Tanya is visiting her hearing professional, being measured for her very first set of hearing aids. And she’s feeling a little anxious. Not, you know, a ton of anxiety. But hearing aids are new to her, and she’s somewhat concerned about how comfortable she’ll feel with a high tech gizmo sitting in her ears, especially since she’s never been a big fan of earbuds or earplugs.
These concerns are not only felt by Tanya. Fit and general comfort are concerns for many first time hearing aid users. Tanya wants to wear her hearing aid. She’s anticipating hearing her son’s jokes and listening to her TV at a level That won’t cause issues with the neighbors. But how comfortable are those hearing aids going to be?
Adapting to Hearing Aids For The First Time
So, are hearing aids uncomfortable? The short answer is: some people find them to be a little uncomfortable at first. As with lots of things in life, there’s an adjustment period, which means your initial level of comfort will vary. But you will get more comfortable in time as you get used to your hearing aids.
Sometimes it’s just nice to realize that these adjustments are coming. Knowing what you should expect will help you acclimate to your hearing aids in a healthy, sustainable, and comfortable way.
There are two steps to your adjustment:
- Becoming accustomed to an increased sound quality: In some situations, the improvement in sound quality takes some adjusting to. If you’re like the majority of people, you put off on getting hearing aids, and you’re not used to hearing a full array of sounds anymore. When you begin using your hearing aids, it may sound a bit loud, or you might hear sounds that you aren’t used to hearing. Initially, this can be annoying. One of our readers complained, for instance, that he could hear his hair scraping against his coat every time he moved his head. This is typical. After a few weeks, your brain will block out the noises you don’t want to tune in to.
If either the quality of sound or the physical placement of the hearing aids is disturbing you, it’s essential to speak with us about adjustments to improve your overall comfort and advance the adjustment period.
How Can I Increase The Comfort of My Hearing Aids?
Thankfully, there are a few techniques that have proven to be fairly effective over the years.
- Start slow: If you’re breaking in your first set of hearing aids, you shouldn’t feel as if you have to wear them all day, every day right off the bat. You can gradually work your way up to it. From one to four hours per day is a good way to start. That said, you’ll want to build up to using your hearing aids all day, but you don’t have to begin there.
- Get the right fit: Fitting your ears comfortably is what hearing aids are made to do. You’ll absolutely want to discuss your fit with us right away but you’ll also want to consult us for follow-up fittings to be sure everything is working correctly and the fit is excellent. You may also want to think about a custom fit hearing aid for optimal comfort and effectiveness.
- Practice: Once have your hearing aids, the world won’t sound quite the same. Adjusting to sound, specifically speech, may take a while. There are many exercises (reading along with an audiobook or watching your favorite movie with the closed captions turned on) that can help you get the hang of this a little more quickly.
Making Your Hearing Aids More Comfortable
For the first few days or weeks, there might be some discomfort with your hearing aids. Pretty soon you’re hearing aids will be a comfortable part of your day to day life and the sooner you make the adjustments, the sooner this will happen. In order to make that transition, it’s crucial that you wear them on a daily basis.
Before you know it, you’ll be thinking about is having good conversation with friends.
