Hearing aids are incredible devices. Making people go from near-total hearing loss to being able to live a normal life, these little tools have a huge amount of power. Of course, though, a lot of people don’t have any idea of what to expect when they start using one for themselves. Your life can change quite a bit when you use a hearing aid, with normal daily tasks adapting to make room for this new tool. To help you out with this, this post will be exploring some of these changes, giving you an idea of what to expect when you first start using a hearing aid.
A New Phone
Not a lot of people realize, but hearing aids don’t tend to work very well with normal mobile phones. The way that these devices send and receive data will interfere with the hearing aid you’re wearing, causing feedback and distortion when you hold the device to your ear. Special phones have been developed which are designed to work with hearing aids, giving you a chance to escape this issue. Of course, though, it will be worth doing some research when you first get your hearing aid to make sure that you get the right device to go with it. Once you’ve found the perfect phone you might be wondering what you can do with your old phone, but there are many articles out there that can assist you with how to use old phones, from donating it to someone else to simply using it as a spare camera. This will be something you might want to think about when you have your new phone.
Speakers & Headphones
Speakers and headphones can have a similar impact to that of a mobile phone, and a lot of people find it hard to listen to music when they have a hearing aid. It will be even harder to listen without some sort of hearing aid, though, and this means that you need to look for alternatives if you want to be able to keep the tunes flowing. Bone conduction earphones have been getting more and more popular over the years. In fact, some types of hearing loss won’t impact them, and you will be able to keep listening no matter how bad your ears get.
Visiting Businesses
Businesses often work extremely hard to make sure that their customers are able to use their buildings and facilities correctly. This often means catering to those with disabilities, and induction loops are a common tool used to help those with hearing aids. Your hearing aid will need to be turned to the right setting when you visit places like this, and you will struggle to hear anything if you don’t take this action. Most businesses with features like this will post up signs which tell you which setting you need, but you will have to learn how to change this before you’re able to use it effectively.
Carrying Batteries
Hearing aids are designed to use as little power as possible, and the batteries inside them can last for a very long time. When they decide to give up, though, you will be left without the ability to hear anything, and this can make life very difficult. Carrying spare batteries with you won’t take up much space in your pockets or bags, but will be well worth it to ensure that you’re always able to hear things. Most hearing aids will give you some sort of warning when they are running low. Of course, though, it will be hard to act on this if you don’t have the tools to change the batteries with you at all times.
Cleaning & Maintenance
Hearing aids will always work best when they’ve been kept clean. With wax building up inside your ears, and things like sweat affecting everyone, it’s crucial that you spend some time working to keep clean hearing aids. You can talk to your audiologist to find tools that will help with this, and there are loads of resources around the web which are made to help people to keep their hearing aids in good condition. If you ever find yourself with a broken hearing aid, it will be well worth taking it to be looked at by a professional, as it will be hard to fix something like this for yourself. Of course, though, as time goes on, hearing aids are getting better and better at keeping themselves in the right condition.
With all of this in mind, you should be feeling well-equipped to start dealing with the changes which will come with a hearing aid. More and more people are having to use devices like this, and it’s hard to make sure that you’re using them correctly when you first get started. Of course, though, as time goes on, most people will learn what it takes to make sure that they can always hear properly.
