How Long Should It Take to Get Accustomed To Hearing Aids? Part 1

It used to take many weeks, even months, for patients to adjust and get accustomed to hearing with analog hearing aids. The reasons are many.

Analog hearing aids provided amplification for all frequencies unless the proper slope was ordered for the patient. The fitter had to understand acoustic performance of sound inside the ear. If they did not know how to modify every mold or ear piece for specific hearing losses, the patient had to adjust on their own to sounds being over exaggerated or unnatural. The lack of control of the loud sounds in specific areas of the hearing range also made it difficult for patients with recruitment to even get adapted to amplification. Also the use of compression could not be utilized to provide a normal dynamic range of hearing like with today’s digital hearing aids.

All of these and many other limited fitting capabilities often made getting comfortable with hearing aids take a very long period of time. I would tell patients that it would take at a minimum of 4 to 6 weeks for the brain to get familiar with hearing sounds again. And that is what it generally took. (continued)

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