Common Complaints While Adjusting to Hearing Aids

Although hearing aids cannot completely correct hearing loss, they can significantly improve a patient’s social life by helping him hear and understand sounds better. Before adjusting and being comfortable with the device, a patient may experience some inconveniences but most of these can be corrected with proper adjustment with the help of the audiologist. However, there are some issues with hearing aids and the patient has to learn to adapt to these issues in using their hearing aids. One of these issues is the occlusion effect that happens when the device fills the ear canal. In this condition, the patient hears his own voice too loud and he also hears his own breathing and chewing. When the ear canal is clogged, the vibrations go back to the eardrums which cause the plugged up effect. People with normal hearing condition can have this effect by covering the ear canal completely with his fingers and talking. The compression effect also happens to people with hearing aids. Hearing aids have this amplification feature which is needed to make sounds that seems to be very quiet to people with hearing loss, louder. However, if sounds that are already loud are amplified, it will damage the ear.