Fitting hearing aids

WHEN OBTAINING hearing aids for the first time, a lot of patience is necessary on the part of the new wearer, his family and friends. The personnel fitting the hearing aid to the patient should also be patient.

Counselling on the maintenance and care of the hearing aid is the easiest part; the difficult part is learning to listen through the hearing aid. The average brain takes between six and eight weeks to fully acclimate to the use of hearing aids. The acclimation period can be three to six months depending on the age of the person and condition of the brain. The older the person, the more time is needed for getting accustomed to using the hearing aid.

People with severe hearing loss do not realise that they should be hearing their own voice when they speak. The experience of hearing your own voice when you speak is sometimes a frightening or perplexing experience for the first-time hearing aid user. When a new hearing aid user notices that his own voice sounds louder, he will often ask you if he is shouting. In addition, he begins to notice environmental sounds that were present in the room but, which he was not aware because of the hearing loss.

These new sounds are disturbing until they are identified and the brain can choose to ignore or focus on the sounds. Further, this is an added function that the brain has to perform because it now has to identify the sound, choose to ignore or listen to it and focus on picking out the speech from the background noise. Family members and friends have to remember not to shout anymore as their shouting can be painful to the hearing aid user. They have to be patient in allowing the hearing aid user to interact with his hearing aid and his environment, as he makes notes of positive and negative aspects of wearing the hearing aid.

While wearing aids can be of benefit to most hearing impaired persons, hearing aids will provide very little help for some people. Benefit from the use of the hearing aid is influenced by the degree of hearing loss, the length of time without auditory stimulation, the age and attitude of the patient, the ability of the person to process what they hear, proper counselling and the appropriateness of the hearing aid for the hearing loss. The important thing to remember when obtaining a hearing aid is that it is not perfect and will not solve all the problems in all situations but can improve one's quality of life by improving communication.

- Georgia Beavers, audiologist, Caribbean Hearing Centre.

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