Hearing aids can be confusing to many people when they first start experiencing hearing loss. While a hearing health professional helps people understand the devices – and multiple other hearing-related areas – those going through the process will still have multiple questions.
Quite a few of these are relatively common, making them simple to address and answer. While it’s always worth speaking with an audiologist about any specific questions you have, it’s worth diving into the more common FAQs about hearing devices.
How Do I Know I Need a Hearing Aid?
Whether or not you need hearing aids is a common question and is best determined with your hearing health professional. If your hearing loss is affecting your daily life, then it’s likely you need a hearing aid. That’s especially true if you’re having trouble communicating and keeping up with conversations.
Speaking with a hearing healthcare professional will help you determine whether or not you need them. Doing so will help you determine the best path forward.
How Long Will My Hearing Aid Last?
Most hearing aids last between five and six years, but this can depend on multiple things, such as how much time and effort you put into looking after them. Cleaning them regularly and taking them to a hearing healthcare professional for regular repairs and maintenance is recommended.
While you’ll still need to replace your hearing aid eventually, you’ll increase its overall lifespan.
What Style of Hearing Aid Should I Wear?
There are multiple styles of hearing aids on offer, each of which offer their pros and cons, including in-the-canal, in-the-ear and behind-the-ear hearing aids. That leads to more than a few people questioning which one they should get.
Which one you should get depends largely on your circumstances. While personal preferences come into play with this, so too does your particular hearing loss. Some hearing aids may be better with different types of hearing loss, making speaking with your hearing health professional a necessity.
Will a Hearing Aid Restore My Hearing to Normal?
One of the more common misconceptions about hearing aids is that they’ll restore your hearing to what it used to be. As effective as the devices are, this unfortunately won’t happen. Instead, they focus on minimizing the impact of hearing loss and mitigating the symptoms.
As such, they won’t restore your ear’s natural function. In time, however, people with hearing aids find they barely notice the difference in sound. Many devices also replicate the sound of natural hearing better than you could think.
Anyone experiencing hearing loss will have multiple questions about hearing aids and other parts of the process. There are quite a few commonly asked FAQs about hearing devices that might have popped into your head.
With how important the process is, you should be as informed as possible about everything. Speaking with your hearing health professional about any questions or concerns you have is recommended, as doing so should help put you at ease.
