Tanya is visiting her hearing specialist, being fitted for her very first pair of hearing aids. And she’s experiencing a little anxiety. Not, you know, a ton of anxiety. But she’s never had to use hearing aids before, and she’s somewhat concerned that she will be uncomfortable with a high tech gadget sitting in her ear canal, especially since she’s never been a huge fan of earplugs or earbuds.
These worries are not unique to Tanya. Fit and general comfort are concerns for many new hearing aid users. Tanya wants to use her hearing aid. Now she won’t need to crank the TV up so loud that it disturbs her family or even her neighbors. But will those hearing aids be comfortable?
Adapting to Hearing Aids For The First Time
So, is wearing hearing aids uncomfortable? The short answer is: some people find them to be a little uncomfortable when they first use 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 acquainted with your hearing aids.
Knowing that these adjustments will happen can help relieve some of the stress. Knowing what to expect will help your adjustment period be smoother.
There are two phases to your adjustment:
- Adjusting to the improved sound quality: In some situations, the improved sound quality takes a little adjusting to. If you’re like the majority of people, you put off on getting hearing aids, and you’re not used to hearing a complete range of sounds anymore. It may sound a bit loud at first or there could be frequencies of sound your not used to hearing. At first, this can be disruptive. One of our readers complained, for example, that he could hear his hair scraping against his jacket every time he moved his head. This is typical. In a short period of time, your brain will make the required adjustments to noises it doesn’t need to hear.
In order to enhance your general comfort and hasten the adjustment period, contact your hearing specialist if you’re experiencing trouble with the physical positioning or sound quality of your hearing aids.
Can I Make my Hearing Aids More Comfortable?
Over the years, fortunately, there are a few strategies that have worked fairly well.
- Start slow: If you’re breaking in your first pair of hearing aids, you shouldn’t feel as though you have to wear them all day, every day at first. You can gradually work your way up to it. Start by wearing your hearing aid for one to four hours a day. Eventually, you will be wearing your hearing aids all day, when you get comfortable with them.
- Get the right fit: Hearing aids are designed to fit your ears well. It might take several appointments with your hearing specialist to get everything functioning and just the right fit. And for optimal effectiveness and comfort, you might want to think about a custom fit hearing aid.
- Practice: The world may sound just a little bit different once you get your hearing aids. And it could take a while for your ears to adjust, especially when it comes to speech. In order to get the hang of it a little more quickly, there are a number of practices you can do including watching a movie with caption or reading along with an audiobook.
You’re Hearing Aids Can be More Comfortable
Your hearing aids may feel a little uncomfortable for the first few days or weeks. But the faster you adapt to your new hearing aids, the faster they’ll become a comfortable part of your daily life. In order to make that transition, it’s critical that you wear them on a daily basis.
Soon all you will have to think about is what you hear, not how you hear it.