MG has been coming to the Zephyrhills office of Gardner Audiology for several years. He has been wearing a hearing aid in his left ear since 2009. He lost the aid and came in to see me about a new hearing aid.
In February, I fitted his left ear with a Starkey X110 receiver in the canal hearing aid. He sometimes works in a noisy environment so I gave him a second softer memory to be used as needed. At follow up visits he commented on how much better he was hearing with this aid, but he was almost overwhelmed by all of the new sounds he was hearing. Even though I slightly decreased the loudness in memory one, he was wearing the aid in memory 2 (the softer memory) almost all of the time. He did not want me to make changes and he purchased the hearing aid.
Today, five months later, MG told me he is only using memory one. He has adapted to all of the new sounds and now wants the aid turned up slightly! Even an experienced hearing aid user goes through a period of adaptation with a new aid. The brain has to learn to accept the new sounds. We see our patients for a recheck appointment a few months after purchasing new hearing aids for this very reason. Good follow up care does not end when the hearing aids are purchased!
