You’ve just been fitted with your new hearing aids. Your clinician has gone over the ins and outs of your new device, including:
- How to clean your hearing aids
- Best practices around your charger
- The magic of Bluetooth connectivity
You are set to hear the world in a new way!
But only sometimes.
Only when you need to hear something or someone at a social engagement. You don’t need to wear them when you’re home alone. Why listen to the furnace kick in? Or the refrigerator hum, or the neighbour’s incessant yard work?
I often remind my patients that “normal”-hearing folks can’t “turn off” their hearing – why should people with hearing aids?
The brain is somewhat similar to a muscle: even when you’re not “actively” using it in quiet situations, it’s still working (kind of like breathing – you don’t think about it). Your brain is still very engaged, even during periods of quiet.
We often recommend and encourage new patients to wear hearing aids while at home as a training ground, a chance for patients to get acclimatized to sounds they have been missing for years.
Your brain won’t adjust to the new sounds if you’re not wearing your hearing aids. It’s an obvious statement when you think about it, right? The more consistent you are wearing your hearing aids, the better chance you can retrain your brain to disregard those everyday sounds.
"I've found their testing to be the best I've ever had"
Research also suggests several links between hearing loss and cognitive decline. While many factors are at play, hearing loss is the number one modifiable risk factor in cognitive decline. Preventative care through the help of hearing aids is a no-brainer (sorry, I couldn’t resist!).
If you aren’t convinced to wear your hearing aids more consistently, perhaps a word about safety. When I’m home alone, I want to hear the ambient noises in my house. For some, not wearing hearing aids could mean not hearing the smoke alarm because, ahem, the cookies were left in the oven too long since the oven alarm wasn’t heard. All jokes aside, most value safety, and wearing hearing aids during the waking hours plays a significant part in awareness at home.
Hearing aids have been shown to reduce falls by 30 percent for those with balance concerns! Anecdotally, we have patients who have noticed an improvement in balance after being fitted with their hearing aids. For someone who lives alone, this is an especially important safety note.
Wearing hearing aids consistently will also help your clinician! Transition can take time; there is an adjustment period for wearing hearing aids (even I, a hearing aid wearer for 40+ years, require an adjustment period with new hearing aids). Sometimes, it can be uncomfortable, challenging, and downright annoying when you realize how noisy our world can be!
The longer you wear them daily, the better your clinician can address your concerns. It is hard to justify an adjustment if you only wear your hearing aids for one hour daily. The brain needs time to acclimatize to hearing all of these new noises that, previously, it hadn’t heard for a while.
During the adjustment period, we encourage you to listen for the small noises you missed: food sizzling on the barbecue in the summer, birds singing in the morning, music in the grocery store. Sure, there are a lot of annoying noises out there, but there are some beautiful ones that you don’t want to miss, either.
If you’re in the adjustment period, hang in there. Your brain and loved ones will thank you!
