Your audiologist will discuss with you the adjustment period needed for you to realise your full potential.
What technologies are available to help me hear better in background noise?
There are no hearing aids on the market that completely cut out unwanted or background noise. However, some advanced hearing aids have more sophisticated technologies to assist in managing background noise -
Extra listening programmes are used to reduce amplification of low frequencies that tend to make up background noise.
Directional microphones are designed to not amplify sound from behind the hearing aid user.
Digital noise suppression identifies the nature of background noise and reduces its amplification.
Hearing aids are only part of the whole process of hearing better again.
Having a hearing loss is like listening through cotton wool, it is a very mellow sound and indistinct. Hearing aids will make those indistinct sounds louder and your brain will be very distracted initially.
- Sounds will be louder than your remember
- Some sounds will be strange, or distracting initially for example - newspaper, footsteps, birds, cutlery in the sink, etc
- Your own voice may sound strange initially
It takes time to retrain your brain to hear these sounds again, to remember what they are, and how loud they should be.
Better hearing = Hearing aids + Good listening skills
- Facing the speaker
- Close proximity to the speaker
- Reducing background noise
- Using visual cues
- Using context cues
