Congratulations! You’ve just become the proud owner of hearing aids – a wonderful piece of modern tech. But, as with any new device, there are things that hearing aid owners wish somebody had told them.

Let’s go over nine common mistakes new hearing aid owners make and how you can steer clear of them.

1. Neglecting to understand hearing aid functionality

Or, more specifically, understand how your hearing aid works. It most likely has unique features that significantly enhance the hearing experience in different environments such as restaurants, movie theaters, or walking down the street.

It may be able to connect wirelessly to your smartphone, TV, or stereo. In addition, it might have a specific setting that helps you hear on the phone.

If you fail to learn about these features, it’s so easy to get stuck in a rut by using your technologically-advanced hearing aid in a basic way. Hearing aids these days can do more than make the sound louder.

Practice wearing your hearing aid in different settings in order to learn how to get the clearest sound quality. Check out how well you hear by getting a friend or family member to assist you.

As with anything new, it will get easier after a little practice. Simply raising and lowering the volume won’t even come close to providing the hearing experience that using these more sophisticated features will.

2. Expecting immediate improvement in your hearing

In line with number one, many new hearing aid users think their hearing will be perfect as they walk out of the office. This assumption is normally not how it works. Some people say it takes a month or more before they are completely comfortable with their hearing aid. But stay positive. They also say it’s very worth it.

Give yourself a few days, after you get home, to get accustomed to your new experience. It’s like breaking in a new pair of shoes. Usually, you will need to go slow and use your new hearing aids a little at a time.

Begin by just quietly talking with friends. It can be a bit disorienting at first because voices might sound different. Ask about the volume of your own voice and make corrections.

Slowly increase the time you wear your hearing aids and progressively add new places to visit.

Be patient with yourself, and you’ll have many great hearing experiences to look forward to.

3. Not being truthful about your level of hearing loss at your hearing exam

In order to be sure you get the correct hearing aid technology, it’s important to answer any questions we may ask truthfully.

Go back and get another test if you realize you may not have been completely honest after you get your hearing aids. Getting it right the first time is better. The level and kind of hearing loss will determine the hearing aid styles that work best for you.

For instance, certain hearing aids are better for people with hearing loss in the high-frequency range. Others will be better for those with mid-frequency hearing loss and so on.

4. Neglecting to have your hearing aid fitted

Your hearing aids need to handle a few requirements at once: They need to effectively boost sound, they need to be simple to put in and remove, and they need to be comfortable in your ears. Your hearing aid fitting is intended to correctly calibrate all three of those variables for your personal needs.

During hearing aid fitting sessions, you might:

• Have your hearing tested to identify the power level of your hearing aid.
• Have molds of your ears made and measurements taken.

5. Not tracking your results

It’s important that you take notes on how your hearing aid performs and feels once you get fitted. Make a note if you are having a hard time hearing in a large room. If your right ear seems tighter than your left, make a note of that. If everything feels right, make a note. With this information, we can customize the settings of your hearing aid so it works at peak efficiency and comfort.

6. Not anticipating how you’ll utilize your hearing aids

Some hearing aids are water-resistant. However, water can significantly damage others. Perhaps you take pleasure in certain activities and you are willing to pay extra for more advanced features.

We can give you some recommendations but you must decide for yourself. You won’t use your hearing aid if it doesn’t fit your lifestyle and only you know what features you will use.

You’ll be wearing your hearing aid for a long time. So if you really need certain features, you don’t want to settle for less.

Some other things to take into consideration

• Maybe you want a high level of automation. Or maybe you like having more control over the volume. Is a longer battery life essential to you?
• You might care about whether your hearing aid is able to be seen. Or, you might want to make a bold statement.
• To be very satisfied, discuss these preferences before your fitting.

Many issues that arise regarding fit, lifestyle, and how you use your hearing aids can be addressed during the fitting process. What’s more, many hearing aid manufacturers will let you try out the devices before making a decision. This test period will help you figure out which brand will be best for your requirements.

7. Failing to take proper care of your hearing aid

The majority of hearing aids are quite sensitive to moisture. You might want to get a dehumidifier if you live in an overly humid place. It’s a bad idea to store your hearing aid in the bathroom where everyone showers.

Consistently wash your hands before handling the hearing aid or batteries. The performance of your hearing aid and the duration of its battery can be impacted by the oils naturally present in your skin.

The hearing aid shouldn’t be allowed to accumulate earwax and skin cells. Instead, clean it based on the manufacturer’s instructions.

Taking simple steps like these will improve the life and function of your hearing aid.

8. Failing to have a set of spare batteries

New hearing aid wearers often learn this concept at the worst times. When you’re about to learn who did it at the critical moment of your favorite show, your batteries die without warning.

Your battery life depends, like any electronic device, on the outside environment and how you use it. So always keep an extra set of batteries handy, even if you recently changed them. Don’t miss something special because of an unpredictable battery.

9. Not practicing your hearing exercises

When you first purchase your hearing aids, there might be a presumption, and it’s not always a baseless assumption, that your hearing aid will do all the work. But the regions of your brain in charge of interpreting sound are also affected by hearing loss not only your ears.

You can begin to work on rebuilding those ear-to-brain pathways once you get your new hearing aids. For some individuals, this may happen rather naturally and this is especially true if the hearing loss developed recently. But for others, an intentional approach may be required to get your hearing back to normal again. A couple of typical strategies include the following.

Reading out loud

One of the best ways you can recreate those connections between your ears and your brain is to spend some time reading out loud. It may feel a little silly at first, but don’t allow that to stop you. You’re practicing reconnecting the experience of saying words with the sounds they make. The more you establish those connections, the better your hearing (and your hearing aid) will work.

Audiobooks

If you don’t like the idea of reading something out loud personally, then you can always try audiobooks. You can buy (or rent from the library) a physical copy of a book and the audiobook version together. Then as the audiobook plays, you can read along. You’ll hear a word as you’re reading it just like reading out loud. This will train the language parts of your brain to understand speech again.

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Resources

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK10900/