You finally obtained your new hearing aids. You’re so excited to be able to jump into your social life again. No more bad transitions or confused conversations. But there’s an issue: everything sounds a little bit off.
That’s because it’ll most likely take you a while to adjust to a new set of hearing aids. This can be a frustrating transition. You were so excited about enjoying your hearing again and it feels like it’s hard to be patient.
Luckily, there are some tips that can help quicken 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.
Start slowly with these tips
Your brain will take a little time to get accustomed to hearing certain sounds again no matter how sophisticated your hearing aids are. Here are some ways you can intentionally 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 likely experience considerably less noise pollution. This will help you concentrate on individual voices.
- First, try to focus on one-on-one conversations: If you use your hearing aids while eating at a crowded restaurant on your first day you get them, you might be disappointed, not because the devices are doing anything wrong. It’s just that it’s difficult for your ear and brain to deal with focusing on all those different voices. By starting out with one-on-one conversations you will make the transition smoother and also get a bit of additional practice.
- Only wear your hearing aids for short amounts of time at first: When you’re just beginning, you can practice by using your hearing aids for only a few hours at a time. Your hearing aids will probably feel a little weird in your ears for a while so starting gradually is fine. You can start to wear your hearing aids for longer periods as you become accustomed to them.
Get added practice with these tips
There are some things you can do, as with any skill, that can help you practice hearing. Some of these are even fun!
- Do some listening exercise: That’s right: sit in a quiet place and let your ears do the hearing. You can practice by focusing on trying to hear the fridge running or the cat meowing in another room or the birds chirping outside.
- Read along with the printed version while you listen to the audiobook.: This is a really similar exercise (and allows you to get in some fun reading while you’re at it). Your brain will learn to make connections between sounds and words by employing this read along approach.
- Watch TV with the closed-captions on: 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 talk, and your brain will begin to remember what all these words sound like. This sort of practice will help you adjust to hearing speech again.
Tips to keep your hearing health up
Obviously, one of the purposes of hearing aids is to keep your ears as healthy as you can. And there are a few tips you can do to keep your ears happy as you get used to wearing your new hearing aid:
- Keep visiting us: There might be a temptation to believe that once you’ve got the right hearing aids, you won’t need to see us anymore. Nothing could be further from the truth. We can help adjust your hearing aids, keep the fit comfortable, and continue to keep an eye on your hearing. These follow up visits are very important.
- Be sure to take note of and let us know about any pain: Because it shouldn’t be painful to wear hearing aids. So if you’re noticing any pain or something’s not fitting right, it’s important to let us know as soon as you can.
Be patient, and build up to full-time hearing aids
Your goal here will be to work your way up to using your hearing aids all of the time. A slow and steady approach works quite often, but everybody’s unique. You’ll want to get individualized advice from us on the best way for you to get accustomed to your new hearing aid.
These tips will help you have a more enjoyable and enriched life with your new hearing aids.