Why You Should Wear Your Hearing Aids Consistently

By Gina Diaz, AuD, CCC-A

Freedom Hearing Center LLC

. https://freedomhearing.com/

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Why You Should Wear Your Hearing Aids Consistently

“I only need to wear my hearing aids when I go out or when people are around” is one of the worst decisions someone could make when he or she decides to invest in hearing aids.

The majority of our hearing is done with our brain and not with our ears, as the ears pick up sound and deliver it to the brain. This is why it is so important that we expose the brain consistently with sound.

More exposure to amplification leads to optimal benefit with hearing aid use. Hearing aids give you the amplification you need to hear, but what many individuals don't realize is hearing aids are amplifying sound that you and your brain haven't heard in quite some time. You are re-training your brain to hear again with the use of hearing aids.

Some people with hearing aids feel it's unnecessary to wear their hearing aids while they're home alone because “It's not important to hear the furnace or air conditioning running or other ambient sounds when I am home by myself.” This statement is incorrect. It is actually very important to hear these subtle sounds. As you hear more sounds you build a tolerance to louder speech, sounds, and environments. In addition, many sounds that were once “annoying/too loud” will become more natural.

“I only have trouble hearing in noisy environments, but when I wear my hearing aids all I hear is noise so I don't see the need for hearing aids.” True, your hearing loss may be more noticeable in noisy environments as these environments are more complex and demanding listening situations. However, hearing loss is always present no matter what listening situation one is in.

If a hearing aid wearer only wears his or her hearing aids occasionally then the brain has no idea what to do with all the noise and stimuli introduced in these noisy environments. This can be overwhelming and cause someone to reject his or her hearing aids because “all they hear is noise.” Hearing aids are not human; they don't know who or what you want to listen to. But, wearing hearing aids consistently will eliminate the over-stimulation and allow sounds to become more natural.

This transition and adaptation period does not happen overnight. The more consistently hearing aids are worn the faster and easier one will adapt and be able to focus more on listening to speech rather than being overwhelmed with background noise.