How Long Should It Take to Get Accustomed To Hearing Aids? Part 2

Today’s digital hearing aids have changed all of that. We now can actually create a very normal dynamic range of hearing for most patients. We can measure where the patient hears soft sounds at the different frequency of speech. Then we can measure where sounds get too loud in each frequency and plug that into a digital chip and we have provided our patient a very normal dynamic range of hearing. If properly fit and by the hands of someone skilled, most will find it is a very small adjustment for them because what is being provided is natural and clear. Most will begin at a lower level than needed and over a period of time they will be brought up to normal targets.

The biggest transition is a patient going from an analog to a digital hearing aid. The reason for this is they have simply gotten used to hearing sounds with a lot of loudness. When you give them clarity which is void of loudness it just seems unnatural. It usually takes a good couple of weeks, and sometimes even longer, before the retraining of the brain happens. Interestingly, patients usually don’t like the tiny or high frequency sounds because they have never heard them before. Speech becomes void of the base sounds which their analog hearing aid provided a lot of.

Another reason it may take someone longer to adjust to sounds is if they have a very severe loss and have never worn a hearing aid. This is becoming rarer and rarer, however just hearing sounds they haven’t heard, and integration of those sounds into words, will on average take about 30 days. This seems to be the magic number for almost any changes; for our brains to adjust to what is expected as being normal. (continued)

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