Realistic Expectations

Realistic Expectations with Hearing Aids

Many people have the expectation  that once hearing aids are purchased, success is a definite. They think hearing rehabilitation has one step: purchasing the product. Many assume to just put the hearing aids in their ears and go on with their live. However, placing the purchase of hearing aids as the solution to better hearing without the understanding that the rehabilitation process takes time, increases odds that you will be dissatisfied.  Additionally, information provided by other hearing aid wearers whether positive or negative can have an adverse affect on your success.  Hearing, Hearing Loss and the correct Hearing Aid Technology is unique to each individual.  What works or doesn't work for someone else, may or may not work for you.

Adopt the Right Attitude
There are many important factors in hearing aid success. One major factor is patient motivation and a positive attitude. The purchase of hearing aids is only part of the better hearing solution.  Hearing better requires rehabilitation which is a process and takes time.  The brain has become accustomed to not hearing sounds properly, and will need time to adapt to hearing again.  Those with a desire and and understanding of the process increase their odds of hearing better with hearing aids. The following characteristics are present in all people who successfully transition to hearing better with hearing aid use:

1. Acceptance that there is a permanent hearing problem.
2. Adopted a positive attitude.
3. Learned all they could about their hearing problem.

4. Took the recommendation of hearing aid technology by the Hearing Specialist.
5. Set realistic expectations.
6. Focused on the benefit of wearing hearing aids—BETTER HEARING!
7. Had patience while their brain adapted to hearing ambient sounds and noises.

Achieving a positive attitutde is a personal decision. As professionals, we can encourage you along the way, but being committed to the process is completely up to you.

"Ok, I understand your point. But what can I REALLY expect to experience with the use of hearing aids?"

Assuming you enter into this experience with the right attitude, and have chosen the appropriate hearing technology for your particular hearing loss, here is what you can expect.

Amplification will improve your hearing. You should be able to hear voices at a more comfortable loudness level.  People talking in a soft or normal voice should be heard more easily.  Most people find they can turn the television down to a more 'normal' level. Listening should be less stressful.

It is important to accept that while hearing devices will improve your hearing abilities, they will not return your hearing to 'normal'. You may still have some problems understanding certain words in some situations. Many people expect or hope that hearing aids can do for their ears what glasses can often do for their eyes ~ bring them back to "20/20." Unfortunately, the hearing mechanism is much more complex than vision, and "20/20" hearing is not realistic.

Why not? The answer lies in the complexity of what happens when hearing damage occurs to the auditory system. In addition to losing volume, hearing loss causes the ear to introduce some distortion into the sounds you hear, causing a loss of clarity of the sound. Making speech sounds louder so you can hear them will be helpful, but the distortion introduced by the impaired ear may keep the sound from being crystal clear. The amount of distortion experienced is individual; some people may have very little while others may have significant problems.

Hearing through amplification may make you and others 'sound different' at first.
When you first listen through hearing aids, you will notice that some things sound different, even your own voice. Your voice is being amplified and this can affect how your voice sounds to you. These changes in how you perceive your own voice are typically temporary. The more you wear the hearing aids, the quicker your own voice will begin to sound 'normal.'

Other voices may sound different as well. The hearing aid programs are tailored to your individual hearing loss, and will amplify the various pitch ranges where you don't hear well. Therefore, you will hear some pitches in other voices that you have not been hearing, thus making their voices sound 'different'. With time, you will also adapt to these changes and they will become part of what you expect to hear.

Hearing aids put you back in touch with sounds around you.
Typically, your hearing has slowly decreased over the years. As a result, you have become used to a quieter life than in the past. Many sounds in the environment that you used to hear quite easily may now be very soft or inaudible. During the first several months of wearing hearing aids, you will notice many of these sounds again.

At first, these sounds may seem overwhelming or annoying. Hearing the refrigerator running, tires on the pavement while in the car, or heels clicking on the floor while walking are all common observations with new hearing aids. Your brain will place importance on these sounds initially because you have not been hearing them normally. To the brain, they are novel and new, and you will have a hightened sensitivity to them. After several weeks or months of hearing these sounds, you will start to notice them less and less. The brain will move them into the 'background' where they belong. The ability to hear these softer sounds indicate your hearing is improving, and you should also be able to hear speech better than you did initially.

"Will hearing aids help me hear in a restaurant or large group where the room is noisy?"
One of the most frustrating situations for people with hearing loss is conversation in a noisy place. While people with normal hearing also have difficulity in noisy situations, the ability to understand speech in a background of noise is more severely affected when hearing loss is present. Hearing loss makes it difficult to extract that one person you want to hear from a sea of background noise. This is because hearing loss not only reduces the loundess and clarity of sounds, but also makes it more difficult to separate one sound from another.

The above reasons all justify wearing advanced technology with directional microphones and noise suppression capabilities. Advanced features attempt to help by providing more clarity and volume to sounds IN FRONT OF YOU while reducing the sounds BEHIND YOU . Additionally, noise suppression for nonspeech steady state sounds (like air conditioners or fans) can further improve your comfort in a noisy environment.

The good news is technology has improved tremendously over the last few years, and will continue to improve. Hearing in background noise will continue to be a battle for many with hearing loss. However, with proper technology, time and practice, you should be able to achieve better hearing even in adverse listening environments.

If further assistance is needed in noisy places, special attachments can be used with certain hearing aids. These additional assistive devices can be expensive, but they can provide significant improvements over just wearing the hearing aids alone. Please ask us about FM Technology if you are interested in this additional option.

Routine cleaning and maintance of hearing aids is vital to hearing aid performance and reliability.
Hearing aids need to work in a hostile enviroment. Our ears produce heat, humidity, perspiration (salt), wax and dry skin. These contaminants work on your hearing aids over time, and can result in poorer performance or malfunctioning. You must clean hearing aids daily! You should store your devices every night in a Dry & Store Global Unit .

At Preferred Hearing Care, we strongly advocate professional cleaning of hearing aids 3-4 times a year. It is also recommended we retest your hearing regularly to monitor for any hearing changes. If the hearing does change, there is a good chance we can reprogram the devices for the change.

If properly cared for, the average life expectancy of hearing aids is 3-5 years. However, with Behind-the-Ear (BTE) models, you may even extend the life closer to 5-7 years. No matter how well you maintain them, it is possible that your device will need factory service at some point in time. Factory repairs are done at no extra charge during your warranty peroid (1-2 years, depending upon the technology). After the warranty expiration, new warranties can be purchased to cover necessary repairs.

Expect to hear better!
Hearing aids provide most people with significant hearing improvements. It will be easier to hear people who are talking in normal or soft voices. You should not have to strain as hard to hear, and listening is typically not as exhausting or stressful. How much benefit you recieve may depend upon 1)your hearing loss, 2) your word understanding (clarity), 3) the size and technology of amplification worn and 4) the type of enviroments you frequent. While not a cure for all your hearing problems, consistently wearing your hearing aids can definately improve your quality of life.