So, it’s not all that often that you wear your hearing aids? Most of the time you leave them in the drawer unless you’re, for instance, going to the theater or to a party. Do you really need to wear them more often than that?
The issue is that when you don’t use your hearing aids on a regular basis, you’re developing some troubling disadvantages for yourself over time. Your hearing could get drastically worse. Social isolation and cognitive decline could be the result. You may compromise your overall health. So, if you’re not using your hearing aids, you should certainly pay attention to this.
Why Aren’t You Wearing Your Hearing Aid?
If your hearing aids are sitting unused in a nightstand drawer somewhere, you most likely have an excuse. You may have decided to keep those reasons to yourself. Perhaps you evade the questions from your family when they ask why you don’t wear them.
Stilted dialogue aside, we know that’s not the complete story, right? If you go a little deeper, you’ll probably find that there’s a particular grievance at the heart of your sporadic hearing aid use. Specific complaints are good because they generate an opportunity to find an equally specific remedy.
Some of the most typical problems include the examples below;
“My Hearing Aids Don’t Feel That Comfortable”
One of the most frequently cited reasons that people stop wearing their hearing aids normally is discomfort. Maybe the hearing aid won’t stop falling out of your ear. Or perhaps your over-the-ear model chafes in just the wrong spot, causing tenderness and pain.
Hearing aids aren’t intended to be unpleasant, so if they’re creating discomfort of any sort, something is certainly wrong. And it’s easy to understand that you wouldn’t want to use a piece of technology that creates pain, frustration or soreness.
Possible solution: If you’re uncomfortable with your hearing aids, consider setting up an additional or follow-up fitting appointment. It’s entirely feasible that the fit of your hearing aid just needs a few quick adjustments. Some models can even be entirely customized to the size and shape of your ears. The more comfortable your hearing aid fits, the more likely you are to keep it in place for long periods of time.
My Hearing Aid Has Poor Sound Quality
Perhaps you don’t use your hearing aids regularly because you find the sound to be tinny or fuzzy. If that’s the case, it’s not shocking that you’ve decided to stow your hearing aids in a drawer somewhere and save them for “special occasions”.”
This fuzzy or tinny sound can happen because hearing aids are doing complex auditory processes at all times, amplifying some sounds while filtering out others. So if your settings aren’t properly tweaked, the sound quality might seem unreliable.
Solution: This problem has two potential answer: calibration and maintenance. Your hearing aids could be broken in some form or another and need to be
repaired. But your hearing specialist can do a simple calibration which is all your hearing aids may require.
When I Use my Hearing Aid Voices Seem Muffled
You want to hear voices clearly. When you first bought hearing aids that was the whole reason! You wanted to be sure you didn’t miss any relevant discussions. So if all the voices you hear are hard to comprehend and are muffled it may be a bit frustrating.
Because your brain and ears aren’t communicating very well anymore, this problem usually happens when you first buy your hearing aids.
Solution: Practice. Your brain is going to have to become accustomed to hearing language again, so whatever you can do to get some repetition will help. Try reading along with closed caption to your favorite tv show or along with an audiobook. Just having more discussions with the people around you is a very good way to practice, too.
Finding Solutions
The point is regardless of what your reason for not wearing your hearing aids might, there is an answer somewhere. And it is vital, both for the health of your hearing and for your cognitive fitness, that you wear your hearing aids routinely.
So if you’re not using your hearing aids? Recognize the issue and come up with a solution, so you can make your hearing aids, and all that they help you hear, part of your everyday life. If you think your hearing aids need adjustment, get in touch with your hearing care expert now.