Tanya is sitting with her hearing specialist, being measured for her very first set of hearing aids. And she’s feeling a little anxious. Her anxiety isn’t actually that bad. But hearing aids are new to her, and she’s a little stressed that she will be uncomfortable with a high tech gadget sitting in her ear canal, particularly since she’s never been a big fan of earbuds or earplugs.
Tanya’s worries are not unique. Many first-time hearing aid users have doubts about the comfort and general fit of their hearing aids. Tanya wants to wear her hearing aid. Now she won’t need to crank up the TV so loud that it disturbs her family or even the neighbors. But will those hearing aids be comfortable?
How to Adapt When You First Wear Your Hearing Aids
So, are hearing aids uncomfortable? Simply put: some people experience them as a little uncomfortable at first. Early levels of comfort will fluctuate because, as with many things in life, there’s a period of adjustment. But you will become more comfortable after a while as you become accustomed to your hearing aids.
Sometimes it’s just nice to know that these adjustments are will happen. Knowing what to expect will help your adjustment period be smoother.
Adjusting to your hearing aid has two phases:
If either the sound quality or the physical positioning of the hearing aids is annoying you, it’s critical to speak with your hearing specialist about adjustments to improve your all-around comfort and advance the period of adjustment.
Can I Make my Hearing Aids More Comfortable?
Fortunately, there are a few techniques that have proven to be rather successful over the years.
- Practice: Once you get your hearing aids, the world isn’t going to sound quite the same. Adapting to sound, especially speech, could take a while. In order to get the hang of it more quickly, there are lots of exercises you can do including watching a movie with caption or reading along with an audiobook.
- Get the right fit: Fitting your ears well is what hearing aids are made to do. It could take several visits with your hearing specialist to get everything working and just the right fit. And for optimal effectiveness and comfort, you may want to think about a custom fit hearing aid.
- Start slow: If you’re breaking in your first set of hearing aids, you shouldn’t feel like you have to wear them all day, every day right off the bat. You can take your time and work your way up to it. From one to four hours every day is a great way to begin. Inevitably, you will be using your hearing aids all day, when you become comfortable with them.
You’re Hearing Aids Can be More Comfortable
Your hearing aids might feel a little awkward for the first few days or weeks. Before long you’re hearing aids will be a comfortable part of your daily life and the sooner you make the adjustments, the sooner this will occur. In order to really make that transition, it’s crucial that you wear them every day.
Pretty soon, you’ll be focusing on is having good conversation with friends.