What to expect with a new hearing aid (and why it won’t work straight away).
When you have a new hearing aid fitted it can be quite an unusual experience at first. After being used to the reduced range of sounds accessible to you before, this range suddenly increases and the kind of noise you can hear changes.
This is often experienced as echoing or sharp noises, which can be unpleasant or uncomfortable. It’s really important to not be disheartened if this happens for you though as it won’t last and there are things your audiologist can do to help reduce them in the meantime.
Did you know that hearing aids aren’t an instantaneous fix? That they don’t instantly fix your hearing loss as soon as they’re turned on? Not many people do!
The fact is, whilst hearing aids are absolutely life-changing for many people, their full effect can take a while to kick in. Your brain has taken its time to adapt to your hearing loss, now it needs to re-learn to interpret the signals from your hearing aid, and the hearing aid needs to gather data about the environments you experience so it can adapt accordingly.
What should you expect with your new hearing aid?
When you have a new hearing aid fitted it can be quite an unusual experience at first. After being used to the reduced range of sounds accessible to you before, this range suddenly increases and the kind of noise you can hear changes.
This is often experienced as echoing or sharp noises, which can be unpleasant or uncomfortable. It’s really important to not be disheartened if this happens for you though as it won’t last and there are things your audiologist can do to help reduce them in the meantime.
This period of getting used to your new hearing aid and waiting for the full benefit to emerge is called acclimatisation.
Does everyone have the same experience?
Everyone’s experience will be different when they get a new hearing aid depending on their type and severity of hearing loss, as well as the style and quality of their new equipment.
For example, if your hearing loss is caused by the natural wear and tear of the hairs in your ear that occur as we age (presbycusis) you’ll usually still be able to hear the lower bass frequencies as the higher frequencies diminish first. This means that, due to dome-fit and custom-fit hearing aids completely filling the width of the ear canal, you may initially struggle to hear the tones you could clearly at first.
When this issue is combined with the effect of the electronic receiver of your new hearing aid, it can commonly cause an echo type feeling to occur.
The quality of the technology used in your hearing aid will also impact how long it takes you to acclimatise to your new hearing aid. A higher quality, premium hearing aid will often be able to adapt to different environments and situations more efficiently and more effectively than a lower quality one. This means that it will automatically be able to recognise when you are in a noisy environment and suppress the background noise for you better than a lower end product.
Plus, higher end hearing aids have the ability for your audiologist to be able to find further room for improvement by fine-tuning the different frequencies they offer (often called Channels in hearing aid jargon!).
What can my audiologist do to help me?
Having regular follow-ups with your audiologist is important through the acclimatisation period, as they can help you with the transition. They will not only be able to give you advice on the model and make that will suit your hearing loss and lifestyle, but will be able to fine-tune the equipment to your personal requirements.
In some cases, this may mean switching to a different hearing aid or even trying a few until you get the best result. For this reason, we offer free hearing aid trials. It can be really helpful and reassuring to have the freedom to try out as many different hearing aids as you need until you find the one that’s the perfect fit for you.
Not all hearing aid dispensers offer free trials and some are contractually tied to specific hearing aid brands which means they will be limited to what technology they can offer you, so it’s worth shopping around a bit before choosing one to go to.
As an independent hearing aid supplier, we’re able to offer a completely unbiased approach to finding you the right hearing aid based on your type of hearing loss, lifestyle, budget and personal preference. Plus, due to Kareem’s background in music and sound engineering we’re able to offer a level of understanding about audio that many others can’t.
(Not to toot our own horn!)
What should I do to help myself acclimatise to my new hearing aid?
The most important thing for you to do is to be patient and be positive. The mindset that you approach this with really will make a difference to how well and how quickly you acclimatise to wearing your new hearing aid.
As you are effectively teaching your brain to hear again, using your new technology practice makes perfect. Ideally you should wear the hearing aid for as many hours as you can each day as consistency will help retrain your brain as quickly as possible.
It may feel strange or uncomfortable, or even disheartening, while you get used to your new hearing aid, but it will ultimately be worth sticking with it!
When you cut to the chase, hearing aid acclimatisation is a balancing act between your patience and ability to persevere, and your audiologist’s ability to make the hearing aid as comfortable and effective as possible. It’s not always going to be a quick and easy process, but once you are through to the other end of it, you’ll be glad you made it.
If you’d like a free trial of some different manufacturers or styles of hearing aids that you may not have tried before, such as Resound’s custom rechargeable hearing aids, then get in touch by clicking this link.
What causes hearing loss?
Here are the most common causes of Hearing Loss
The realisation that you are beginning to experience hearing loss, or deafness, can be devastating and scary. Many people feel isolated and afraid to let their loved ones know the full extent of what is going on. Or, are reluctant to discover the full extent of the problem themselves.
What you may not realise is that hearing loss, to varying degrees, is incredibly common. People of all ages and from all walks of life are affected by it and I feel that it’s something we should talk about more.
Like with many things, understanding what is happening to you and why, is key to reducing your fears and helping you to live with your condition.
Below I’m going to look at some of the most common causes of hearing loss.
Sensorineural hearing loss
Sensorineural hearing loss is the name used to describe different types of hearing loss caused by damage to the inner ear. The most common are age-related and noise-induced.
Age-related hearing loss is due to the natural wear and tear of the tiny hairs, the cilia, in your inner ear. The hairs at the entrance of the inner ear begin to deteriorate first, which we refer to as the doormat effect, and this results in a decline in your ability to hear higher frequencies.
Whilst you may think the loss of higher frequencies isn’t something that will affect your day-to-day activities, unfortunately it’s this kind of loss that affects the clarity and definition of speech.
Whilst some of the causes of hearing loss below will exacerbate the damage to your cilia, age-related hearing loss happens to everyone to some degree and is a natural part of life that we all have to face.
Noise-induced hearing loss, surprise-surprise, is caused by loud noise. This can be from a one-off very loud noise, or being exposed to high levels of noise repeatedly or over a sustained period.
In fact, anything over 85db is enough to cause permanent hearing loss from one exposure and regular exposure to noise over 70db can also cause damage. To help you put this into perspective, power tools often register at around 90db and heavy traffic can register at 70db.
Loud noise also reduces your hearing through damaging the cilia and so can speed up the process of age-related hearing loss. Whilst there is no cure once the damage is done, using hearing aids to amplify the affected frequencies can help to retain hearing levels and slow further decline.
I’d love to see more people thinking about the prevention of noise-induced hearing loss as it would massively help reduce the rates of hearing loss across people from all walks of life. If you’re regularly subjected to sustained or loud noise through your job or a hobby it’s worth getting quality ear protection that has been fitted to your ear shape, as well as getting regular hearing tests. Get in touch if you’d like to know more.
Conductive hearing loss
Hearing loss can also be caused by a wide range of issues with the middle or outer ear. These causes are referred to as conductive hearing loss and are, in some cases, only temporary. I’ll cover some of the most common ones here.
Blocked ears built up of ear wax is a common and temporary cause of hearing loss. Whilst ear wax serves an important purpose in protecting the ear, if blocking the view of the eardrum it can prevent you from hearing clearly and in some cases can lead to bacterial infections.
Thankfully a build up of ear wax is usually easily treated, though it should be done by a professional. Please do not put anything in your ear yourself such as cotton buds, as this can push the ear wax further in and cause more problems.
Otitis Media is a common infection of the outer ear, which can also be chronic (when it's often referred to as swimmers’ ear). It normally occurs through the prolonged or frequent presence of moisture in the ear, which damages the ear canal.
You’ll often experience pain and redness with Otitis Media, as well as temporary hearing loss. It’s best to get treatment as early as possible with any ear infection to save yourself unnecessary suffering and to avoid permanent damage to your ear or the onset of serious conditions, such as cholesteatomas, which require surgery.
Some people develop bony growths (surfer’s ear) in their ear canal which, in some cases, can cause hearing loss. Most growths are left untreated unless they cause discomfort or majorly affect your hearing.
What to do if you think you’re experiencing hearing loss
Whilst I’ve covered some of the most common causes of hearing loss here, there are many, many more in addition. If you feel like you’re not able to hear as well as you used to, it's really important that you seek professional help as soon as possible to discover the cause. Your first point of call to do this should be visiting your GP or a certified Audiologist.
It may be that the cause of your hearing loss is something that is easily treated and the loss is reversible. And, if it’s not, help and equipment (such as hearing aids) are available that may be able to slow the decline down and help you feel like yourself again.
If you’d like to find out more about hearing loss and how to live with it, type in your email below and I’ll send future articles straight to you.