Tanya is being measured for a new pair of hearing aids by her hearing specialist. And she’s feeling a little anxious. Not, you know, a ton of anxiety. But she’s never used hearing aids before, and she’s a little worried that she will feel uncomfortable with a high tech gizmo sitting in her ears, especially because she’s not a big fan of earpods or earplugs.
These concerns are not unique to Tanya. Fit and overall comfort are concerns for many new hearing aid users. Tanya has every intention of wearing her hearing aids. Now she won’t need to crank the television up so loud that it irritates her family or even her neighbors. But will those hearing aids be comfortable?
How to Adjust When You First Wear Your Hearing Aids
So, is wearing hearing aids uncomfortable? Put simply: some people find them to be a little uncomfortable when they first wear them. As with lots of things in life, there’s an adjustment time, which means your early level of comfort will vary. But you will feel more comfortable after a while as you become used to your hearing aids.
Recognizing that these adjustments are coming can help ease some of the anxiety. Knowing what to expect will help you acclimate to your hearing aids in a healthy, sustainable, and comfortable way.
Adjusting to your hearing aid has two parts:
If either the sound quality or the physical positioning of the hearing aids is bothering you, it’s important to talk to your hearing specialist about adjustments to improve your overall comfort and progress the period of adjustment.
How Can I Enhance The Comfort of My Hearing Aids?
Over the years, luckily, there are a few strategies that have worked fairly well.
- Practice: The world may sound just a little bit different once you get your hearing aids. Adjusting to sound, particularly speech, might take some time. There are many techniques (reading along with an audiobook or watching your favorite movie with the closed captions on) that can help you get the hang of this a little faster.
- 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 at first. You can start gradually and build up from there. Begin by wearing your hearing aid for a couple to a few hours a day. That said, you’ll want to work up to wearing your hearing aids all day, but you don’t have to start there.
- Get the right fit: Fitting your ears properly is what hearing aids are made to do. It could take several appointments with your hearing specialist to get everything working and fitting just right. And for optimal effectiveness and comfort, you might want to think about a custom fit hearing aid.
You’re Hearing Aids Can be More Comfortable
Your hearing aids may feel a little awkward for the first few days or weeks. But the more quickly you adapt to your new hearing aids, the faster they’ll become a comfortable part of your everyday life. Wearing them on a daily basis is essential to make that transition happen.
Soon all you will have to think about is what you hear, not how you hear it.