How You Hear with Hearing Aids is Different than Anyone Else

What a great topic of discussion today.  Basing your decision on someone else’s experience with hearing aids is a rather poor way of making a decision.  This is true for a number of reasons which I will explain now.

First and foremost, your ears are unlike anyone else’s ears.  How we hear with a hearing loss comes with a number of variables.  From hearing different tones at different levels of intensity, to how we hear and understand speech in quiet versus how we hear and understand in noise are the most fundamental ways we test people’s ears to determine how well they will do with hearing aids.  I can tell you that over the last 18 years, I’ve seen many people’s ears, and while there are similarities, there has not been any that are identical in physical or auditory capacities.

Now, with respect to the hearing aids.  As you might expect there are an abundance of hearing aid manufacturers, and they offer several models, styles and features.  Making sure that we as your clinician take all of your needs and wants into consideration. This aspect of product selection is essential to how successful the individual is going to be.

Lastly is how the hard of hearing individual actually uses the hearing aids that have been selected for them.  I’ve seen people who wear their hearing aids daily from morning until evening, and I’ve also seen people who only use them from time to time.  Our most successful clients are the ones who wear them regularly from morning until evening.  The ones who pick and choose when and where to hear better don’t do so well because the brain becomes overwhelmed by the task of hearing in noise.  I liken this to asking someone to run a marathon the next day and all that you have given them is a new pair of running shoes.  Anyone who has run a marathon knows it takes months of preparation and training.  They also know that if they didn’t have the time to train and prepare, they will most likely fail the task.

So, if you are aware that you have some difficulty hearing, and you are listening to what others have said about hearing aids – good or bad – you should know that your own experience with hearing aids will be different than anyone else’s.  I would always encourage you to take the necessary action to make your own decisions based on your own experiences.