TIPS FOR ADJUSTING TO HEARING AIDS

1.     Begin wearing your devices at home

Allow yourself to adjust in a comfortable environment. Start by wearing your hearing aids at home or in other quiet places. Focus on having one-on-one conversations. If comfortable, inform friends and family that you are adjusting to new hearing devices. Friends and family can help you commit to wearing your hearing devices and provide support throughout this learning process. Reading aloud, talking with pets, and experimenting with sounds at home can help you become comfortable wearing your new devices.

2.     Give yourself homework

As you adjust, be sure to experiment with and challenge yourself to distinguish sounds. For practice, try locating the sources of all the sounds in your environment. Listen to audiobooks, the radio, or tv to learn how your devices work with speech.

3.     Take breaks

Wear your hearing devices a few hours the first day, then a few more hours every day after. Gradually increase the number of hours you wear them per day and the situations in which you wear them.

4.     Attend follow-up visits

Attend follow-up visits to fine-tune the sounds you are hearing, adjust the fit of your hearing devices, and talk through any challenging situations encountered. We want to work with you to provide personalized care. Please contact us for adjustments in volume, sounds, settings, fit, or any other aspect that benefits you.

5.     Anticipate some frustration, especially with background noise.

Adjusting to hearing devices is a learning process. At first, hearing aids will flood your ears with sounds you have not heard or noticed in a while. This may be overwhelming, but your brain will relearn how to ignore the background noise and prioritize certain sounds over others. Be patient with yourself, and take it slow as your brain adjusts to hearing these sounds again.