At your Hearing Aid Fitting appointment, after you have selected your hearing aids during the Hearing Aid Evaluation, we calibrate and program your hearing aids based on a prescription unique to your hearing loss. We ask you to share your subjective feedback regarding sound quality and we make adjustments to ensure your satisfaction.
We explain how to use your hearing aids, how to put them in your ears and how to remove them, how to change batteries and how to care for and clean them. It is a good idea to bring family members or close friends to the hearing aid fitting so they can help remember all the information that is given and be a support to you.
The goal of your hearing aids is to make everyday sounds audible and comfortable, and the sounds you hear should be clear and pleasant.
When you put the hearing aids in for the first time, you may have different emotions about the sounds you hear. You may feel surprised to hear clothing noises and ambient sounds in your environment. Many people note their own voice sounds a little different at first. This is normal and to be expected.
The ears and the brain work together as a system. Take into account the number of years you experienced hearing loss prior to purchasing hearing aids. Your brain needs to reorient itself to recognizing and identifying the sounds you were missing. Be patient and have fun. Patients are often excited and surprised to hear birds chirping, traffic noise, paper rustling, and the crisp ping of a golf ball being hit, just to name a few. Once this newness wears off, your brain naturally filters the information that is desirable.
Your hearing aid fitting is only a starting place, which is why we assign high value and emphasis on our long-term relationship and routine follow-up care. The most successful patients understand that having hearing loss and wearing hearing aids is a long-term, on-going partnership between the patient and audiologist. We will work together over infinite years to continue fine-tuning, ensuring maintenance of the device, monitoring progression of hearing loss and making changes to the hearing aids as your lifestyle and/or hearing loss changes.
Attitude is one important key to success with hearing aids. Hearing aid studies have shown that people who have a positive attitude do better with hearing aids. If you, as well as your spouse or family, approach your hearing aids with a positive outlook, you will have a much better listening experience more quickly. Keep in mind that it may take some time to get used to the sounds you were missing.