Selecting your hearing aid should be done once the consultation and testing stage with a hearing care professional is completed.
Your hearing care professional will provide you with several options, different price levels and different quality levels.
It is recommended that you try the new hearing aid for a few hours or a few days before you make your decision.
Once you have made your selection, your audiologist will order a new device and schedule a hearing aid programming session.
Some hearing aids that utilize the earmold style will require taking an impression of the ear canal before actual ordering of the new device can take place.
Assessing your Needs and Fitting you with a Hearing Aid Device
Once your audiologist recommends a device, after following the appropriate tests, he or she will start the process of finding and suggesting the right hearing aids. This is called ‘the fitting process’. The fitting process begins with accurately assessing your needs, continues with providing you several hearing device options and ends with the initial programming of your selected device and follow up appointments for programming adjustments.
Assessing your needs is not only a technical process. Your hearing care specialist will ask you some important questions about what your expectations are, lifestyle related questions, questions about your preferences and, if relevant, questions about any previous hearing aid devices you’ve used in the past.
Programming your New Hearing Aid Device
Each hearing aid device should be programmed according to your specific hearing loss conditions and personal preferences. Once your hearing aid device arrives at the audiology center, your audiologist or hearing specialist should connect it to a computer and program it accordingly. Some hearing specialists will perform this programming process with the patients present and share the programming information with them.
Adjusting to your New Hearing Aid Device
It may take some time to adjust to hearing aids. Once you start using hearing aids, you will be able to hear some of the things you have not heard for a long time. This may cause some of them to sound too loud. Also, in some cases the brain needs to learn anew how to filter and ignore some sounds and background noises.
It is important to understand that adjusting to hearing aids will take time. How much time? The answer to this question differs from person to person. Some people will be able to make the adjustments in just two or three days while others may take months.
Wear your new hearing aids each and every day. In the fist day or two, if you find it too difficult to constantly use the device, you can start by wearing your new hearing aid for a few hours at a time.
Partial or incorrect use may prolong the adjustment period, so it is highly recommended not to give up and consistently wear your hearing aids.
Most people will need at least a few weeks to properly adjust and it is important to view this adjustment period as a normal process that will eventually lead to an improved quality of life.
By Guy Cizner
Guy Cizner is a professional writer and blogger representing the Hearing Life Group.
Leave a Reply