Ever ask yourself “what would it actually be like to use hearing aids”? What would your best friend say if you asked honest questions about what it sounds like, what it feels like, and how they actually feel about wearing one? Here’s a description of what hearing aids are like, but if you really want to know, come in for a demo.
1. Hearing Aids Occasionally Get Feedback
This isn’t the type of feedback that you get when someone tells you how what they think about your performance. “Feedback “ is a whistling sound that a speaker makes when its microphone picks up the sound coming from the speaker. Even modern microphone and speaker systems can have sound loops created.
They may squeal like a speaker in the school auditorium just before the principal starts talking.
Though this can be unpleasant, when hearing aids are correctly tuned, it’s rare. If you’re encountering it, the earmold may not be properly fitted or you need to replace it.
Feedback can be removed, in some more advanced hearing aids, by a built-in feedback suppression system.
2. Conversations Are Easier to Hear in a Loud Setting
If you have untreated hearing loss, eating dinner with your family or friends in a noisy restaurant can feel like you’re eating by yourself. It’s nearly impossible to keep up with the conversations. You may find yourself sitting there, nodding and smiling most of the night.
But hearing aids nowadays have some really sophisticated technology that can drown out background noise. They bring the voices of your family and the servers into crystal clarity.
3. Sometimes it Gets a Bit Sticky
When something is not right, your body has a way of reacting to it. If you eat something overly spicy hot, you secrete more saliva to rinse it out. If you get an eyelash in your eye, you generate tears to wash your eye. Your ears have their own way of eliminating a nuisance.
Earwax production.
As a result of this, earwax accumulation can occasionally be an issue for people who wear hearing aids. It’s only wax, fortunately, so cleaning it isn’t a problem. (We can help you learn how.)
Once you’re done the cleaning you’re quickly back in business.
4. There Are Advantages For Your Brain
You may be surprised by this one. When someone develops hearing loss, it very slowly begins to affect cognitive function if they don’t get it treated as soon as possible.
One of the first things to go is the ability to understand what people are saying. Solving problems, learning new things, and memory will then become challenging.
Getting hearing aids sooner than later helps slow this brain atrophy. Your brain gets re-trained. Research shows that they can slow down mental decline and even reverse it. As a matter of fact, one study conducted by AARP revealed that 80% of individuals had increased cognitive function after treating their hearing loss.
5. The Batteries Need to be Replaced
Those tiny button batteries can be a little difficult to manage. And they seem to die at the worst times, like when you’re about to hear “whodunnit” in a mystery movie, or just as your friend is telling you the juicy particulars of a story.
But many of the perceived challenges with these batteries can be easily solved. There are strategies you can use to significantly increase battery life. It’s not hard to bring an extra set because these batteries are inexpensive and small.
Or, you can buy a pair of rechargeable hearing aids which are available now. When you go to bed, just dock them on the charger. In the morning, just put them back on. There are also solar-powered hearing aid docks so you can even recharge your hearing aid while out camping, fishing, or hiking.
6. You Will Have a Learning Curve
Today, hearing aids have sophisticated technology. It’s a lot easier than learning to use a computer for the first time. But adjusting to your new hearing aids will definitely take some time.
The longer and more regularly you use hearing aids the better it gets. Throughout this adjustment time, try to be patient with yourself and your new hearing aids.
People who have stayed the course and used their hearing aids for six months or more typically will say it’s all worth it.
This is what it’s actually like to use hearing aids. If you want to figure it out, give us a call.
References
https://www.aarp.org/health/brain-health/info-07-2013/hearing-loss-linked-to-dementia.html