Choosing Hearing Aids For Our Patients in Swansea
The hearing aid test is made up of many parts, while critically important, finding your hearing loss, is the least important factor in selecting a hearing aid that is appropriate for you. Our primary concern is helping our Patients stay active and allowing them to enjoy their life as much as possible. Therefore, thebiggest consideration in fitting hearing instruments successfully is understanding the Patient’s lifestyle.
Choosing The Hearing Aid
In some cases, the hearing professional can be mentally selecting hearing aids for their patient before they are halfway finished with the hearing test. However, we will take time getting to know you, your hobbies and interests, your activities and needs. What types of listening situations do you experience regularly? Are you in a fairly sedentary lifestyle, just at home with television mostly? Are you working? What type of work environment do you work in? Do you attend meetings? Do you attend church or some other large social gatherings?
Do you spend time in crowded areas? These are questions regarding lifestyle that are important in determining what signal processing and noise control features are necessary to manage the listening environments that you experience. Simply matching someone to a prescription and price range is not sufficient for real benefit.
Personalising For You
Personalising the evaluation is key to achieving the best results for you. We typically request that a spouse, significant other, or loved one attend the test and consult with our patients. This way, we can get a better picture of each Patient’s life, needs, and preferences. Watching people interact and observing their communication style is helpful in figuring out what aspects of the hearing aids might be important to them. Family members may also assist in the assessment process by offering up information about the patient’s hearing experiences and specific challenges.
Your Personality
Another crucially important consideration in success with hearing aids is personality type. Studies have shown that success and acceptance of hearing aids are strongly correlated with personality traits (Cox, R.M., 2007). Personalities that are open to new experience and willing to adjust to new situations are more likely to be successful than a more conscientious personality type that is less likely to be willing to accept background noise (Franklin, et. al., 2013). Just because you are not this particular personality type, does not mean that you will not have success with hearing aids. It just means that we need to take care to develop a treatment plan and an approach to counseling and follow up that is personalised to you.
Physical Aspects & Your Dexterity
Physical aspects such as manual dexterity, ability to manipulate small objects, ear canal size, and cognitive ability are also key components in choosing the right hearing aid for a Patient. You need to be able to insert and remove the hearing aids we choose, and change the batteries independently, unless you have a full time caregiver. In some cases the ability to manipulate a certain style of hearing aid may supersede all other factors. If you can’t put it in, you will never get any benefit.
The Right Hearing Aid Technology
The physical style and appearance of the hearing aid can lend itself to certain acoustical and comfort factors, but has nothing to do with the signal processing or function of the aid. Any technology can be built inside any shell style,in essence it is what is inside the hearing aid that truly determines the overall listening experience. In some cases a less expensive technology can work for an individual that can adjust well to the way a hearing aid sounds. However, advanced noise control and complex signal processing capabilities are often needed to accommodate normal human auditory adaptation. With a simpler, less advanced technology, the we have less control over adjusting the features when you have listening complaints.
Your Preference
Obviously, your preference is given a lot of consideration in the selection process. Typically we will show a number of options to the you that are based on your lifestyle, personality, financial factors, and cognitive ability. Ultimately, your personal preference will carry a lot of weight in the success of the overall experience and your use of the hearing aids. We will make strong recommendations, but if you will not wear the hearing aid we recommend, there is no point in fitting it! In this sense, the interview process is quite important in determining the answers to all f these questions.
The decision to get new hearing aids, or to wear them as a first-time user, is not an easy one to make, and is a considerable investment of finances, time, and effort. A successful experience is dependent on coordinating a number of elements including but not limited to lifestyle, personality, learning style, cognitive ability, finances, and preference. It is imperative that we consider multiple factors about your personal needs in recommending options for you.
References:
Cox, R.M., Alexander, G.C., Gray, G.A. (2007). Personality, hearing problems, and amplification characteristics: contributions to self-report hearing aid outcomes. Ear and Hearing, 28(2):141-62.
Franklin C., Johnson L.V., White L., Franklin C., &Smith-Olinde L. (2013). The Relationship between Personality Type and Acceptable Noise Levels: A Pilot Study. ISRN Otolaryngology, 2013, Article ID 902532. doi:10.1155/2013/902532
