So, it’s not all that often that you use your hearing aids? Perhaps you put them in when you go to a party or go to the theater, but otherwise, you leave them in the drawer. Is it actually necessary to wear them more often than that?

The concern is that when you don’t use your hearing aids regularly, you’re creating some troubling shortcomings for yourself over time. You could permanently injure your hearing. You could have problems with mental decline or social isolation. You could compromise your general health. So, if you aren’t wearing your hearing aids, you should certainly pay attention to this.

Why Aren’t Your Hearing Aids in Your Ears?

You probably have a good reason for keeping your hearing aids in a somewhere in a drawer. You might have decided to keep those reasons to yourself. Perhaps, when your family questions you, you might even say something nondescript and elusive, like, “I just don’t like them”.

Stilted dialogue aside, we know that’s not the full story, right? Normally, there’s a specific reason why you don’t use your hearing aids. And there’s also a very specific solution to your issue.

Some of the most common issues consist of the examples below;

“My Hearing Aids Feel Uncomfortable”

Discomfort is one of the most commonly cited reasons for people not using their hearing aids. Sometimes, the hearing aid keeps falling out of your ear. Or maybe your over-the-ear model irritates just the wrong spot, causing tenderness and pain.

Hearing aids aren’t intended to be unpleasant, so if they’re causing discomfort of any kind, something is surely not right. And soreness, frustration, and pain are not things you would desire from any piece of technology.

Possible solution: If you’re uncomfortable with your hearing aids, think about scheduling an additional or follow-up fitting appointment. It’s entirely feasible that the fit of your hearing aid just requires a couple of quick adjustments. The size and shape of your ear can even be the foundation of a complete customization of some designs. The more comfortable your hearing aid fits, the more likely you are to leave the device in place for long periods of time.

My Hearing Aid Has Poor Sound Quality

Maybe you find the sound of your hearing aid to be too tinny or fuzzy so you don’t use them that often. It’s not surprising that you have decided to put your hearing aids away for a special occasion, if that’s the case.”

This tinny or fuzzy sound can happen because hearing aids are doing complicated auditory processes all the time, filtering out some sounds while trying to amplify others. So the sound quality might seem hard to rely on if your settings aren’t properly tweaked.

Solution: There are two potential solutions to this difficulty: calibration and upkeep. Your hearing aids may be damaged in some form or another and need to be
repaired. But your hearing specialist can perform a basic calibration which is all your hearing aids may need.

With My Hearing Aid, Voices Are Muffled

You want to hear voices with clarity. When you first purchased hearing aids that was the whole point! You didn’t want to miss a single word. So if all the voices you hear are hard to understand and are muffled it may be a little bit aggravating.

Because your ears and brain aren’t communicating very well anymore, this issue commonly happens when you first buy your hearing aids.

Solution: Keep practicing. Understanding conversations is something your brain will need to become accustomed to, so putting yourself in a position to hear people conversing regularly will help. Try reading along with an audiobook or reading along with the closed captioning while you watch television. Merely having more discussions with the people who are around you is a very good way to practice, as well.

Finding Solutions

The point is regardless of what your justification for not using your hearing aids maybe, there is a solution somewhere. And it is imperative, both for the health of your hearing and for your cognitive well-being, that you use your hearing aids routinely.

So if your hearing aids don’t seem to be working well for you? After identifying the issue, find a solution, so you can get active in your life again. If you think your hearing aids need adjustment, contact your hearing care expert now.