16th May 2015

Choosing The Best Hearing Aids For You

There is nothing more important to us than your satisfaction with the hearing aids and hearing healthcare services we provide. As a professional we know that satisfied customers lead to repeat business and to positive word-of-mouth for our business. We have built a vibrant business on the referral power of happy Patients. When we see new customers, one of the things we often hear is, "What is the best hearing aid for me?"

The answer is that the best hearing aid is a device for one or both ears that best helps you address the difficulties you have on a day to day basis

Meeting Your Hearing Needs in Aberdeen & Inverness

At our centres in Aberdeen & Inverness, we want find the best hearing aids for you, the hearing aids that meet all of your needs. We are very careful, taking a lot of time talking to each Patient to ensure that we have done everything possible to understand their needs. It is important for you to realise that you have a roll to play in getting the best hearing aids for you as well. We generally find that customers who fully take part in the process are the most delighted. Here are some suggestions to help ensure that you will be one of those delighted hearing aid wearers.

How will I know I've found the best hearing aid for me?

Each person with hearing loss has very specific needs, our purpose is to find the hearing aid that meets all of those needs. During the process of rediscovering your hearing it is important to determine exactly what your needs are, what outcomes you are looking for, and most importantly, how you'll know when you've fulfilled your needs. Many people come into us with a vague concept of their needs: "I can't hear," or "It seems as if people are mumbling more," or worse yet, "My wife says I don't listen to her."

We believe you will have a more fulfilling experience if you dig deeper to understand the impact your hearing loss has had on your life. We do our best during the hearing aid consultation to discover this, but people are sometimes unprepared for the line of questioning. Consider your issues, the ones that are really affecting you on a day to day basis.

Write them down and and it will be clear to both you and us what your goals are for better hearing. Understanding the problems caused by your hearing loss and grading them in importance to you, allows you to better identify the right hearing aid to deliver the benefits you need. Understanding the communication situations that cause you the most difficulty is a critical step in solving the problems that are important to you.

If you can describe the listening situations where you have the most difficulty, we can identify the technology that will address the problems, we can also develop strategies to help you better manage in those situations. It is important that at any time you feel you need more information, you should ask for it. In our experience, everyone has different needs for information, some people want highly technical information about hearing aid systems and their hearing loss, while others just want a brief overview. 

We are always happy to answer questions, and will give you any information you want and need, such as consumer literature, brochures and other types of instructional materials. Ask for clarification if you need it, we will always try to explain everything to your satisfaction.

Your Motivation To Hear Better Makes A Difference

Modern hearing aid technology delivers better hearing for people with hearing losses. People who are highly motivated to improve their hearing have a much better chance of success with their hearing aids. Motivated people recognise their hearing loss and are open to finding the best hearing aid for their needs. They tend to seek out relevant information related to their hearing loss and the technology needed to alleviate the hearing problem. The most highly motivated hearing aid candidates have a willingness to discuss their feelings about their hearing problem and explore some hearing options that might be available to them.

This motivation to hear better allows them to discuss their problems during follow-up visits and learn to adapt to their technology. We have many customers that are positive about, and deeply engaged in, the process of hearing better. We find that this attitude allows them to move forward in the process and culminates in a better experience for them. Quite often they speak about taking control of their life, they take charge and are determined to improve the quality of their life.

Choice of Hearing Aid Technology in Aberdeen & Inverness

In all of the research available to us about hearing aid technology and satisfaction levels of its users, there is no doubt that customers are more satisfied with high technology hearing devices. This type of technology allows us to adjust the hearing aid to very specific hearing loss characteristics with much more accuracy and the features in more advanced technology also meet more of the needs of people with hearing loss in more complex situations.

The tools for fitting hearing aids are also more advanced than before. For example, some of the hearing aid manufacturers allow us to just change the settings of the hearing aids for single complex sound situations. It allows us to change how the hearing technology will react in single complex situations only. Leaving the automatic settings alone for other sound situations. The more advanced the hearing aids, the more situational control is usually available to us.

The Right Hearing Aid Technology For You

The most advanced technology is not right for everybody though, you need to be aware of what you want the hearing aids for. The best hearing aid technology for you is the one that best suits your lifestyle needs. If all you want is to hear better at home, then  the highest technology is much more than you need. You need to gauge what you want the hearing aids to do for you against the technology level you should purchase.

If you want hearing aids to help you hear in small groups, to hear the radio and TV better and to hear better in Church, then modern basic hearing aid technology is probably right for you. However, if you have a more active lifestyle and you want your hearing aids to help you hear better in more complex sound situations, then higher level technology is what you need. You need to be realistic in what you expect from the hearing aid technology you purchase.  

Do You Need Controls on Your Hearing Aid ?

Most people want to buy a hearing aid that never needs adjustments. It should automatically determine the volume you need and adjust its features to allow you hear better in a variety of noisy situations. They should improve your hearing comfort in noisy situations by making the sounds more tolerable. They should not give you feedback (whistling, buzzing or squealing) as they amplify the sounds around you. They should restore your ability to enjoy soft sounds while sensing very loud sounds and making them comfortable for you.

Most modern hearing aids are in some sense, automatic hearing aids, however, they still come available with controls or remote controls because some people need to personally control their hearing aids. In fact research has shown that especially among experienced wearers, some people still want either a volume control and multiple memory switch. Some want a remote control in order to control volume or to access different hearing aid strategies for handling different listening environments.

It is important that you determine your needs with respect to control of the hearing aid. You don't want to fiddle with your hearing aids every ten minutes but then again you don't want to be frustrated because your hearing aids work well in most situations but not in some of your favourite situations. We can and will explore this with you, our final answer is often that having the controls and not using them, is better than wanting to use them and not having them.

The Right Sound Quality For You

One of the most important aspects of an enjoyable better hearing experience is that you like the sound quality of the hearing aids you have purchased. Initially when you wear hearing aids for the first time it can be a bit overloading. Your brain is suddenly being delivered sound information it hasn't had in quite a while. The sound quality of hearing aids can be a little hard to assess when you first use them. However there are a few things that you should consider about sound quality during the initial stages:

• Your own voice can be a shock at the beginning of the process, so just be aware of this
• Is the sound clean and crisp (sound clarity)?
• The sound can seem tinny, again this can be a shock, we will make sure though that it is not too tinny?
• Does it make some pleasant soft sound audible to you?
• Are loud sounds uncomfortable to you?
• Does music sound pleasant and rich in texture?
• Does the world sound like you are in a barrel?
• Does your hearing aid whistle, buzz or squeal on its own?

With today's modern digital hearing aid technology, most of these problems should be solved. If you notice any of these problems during the initial period you should bring it up during the follow-up visits, by all means talk to us about these issues. We can always adjust your hearing aids to your satisfaction. The extent to which all of the possible sound quality issues can be resolved is governed by the severity of your hearing loss. Some types hearing losses are simply easier to deliver a rich sound quality in many listening environments while others are not.

What Part Should Cosmetics Play ?

Over the past ten years the hearing aids have been reduced in size to near invisibility. People can now wear them with greater comfort and small CIC hearing aids have some advantages such as on the telephone and in outdoor situations. Some people are concerned with the cosmetics of hearing aids and prefer the least noticeable devices, in the same way that some people choose contact lenses instead of glasses. Be careful what you choose, the smallest hearing aid may not be the most suitable hearing solution for you for a variety of reasons.  

The Invisible Hearing Aids

Your hearing loss may require more power than small hearing aids can deliver, dexterity also plays a part. You might not have the dexterity to manipulate them or change the batteries. Because of a sense of embarrassment, many customers come into our offices and start off with, "I would like one of those invisible hearing aids."

We do supply invisible hearing aids in Aberdeen & Inverness, but we need to examine your ears, measure your hearing loss, assess your lifestyle and manual dexterity and then discuss how your hearing loss is impacting the quality of your life.

After all of that, we can tell if in fact you are a candidate for these hearing aids. We supply hearing aids from all of the best manufacturers, so if we tell you that you are not a candidate for invisible or CIC hearing aids, you probably aren't.

Realistic Expectations During the Initial Period

You should try and follow the instructions you are given during the initial stages of adjustment. We design these to help in formulating realistic expectations of what to expect from your hearing aids. You may need a specific wearing schedule for your hearing aids at the beginning. If you are not an experienced user of hearing aids it can make sense to build up your use of hearing aids over a period of fourtenn days. We will discuss this with you. Be patient with yourself at the beginning, it can take some time to get used to both the hearing aids and your new way of hearing.

If you have the best hearing aids for your hearing loss and your lifestyle, you can be confident that it will come right. Make sure that you're comfortable with all of the advice we have given you. Ask questions, remember that we want you to hear better and have an awesome experience. Be realistic in your expectations of the technology you have bought. Hearing aids will not give you super human hearing, nor will they give you better hearing than normal. Remember that it takes time to get used to hearing aids, especially if you're a new wearer.

Keep in mind that background noise is almost always part of your environment, and adjustment to it is required. In time, you will tune out many of these everyday sounds. It's important not to become disappointed or frustrated while your brain begins to adjust to a whole new world of sound. If you're an experienced wearer trying new hearing aids, understand that they might not sound like your old ones. Before you reject them, allow your brain to adapt to these new sounds. You just might find that you like this new sound better than the old one.