Hearing Aids Don’t Provide 20-20 Hearing
I am a member of the Saddlebrooke Hearing Discussion Group. In this month’s article I would like to discuss why, unlike eyeglasses hearing aids or cochlear implants don’t provide 20-20 hearing.
Prescription eyeglasses can bring your vision back to normal. Unfortunately, even with the many advances in hearing aid technology in the last several years hearing aids or cochlear implant can’t restore your hearing to normal. I have found that once I have an updated prescription for eyeglasses or contacts that my vision is back to “normal” as soon as I start wearing the ones with the new prescription. That is not the case with new hearing aids.
Hearing aids usually require an adjustment period. One of the issues with new hearing aids is that they amplify all sounds including background noise. Initially many sounds including your own voice may be too loud. You may need to schedule one or more follow-up visits with your audiologist to get your hearing aids programmed correctly for your situation.
It is not unusual to have an attendee mention at one of our meetings that they are struggling to adjust to their hearing aids. In a few cases they have even mentioned that they have placed their hearing aids in a drawer and seldom wear them if at all. It is important to wear new hearing aids as much as you can so that your brain can adjust to the new sounds. Many people don’t realize that we hear with both our ears and our brain. Our ears capture the sound, and our brain processes and interprets the sounds into meaningful information. Your brain needs time to adjust to new hearing aids.
Four years ago, I had surgery to implant a cochlear device. When the device was first activated, all I could hear was clicks. Initially that was a frustrating experience as I had lost all the residual hearing in that ear due to the surgery. My audiologist encouraged me to work on my rehab exercises. Those exercises involved listening to audiobooks, closed caption TV programs as well as apps developed by the cochlear implant manufacturer. In a very short period those clicks became words. Initially voices sounded robotic, but over time voices started to sound normal. I would recommend similar exercises if you have recently purchased new hearing aids. You should wear new hearing aids as long as you can during the day.
Our group meets on the 2nd Friday of every month at 10 AM in the Catalina Room in the Mesquite Building. For more information about our group contact Lyle Larson, lllarson72@gmail.com. We typically have one or two Doctor of Audiology students from the University of Arizona in attendance who are happy to answer your questions. If you have questions about this article or would like to have your email added to our distribution list, contact me at tgaule@outlook.com.