You finally obtained those new hearing aids. You’re so thrilled to be able to jump into your social life again. Now, you won’t be missing elements of conversations or experiencing uncomfortable transitions. But your hearing aids just don’t seem quite right.
That’s because it’ll probably take you some time to adjust to a new pair of hearing aids. This can be an annoying transition. You were so excited about enjoying your hearing again and it feels like it’s taking so long.
The good news is, there are a few tips that can help quicken the transition process. With a little practice, you can quickly get yourself to a space where you’re thinking less about your hearing aids, and tuning in to what you’re hearing.
Start slowly with these tips
Your brain will take a little while to get accustomed to hearing certain sounds again no matter how sophisticated your hearing aids are. Here are a few ways you can deliberately give yourself time to adjust and start things off slowly:
- Begin by wearing your hearing aids at home only: When you’re at home, you have much more control over what you’re hearing, and you’ll probably experience substantially less noise pollution. This will help you focus on individual voices.
- First, try to pay attention to one-on-one conversations: You could be setting yourself up for frustration if you wear your hearing aids in a noisy environment on the first day. When the brain needs to pay attention to all those voices, it can get overwhelmed at first. Staying with one-on-one conversations can help make that transition smoother (and give you a little extra practice, as well).
- Only wear your hearing aids for short amounts of time to begin with: A few hours at a time is the most you should use your hearing aids when you first get started. They may feel a little funny at first (this is normal), so it’s good to start slowly. You can start to use your hearing aids for longer durations as you get used to them.
Tips that help you get extra practice in
Much like 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 might even have some fun!
- Watch TV with the closed-captions enabled: It’s easy: put in your hearing aids, turn on the TV, and watch your favorite show. As you read the words you’ll also be hearing the actors speak, and your brain will begin to remember what all these words sound like. This type of practice will help you get used to hearing speech again.
- Listen to an audiobook while you read the printed book: This is a very similar exercise (and lets you get in some fun reading while you’re at it). Reading and listening to an audiobook concurrently will help your brain make associations between sounds and words.
- Do some listening exercise: That’s right: sit in a quiet place and let your ears do the hearing. You can practice by concentrating on trying to hear the refrigerator running or the cat meowing in the other room or the birds singing outside.
Improve your hearing health with these tips
Obviously, one of the purposes of hearing aids is to keep your hearing as healthy as you can. And there are some tips you can do to keep your ears happy as you get accustomed to using your new hearing aid:
- If you have any pain, be sure you take note of it and report it to us.: Because it shouldn’t be painful to wear hearing aids. So it’s important to let us know about any problems with fit or any pain right away.
- Keep visiting us: You may not think you need to get hearing evaluations anymore after you get your hearing aids. This would be the worst idea. We can help adjust your hearing aids, keep the fit comfortable, and continue to keep an eye on your hearing. It’s essential to continue with these follow up visits.
Go slow and maximize your time as you get used to your hearing aids
Your goal here will be to work your way up to using your hearing aids full time. A slow and progressive approach works quite often, but everyone’s different. You’ll want to get personalized 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.