So you don’t wear your hearing aids very often? Most of the time you keep them in the drawer unless you’re, for instance, going to the theater or to a party. Do you actually need to use them more often than that?
In the long run, you create trouble for yourself if you’re not using your hearing aids on a regular basis and that’s a problem. You could permanently injure your hearing. Social isolation and cognitive decline could be the result. You could compromise your overall health. So, if you are not wearing your hearing aids, you should definitely pay attention to this.
Why Aren’t You Wearing Your Hearing Aid?
You likely have a good justification for keeping your hearing aids in a somewhere in a drawer. Sure, perhaps you haven’t really been honest about what those reasons might be. Perhaps, when your family questions you, you even say something generic and elusive, such as, “I just don’t like them”.
Stilted dialogue to the side, we know that’s not the complete story, right? If you go a little deeper, you’ll most likely find that there’s a particular complaint at the heart of your irregular hearing aid use. Specific grievances are good because they create an opportunity to find an equally specific remedy.
Some of the most common issues include the examples below;
“My Hearing Aids Feel Uncomfortable”
Discomfort is one of the most frequently cited reasons for people not wearing their hearing aids. Maybe the hearing aid won’t stop falling out of your ear. Or maybe your over-the-ear model chafes in just the wrong spot, causing tenderness and pain.
It’s not supposed to be uncomfortable to use hearing aids, so if they’re creating discomfort of any sort, something is surely wrong. And soreness, frustration, and pain are not things you would desire from any piece of technology.
Possible solution: If your hearing aids are uncomfortable, think about scheduling an additional or follow-up fitting session. A couple little tweaks may be all your hearing aid requires. Some designs can even be completely customized to the size and shape of your ears. You will be capable of leaving your hearing aid in longer if it fits properly and is comfortable.
My Hearing Aid Has Poor Sound Quality
Maybe you experience the sound of your hearing aid to be too fuzzy or tinny so you don’t wear them that often. If that’s the case, it’s not shocking that you’ve decided to store your hearing aids in a drawer somewhere and save them for “special occasions”.”
This fuzzy or tinny sound can happen because hearing aids are performing complex auditory processes all the time, filtering out some sounds while trying to amplify others. So the sound quality might seem hard to rely on if your settings aren’t correctly tweaked.
Solution: This problem has two possible answer: maintenance and calibration. It’s possible that your hearing aids are broken in some way or another and have to be repaired. But your hearing specialist can perform a quick calibration which is all your hearing aids might need.
When I Wear My Hearing Aid, Voices Seem Muffled
You need to hear voices with clarity. That’s the entire reason you bought hearing aids in the first place! You didn’t want to miss one word. So it could be a bit frustrating if all the voices you hear with you’re hearing aid are muffled or difficult to understand.
Because your ears and brain aren’t communicating very well anymore, this issue normally occurs when you first buy your hearing aids.
The Remedy: Practice. Understanding conversations is something your brain will need to get used to, so putting yourself in a position to hear people talking regularly will help. Try reading along to an audiobook or reading along with the closed captioning while you watch television. Merely having more discussions with the people around you is a great way to practice, as well.
Finding Answers
The point is that no matter what your justification for not using your hearing aids maybe, there’s an answer somewhere. And you need to use your hearing aid regularly in order to protect your cognitive health and the health of your hearing.
So if your hearing aids aren’t be working very well for you? Recognize the problem and find a solution, so you can get active in your life again. If you think your hearing aids need adjustment, consult your hearing care specialist right away.