You finally got those new hearing aids. You’re finally going to be able to get back into the groove of your social life again. No more missed transitions or unclear conversations. But there’s an issue: everything sounds a little bit off.
That’s because it’ll probably take you some time to adjust to a new set of hearing aids. Often, this transition can be annoying. After all, there was so much you were looking forward to, and that adjustment period just feels so slow.
The good news is, there are a few tips that can help speed up the transition process. With some practice, you can quickly get yourself to a place where you’re paying less attention to hearing aids, and paying more attention to what you’re hearing.
Tips that help you start Slowly
Your brain will take a little while to get accustomed to hearing certain sounds again regardless of how sophisticated your hearing aids are. Here are a few ways you can deliberately give yourself time to adjust and start things off slowly:
- Wear your hearing aids only around the house at first: When you’re at home, you have a lot more control over what you’re hearing, and you’ll probably experience considerably less noise pollution. This means you can concentrate on one voice at a time.
- Use your hearing aids for a short period of time: When you’re just starting, you can practice by using your hearing aids for just a few hours at a time. Your hearing aids will probably feel a little weird in your ears for a while so starting slowly is fine. As your hearing aids get more comfortable, you can use them for longer periods of time.
- Focus on one-on-one conversations first: If you wear your hearing aids while dining at a crowded restaurant on your first day you get them, you could be discouraged, not because the hearing aids are doing anything wrong. When the brain has to focus on all those voices, it can get overloaded at first. Sticking to one-on-one conversations can help make that transition smoother (and give you a bit of extra practice, too).
Get additional practice with these tips
Similar to any other skill (and hearing is a skill, among other things), there are a few activities that can help you practice with your hearing aids. You may even have some fun!
- Do some listening exercise: That’s right: sit in a quiet space and let your ears do the hearing. You can practice by concentrating on trying to hear the fridge running or the cat meowing in another room or the birds chirping outside.
- Watch TV with the closed-captions enabled: It’s easy: Turn the TV on, put your hearing aids in, and enjoy. As you read the dialog you’ll also be hearing the actors speak, and your brain will start remembering what all these words sound like. This can give you some practice hearing and adjusting to speech.
- Listen to an audiobook while you read the print version: This is a really similar exercise (and lets you get in some fun reading while you’re at it). Your brain will learn to make associations between sounds and words by employing this read along technique.
Tips to keep your hearing health up
Keeping your ears as healthy as you can, after all, is one of the main purposes of hearing aids. And there are some tips you can do to keep your ears happy as you get accustomed to using your new hearing aid:
- Keep visiting us: There might be a temptation to think that once you have the right hearing aids, you won’t need to have anymore hearing exams. This would be a bad idea. We can continue to watch your hearing, make certain the fit is comfortable, and make any needed adjustments. These follow up visits are very important.
- If you have any pain, make sure you document it and report it to us.: Your hearing aids shouldn’t hurt. So it’s important to let us know about any issues with fit or any pain right away.
Take your time, and work up to full-time hearing aids
Your objective here will be to work your way up to using your hearing aids all of the time. A slow and progressive approach is often effective, but everyone’s unique. You’ll want to get personalized advice from us on the best way for you to get used to your new hearing aid.
These tips will help you live a more enjoyable and enriched life with your new hearing aids.