First-time hearing aid users may feel overwhelmed or forget the precautions mentioned by the audiologist. To help you quickly adapt and get used to hearing aids, we’ve summarized a “beginner’s guide” for hearing aid users, including methods to adapt to hearing aids, regular maintenance, and notes to pay attention to during daily use.
A Beginner’s Guide to Wearing Hearing Aids
01 Wearing Time
For the first time wearing aids, start with shorter periods and gradually increase the time.
During the first week, wear them in quiet environments, such as at home, for 1-2 hours a to re-familiarize yourself with different sounds. Avoid very noisy places as your ears may have been quiet for a long time and may find it difficult to adjust to too much all at once.
During the second week, wear them for 3-4 hours a day. You can go to places like the downstairs of your community or the park, are not too noisy, and try to listen to the sounds around you, get familiar with the environmental sounds. It’s normal to occasionally not hear or understand clearly; you need listen and practice more to gradually improve your listening and discrimination skills.
During the third week, extend the wearing time to 5-6 hours a day. You can go relatively noisy environments such as shopping malls or markets to see if the hearing aids are noisy when worn and if you can accept loud sounds.
During the fourth week, you can extend wearing time to 8 hours or more. By this time, you should have gradually adapted to the hearing aids and can go to various environments to listen. Record any listening issues so we can adjust them next time.
02 Wearing Environment
Start with quiet environments and then move to noisy ones. Patients should wear hearing aids in quiet environments first and in noisy environments to ensure that the use of hearing aids is not affected by the environment.
03 Adaptation to Communication Partners
Patients should first communicate with one and then gradually with more people so that the sound can switch smoothly. When choosing to communicate with a speaker, we can choose the direction of listening, with the ear wearing the hearing facing the speaker, or facing the speaker to listen.
04 Adaptation to Distance
Patients should first listen to nearby sounds and then to distant sounds, and the difference in sound with the change in distance.
05 Other Issues
If patients cannot adapt to hearing aids, they should communicate with the audiologist or hearing specialist time to adjust the settings.
Precautions for the First Use of Hearing Aids:
01 Prevent falls
When the patient takes the hearing off, it should be prevented from falling to the ground. In the early stages of wearing, whether taking off or wearing, try to sit on the sofa or bed.
02 Prevent moisture
If the patient is in a humid environment, put a desiccant in the box where the hearing aid is placed to prevent the hearing aid from getting and affecting the listening effect.
03 Waterproof
Although new hearing aids generally have waterproof functions, patients should try to prevent hearing aids from contacting water. Do not wear when washing hair, washing face, bathing, or swimming.
04 About batteries
If you hear a low battery warning during use, please replace the battery in time. installing the battery, distinguish the positive and negative poles. Take out the hearing aid every night before going to bed and open the battery compartment. If the patient does not use the hearing for a long time, the battery should be taken out to prevent battery leakage from corroding the hearing aid.
05 Do not wear hearing aids during radiological examinations
sure to take off the hearing aid when taking X-rays, CT scans, or MRI in the hospital to avoid danger and damage to the equipment.
06 Keep up daily cleaning
Clean the ear plug or microphone port frequently with a small brush to prevent blockage from affecting the listening effect. In summer, when sweating is severe, wipe the hearing shell every day before putting it into the dryer box for drying.
07 Use the dryer box correctly
The desiccant in the dryer box is generally available for3-4 months. When the desiccant turns white, it is in a state of failure. Please regularly replace the desiccant.
Hearing aids your “new ears.” When wearing hearing aids for the first time, we should not be in a hurry. Be patient, insist on wearing them every day, establish reasonable expectations and feel free to consult us if you have any problems. We wish you a pleasant listening experience!
