How Long Does It Take to Get Used to Wearing Hearing Aids?

Great question!

How long it takes you to get used to wearing hearing aids really depends on a few things.

1. Your past experience (have you worn hearing aids before or is this a first time?)
2. Your hearing loss
3. Your personal ear shape, size, and overall ability to adjust to changed physical and auditory conditions

Let us explain a little more, and we’ll give you some tips to help you adjust to your hearing aids faster at the end.

Getting used to hearing aids can be harder the first time

If it’s your first-time wearing hearing aids, it may feel weird having something on/in your ears. It will take time to adjust to this feeling, but the more you wear your devices, the faster your ears and body will adjust.

Other things that can make first-time hearing aid users take longer to adjust include:

1. Exposure to louder sounds
2. Exposure to sounds the brain or ears have forgotten and are relearning
3. Louder environments may feel chaotic and overwhelming at first until the right program is found
4. You are not used to certain sounds or volumes being “normal”, so they may at first be off-putting or seem “too loud”

How much hearing you’ve lost can impact adjusting to hearing aids

When you have a more severe hearing loss, adjusting to hearing certain sounds again can be a little disconcerting. Moreover, the more hearing you have lost means the quality of a sound  may be altered.

Adjusting to hearing aids with a more profound hearing loss can take more time as your ears and brain re-adjust to:

• Hearing certain sounds again
• The volume of existing sounds and environments
• Mixture of sounds and volumes
• Different sound quality or tone than without your hearing aids

Also, the way music and voices sound may seem different when streaming or making calls, so it will take time to adjust to that as well.

How your body adjusts to change will impact how long it takes you to get used to hearing aids

Just like if you broke a bone, or get stronger in one leg than another, how your body adapts to changes can impact how long it takes you to adjust to wearing hearing aids.

If your body adjusts quickly, you’ll probably forget you are even wearing hearing aids within a few weeks.

If your body is more sensitive to changes – touch or sound – it can take a bit longer, even months, to find your groove. The more routinely you use and wear your devices, the better your chances of adjusting sooner.

Tips to Help You Adjust to Your Hearing Aids Faster

Adjusting to wearing hearing aids – whether it’s the first time or just a new set of devices – can feel overwhelming at times. These are our tips (from our own experience with hearing aids and some from our patients).

• Put them on multiple times during the first fitting appointment to get a better feel about how well they fit.
• Try to stick to the programming for 1-2 weeks before having your audiologist make changes.
• If certain sounds are too much, lower the volume until you get used to them.
• Some sounds or environments will be harder than others to handle at first, so slowly increase the amount of time you are in those places until you are comfortable.
• Take quiet breaks if you find your ears hurting at the end of the day. Sometimes you need to build up to wearing something on your ears or helping your ears and brain readjust to certain sounds again.
• Test hearing aids with people you trust to help adjust to conversation, music, and phone calls again.
• Try to get used to your devices in quieter environments before using them in restaurants or group event spaces.

There is no perfect timeline for getting used to wearing your hearing aids, but if you are struggling with comfort, fit, sound quality or volume issues, it’s a great idea to come in to see is. If any of these things are happening, you likely need an adjustment to the hearing aid programming or ear  molds.

Schedule an appointment with us today to get your hearing aids fitting and working just right for you.