What to Expect at a Hearing Aid Fitting

Hearing aids work the best when they fit well and are adjusted properly. Your hearing aids should be comfortable to wear and provide good sound quality. Remember — your hearing aids do not restore normal hearing and are not as good as normal hearing, but they do enable you to pick up sound better in noisy environments. 

Getting the most out of your hearing aids

A hearing aid fitting is vital to making sure you get the most out of your hearing aids. A hearing aid fitting is an appointment with your hearing care provider. During the appointment, which will last about an hour, your hearing specialist will verify the hearing aids are providing the correct amount of amplification to your ears. Your hearing professional will program your hearing aids based on the results of the hearing test conducted during your prior appointment. Then he or she will make changes to the hearing aids and amplification based on your individual preferences and unique listening environments.

Remember — hearing is subjective and no hearing loss is identical between two people. Considering this, hearing aids take time to set and program.

What to expect at the appointment

During your appointment you will learn about the advanced features of your hearing aids and how you can optimize those in your everyday listening environments.

During your hearing aid fitting, before you leave, your hearing care practitioner will also go over the care and maintenance of your new hearing aids. You will understand how to clean and maintain your new hearing aids in order to keep them functioning optimally. You will also learn all the parts of your new hearing aids and how they function. That way, should they malfunction, you’ll be able to easily explain to your hearing provider what’s going on and he or she will be able to troubleshoot with you with ease, should any problems arise.

Adjusting to hearing aids

Keep in mind, adjusting to new hearing aids take time, even with proper adjustment and fitting. Your hearing professional will schedule follow up appointments to review what you learned during your fitting appointment and to make any adjustments to your hearing aid that you may need. Additional programming adjustments are quite common during follow up appointments. Remember to be patient with yourself as you adjust to your new hearing aids and hearing new sounds. A customer satisfaction survey by the Better Hearing Institute revealed that 90 percent of people report that hearing aids improved their quality of life.