Getting hearing aids is a significant step. Whether you’re considering them for the first time or helping a loved one navigate the process, these frequently asked questions draw on real experiences from audiologists and hearing aid users.
What’s the first experience with hearing aids actually like?
The initial fitting can be startling. Sounds you’d forgotten existed suddenly appear. Shopping carts make metallic noises as they roll. Turn signals tick. Rustling paper becomes unexpectedly loud. One retired audiologist described his first moments at a supermarket: he never knew shopping carts made those high metallic sounds. His first thought was “Who would want to hear all of that?”
Your own voice will sound strange. Some people describe it as boomy or hollow. When you pee, it might sound like Niagara Falls (according to patients who’ve never actually been there). This effect settles down as the brain adjusts, and your audiologist fine-tunes the settings.
The physical sensation of having something in your ear? That fades quickly. Most people forget they’re wearing them within days. The sound adjustment takes longer. Give yourself a few weeks.
How long until hearing aids feel normal?
The timeline varies. First day: intense. Everything’s louder and sounds different. First week: frequent adjustments with your audiologist. Your brain starts filtering out background noise. Two to six weeks: Speech understanding in quiet environments improves substantially. Noisy settings get better, too. Two to three months: for most people, the aids feel normal. You’re no longer consciously aware of them.
One user describes sitting on a train about an hour after getting fitted. He suddenly realised he could hear a couple chatting several seats away, just having a normal conversation. After a few days, these revelations become less frequent as the brain adapts. It is the same phenomenon as when someone lives by a trainline or under the flight path, and their brain adapts so they don’t “hear” the trains or aircraft. The brain filters the sounds it doesn’t “need” to hear into our auditory subconscious.
Do hearing aids restore hearing to normal?
No. This is probably the most common misconception. People assume hearing aids work like glasses: put them on and everything’s perfectly clear. The reality is far more complicated.
For mild to moderate hearing loss, aids can get you pretty close to normal hearing. As loss becomes more severe, the gap widens. One user with severe hearing loss reports her word recognition scores at 23% and 33% with her most powerful aids. Louder doesn’t always mean clearer. The problem isn’t volume; it’s the ability to distinguish between sounds.
Hearing aids amplify everything, including the noise you don’t want. Background chatter, traffic, air conditioning. Modern aids have noise reduction features, but they can’t perfectly separate speech from noise the way healthy ears do. When hearing aids are not enough for an individual, we also offer auditory training in conjunction with amplification (see our information on LACE AI auditory training).
Will hearing aids make my hearing worse over time?
Properly fitted hearing aids do not accelerate hearing loss. This is a myth. If anything, research suggests that using hearing aids may help preserve auditory function by keeping the brain engaged with sound.
An improperly programmed aid that’s over-amplified could theoretically cause damage, but you’d likely stop wearing it long before that happened because it would be uncomfortably loud. A malfunctioning aid is a different story, which is why regular check-ups matter.
What should I expect in challenging listening environments?
This is where expectations need managing. Hearing aid advertisements show smiling people at cocktail parties, effortlessly conversing while sipping chardonnay. Real life is messier.
One user describes her first meeting after getting aids: ten people in a room, papers shuffling everywhere. She kept fiddling with the settings, at times switching them off entirely because it was overwhelming. When her boss tried to whisper something while they were off, she missed it completely. It got better over time with adjustments.
Strategies that help: face the speaker, reduce background noise when possible, use directional microphone programs, consider remote microphones for restaurants or meetings. Some people find that formal lip-reading training makes a significant difference.
What unexpected things will I notice?
Everyone has different revelations. Birds singing. Rain on the windows. The sound of your own footsteps. One user discovered he’d been missing the high-pitched tick of his car’s turn signal for years. Another revisited his favourite albums and found entirely new layers in Jimi Hendrix’s recordings.
The audiologist performing your fitting might do something simple to demonstrate the change. One common technique: crumple the paper before putting it in the aids, then do it again after. Most people don’t realise they’d stopped hearing that particular sound.
What if I hate them at first?
Common reactions from first-time users include: “My own voice sounds funny.” “What’s that noise I can hear?” “Why does everything sound like this?” And occasionally: “I could never wear this.”
These reactions are normal. The settings at your first fitting are usually a compromise. The prescription based on your audiogram might be what you need for the best speech understanding, but it can be overwhelming initially. A good audiologist will start you at a lower level if needed, and gradually increase amplification over several weeks.
If you have a family member who keeps their hearing aids in a drawer and tells you, “They’re useless, mate, don’t waste your money,” ignore them. Their bad experience doesn’t predict yours. They might have had poorly-fitting aids, or they might have given up before adjusting.
How do I choose the right hearing aid?
Here’s what matters most: your audiologist. All major hearing aid manufacturers make quality products. Widex, Oticon, Starkey, Signia, Phonak, Unitron, ReSound. They’re all investing millions in research and development, locked in an ongoing arms race to build better devices. The differences between brands are far less important than how well the aids are programmed for your specific hearing loss.
Your most critical choice is finding an audiologist who takes time to get the fitting right, who utilises Real-Ear Measurements for all fittings, explains your options clearly, and offers thorough follow-up care. The most satisfying fittings, according to one audiologist with 50 years of experience, were with patients who’d given up on previous unsatisfactory attempts and finally got it right.
Any practical tips for the adjustment period?
Wear them consistently. Daily use accelerates the rate at which your brain adapts. Start in quiet environments with one-on-one conversations, then work up to noisier settings. Don’t try to conquer a crowded restaurant on day two. The best place to train your brain to hear with the hearing aids in the early days is when you don’t feel you “need them”.
Keep your follow-up appointments. Most people need several adjustment sessions in the first month. Real ear measurement (where the audiologist verifies amplification with a probe microphone in your ear canal) leads to faster, more predictable improvements.
Maintain the devices. Clean them daily. Keep spare batteries on hand if the hearing aids are not rechargeable. Small problems like earwax buildup can cause feedback or reduced performance. Just like, if we don’t clean our glasses every day, we can’t see as well through the lense.
For anyone also wearing glasses and a mask: getting all three adjusted to work together takes some practice. Masks can tangle with behind-the-ear tubes when you take them off. It’s manageable.
What’s the emotional experience like?
Mixed. Relief at hearing things you’ve missed. Joy at rediscovering sounds. Frustration during the adjustment period. For teenagers, embarrassment can occur. For anyone, there’s sometimes grief at needing them at all.
One user describes crying at her first fitting when birds, rain, and her partner’s laugh became clear again. Another found the noise of the world overwhelming and sometimes retreats into quiet at home, occasionally switching off the aids entirely. Both experiences are valid.
The adjustment period is temporary. The benefits accumulate. Most long-term users can’t imagine going without them.
The Bottom Line
Getting better hearing is a worthwhile experience. It takes patience, realistic expectations, and a good audiologist. The world will sound different at first. Give it time. Most people pass through an adjustment period of days to weeks, then achieve lasting improvement.
As one 86-year-old retired audiologist who now wears aids himself puts it: “Find a good audiologist.”
