It can be overwhelming starting to use hearing aids, especially if your hearing has been poor for a while. Getting used to them can take time and a lot of patience. Not only are you working out how to make it fit well and feel comfortable, but your brain also has quite a lot of relearning to do, so having a period of adjustment is pretty normal. However, there are a few tips and tricks that can help the transition go a lot smoother. Keep on reading to find out how.
Gradually Increase How Much You Use Them
The thought of putting your hearing aids in straight away and wearing them all day might be very tempting, but it’s the worst thing you can possibly do. It’s been so long since you would have heard anything as loud or as clear, so it can be a lot to deal with at once. What you should try to do instead is wear your hearing aids in small doses. Start gradually wearing them for short periods of time, maybe an hour or so at first, then start to increase how much you wear them each day.
It might also be beneficial when you first start to wear your hearing aids to begin using them at home or in quieter environments. Wearing them in loud, busy spaces can lead to sensory overload and might just put you off wearing them before you’ve really been able to try.
Get Comfortable With The Sound Of Your Own Voice
Something you might be surprised about being a possible issue when you start wearing your hearing aids, is the sound of your own voice. A lot of people don’t know that hearing aids and voice changes are a thing. Instead of just hearing your voice through your ear and jaw, you’re hearing it through the device. You’ve got to think about how you now have a device in your ear, so in a way, it’s blocking (occluding) your ear canal, so it changes the normal way you would hear your voice. It can be a very weird, off-putting feeling when wearing them for the first time.
By recognizing that there is going to be a difference, you can help yourself to prepare better, and it’ll be much less of a surprise when you do eventually hear yourself. A few extra things you can do to get more comfortable include spending short amounts of time reading out loud to yourself or trying to narrate everyday tasks. If you’re concerned about how your voice sounds to others, have a go at recording it – that can help you understand that you still sound like yourself and help with any anxieties about your voice.
Figure Out All The Controls
The good thing about modern hearing aids is they have a huge amount of controls, like Bluetooth and different listening modes. The bad thing is that you’ve got to try and learn them all. It’s easy to get frazzled trying to learn how to wear your hearing aids, get used to the sounds, whilst also learning how to control them all at the same time. Instead, before you wear them, read through all the instructions, working out how to use them and what all the controls do. The last thing you want is to be out and about, and suddenly it gets super loud, and you don’t know how to turn them down.
It doesn’t have to be a stressful experience setting up and adjusting to wearing your hearing aids. Just follow the tips above, and you’ll get used to them in no time.