Congratulations on getting your new hearing aids! Now that you have chosen to treat your hearing loss professionally, your whole life will be enriched.
When you have your new hearing aids fitted for the first time, it can take a while to get used to hearing everything you haven’t heard clearly for a long time.
Hearing aids can sometimes make sounds you used to hear sound a little different now, so you must get used to “translating” those too.
It typically takes most people a few weeks to adjust to the beauty of new hearing aids, and our hearing professionals at Provincial Hearing are here to help you through it all.
Whatever you are experiencing, please don’t stop wearing your hearing aids or it will drag out your adjustment period. Come see us because we will always find a way to make them fit well.
What To Expect In The Initial Weeks
Our patients love a lot of things about their new hearing aids:
- They aren’t straining to hear speech.
- They notice less frustration for themselves or loved ones.
- They feel more confident.
- They become more social and more interested in attending social events.
- They don’t feel as tired anymore because they don’t have to expend energy to listen so carefully.
There are other aspects to wearing new hearing aids where we can help:
- You hear whistling feedback. We can help with this by making sure there is no air space around the hearing aid microphone that’s in your ear canal.
Custom earmoulds can fix this.
- Everything sounds loud. When you haven’t heard these quieter sounds for a long time, all the new noises you hear can become overwhelming. We can double check the programming we set your hearing aids to, based on your hearing test results.
Some patients ask for the overall volume to be set lower to start out with until they get used to it all.
- Your ears feel itchy. It can take you a while to get used to having a device in your ear canal. Most patients say it takes about 1 to 4 weeks.
A few people find they are allergic to the materials in the hearing aids, especially if the hearing aids were budget priced. We can help you choose an alternative one.
It’s also possible that your active lifestyle is causing sweat buildup around your hearing aids. Be sure to clean your ears and hearing aids daily.
- The hearing aids feel uncomfortable. Hearing aids should never feel uncomfortable. We are here to adjust them until you’re happy. We follow a process to make sure the fit and feel is perfect for you and your ear shape.
- You feel fatigued. If you were used to not listening to people because you knew you wouldn’t hear what was said anyway, it can be tiring to learn how to stay in a conversation again.
- Expectations vs. reality. If you’ve had a loss of hearing for a long time, it can be hard to know what to expect when you begin to enjoy better hearing again. This experience could well be overwhelming for you or equally something that doesn’t match your expectations of hearing aids.
One thing to note is that if you bought your hearing aids online or in a store, they will likely never fit well because only prescription hearing aids are custom fit by hearing professionals.
Experiencing Pain With New Hearing Aids
You should never have pain, so if you experience any, please contact a medical professional immediately.
However, you might have slight pain from your hearing aid rubbing against your ear because it still doesn’t fit quite right. If it keeps rubbing, it might create a sore or infection, so come see us to fix that.
We’re Here For You!
No matter what you need to adjust to wearing your new hearing aids, we’re available to help make the experience easier.
Book an appointment with us to make sure your hearing aids are properly fitted and programmed or if you have more questions about your daily use and care of them. No issue is ever too small when it comes to your hearing.
