Not wearing your hearing aids?

Hello and welcome back to the Peter Byrom audiology blog. Last month I brought you a study about the link between hearing loss and cognitive decline. A study showed that people with hearing loss who wore their hearing aids had a significantly reduced risk of mild cognitive impairment.

If you would like to recap on that study, the article is here:

www.peterbyrom.co.uk/cognitive-decline

You may be wondering if someone needs to wear hearing aids, why on earth wouldn’t they?! Let’s take a look…

Sound

Hearing aids are incredible pieces of personal technology and that’s the key part – personal. As a minimum, your devices need to be programmed to match your specific hearing loss. This means that in areas where you struggle, your aids will give you the boost that you need. This doesn’t always mean amplification; it can mean clarity and sharpness too. If hearing aids haven’t been programmed correctly you may feel they are of little use to you. You may feel that they started great but recently haven’t been making so much of a difference. In this case, you probably just need a few tweaks and you’ll be on your way again. New technology comes along all the time but your hearing aids should last for as long as you want, providing you look after them properly. This brings meaning to my next point….

Maintenance

Hearing aids have become more and more resilient over the years but they’re not invincible! The ear is a fairly hostile place for a medical device to live – it’s warm, damp and pretty waxy. To keep your aids in tip-top condition:

• Clean them every day with a dry cloth or special cleaning wipe, avoiding the microphone and other internal parts
• If you wear an in-the-ear hearing aid (ITE) then make sure you change the filter regularly. You can also remove any wax on the hearing aid with the small brush that came with your aids
• Receiver in the ear (RIC) hearing aids also have filters and for my patients who wear Audeo Ms or newer, I have created a video showing you how to do this: https://youtu.be/47gW_jPbkI4

Comfort

Aside from the sound, your hearing aids need to feel good in your ears too. Ideally, you put them in and forget about them. If this isn’t the case and you use a RIC, it might be that the dome isn’t the right size for your ear. Or you might want to consider a new style altogether.

Looks/perception

Perhaps your hearing aids are delivering excellent sound quality but you can’t quite accept that they are… hearing aids. How you look in your aids and how you think others may perceive you is a big deal. You don’t need to be the boss of a big company to want to keep your hearing devices to yourself. If you’d like something a little more discreet then maybe consider an in-the-ear device. You may even be suitable for Lyric, the contact lens for each which is 100% invisible.

There will be more of an in-depth look at Lyric next month but if any of the above has resonated and you’re neglecting to wear your hearing aids, please get in touch!

As always, stay safe and see you soon.

Take care,

Peter