Why Fall is the Perfect Time to Upgrade Your Hearing Aids

Hearing loss is a part of life for many people around the world. It’s especially common among older people and adults who work in loud environments, but anyone can lose their hearing for a variety of reasons. The chances are that you’re already accustomed to hearing aids. You might know someone who wears them or if you’ve experienced hearing loss for a while, you might already wear hearing aids. Having consulted a hearing instrument specialist (HIS), it’s important to emphasize that ongoing attention to your hearing aids and the evolution of your hearing loss remains crucial, ensuring continued effectiveness and optimal care.

Progressive Hearing Loss

The way your hearing loss presents can vary depending on its root cause. If you get an injury or an illness, you can suddenly lose your hearing. This sudden hearing loss might be temporary, permanent or somewhere in between where you slowly regain some or all of your hearing as you recover.

However, the most common forms of hearing loss caused by age present gradually. You might not even realize that you’re experiencing hearing loss until a family member points it out to you or until you’re already consistently turning the volume up on your devices. You might have lost a reduction of your hearing.

Upon obtaining hearing aids, it’s important to acknowledge that progressive hearing loss is an ongoing aspect. Your hearing capacity may still evolve, emphasizing the need for regular hearing assessments and consistent communication with your hearing instrument specialist. As your hearing naturally changes, your hearing aids may need potential adjustments or replacements. If the time comes to replace your hearing aids, consider this as an opportunity to explore upgrades that can further enhance your hearing experience.

Wear and Tear

Another reason that you might need to replace or upgrade your hearing aids is they can get damaged over time. A HIS will teach you how to look after and maintain your hearing aid when it gets fitted to your ears, but a typical hearing aid is still made up of small, complex parts. Should your hearing aid sustain damage, its performance may be compromised and potentially lead to inconvenience. Battery life could decline, requiring more frequent battery replacements. You might also start to hear hissing or whining sounds.

Malfunctioning hearing aids can potentially be uncomfortable, either because they don’t fit your ear properly anymore or because they amplify certain sounds more than others or cause feedback problems.

The Issue with Fall

So, why upgrade your hearing aids in the fall? In truth, you should upgrade your hearing aids as and when you need to, but fall is a particularly good season to consider it. This is because the fall weather can be especially hard on your hearing aids, so you’re more likely to experience issues with older or malfunctioning hearing aids. Fall is a typically damp month. Depending on where you live, you might have to deal with rain and fog in your day-to-day life, which can introduce moisture into your hearing aids.

Fall is also often a windy month, and older hearing aids might struggle to filter out the sound of strong winds. It can also result in a whistling sound, which can make it hard to decipher sounds.

Hearing Aid Development

Even if your hearing aids are fine, it might be a good idea to upgrade them for a better product. Some modern hearing aids can cope better in harsh weather conditions, especially if you look after them and keep them in a dry box when you aren’t using them to get rid of excess moisture. For example, some hearing aids have a noise-canceling feature that allows you to filter out the sound of the wind or other background noise. This way, you can focus on the sounds you want to hear. Modern hearing aids can also connect to other devices, which is especially important if you use the phone or video conference calls for work.

There are also different styles of hearing aids that can work better for different types of hearing loss and different circumstances. Behind-the-ear (BTE) hearing aids are the most common option for many people, but you can also get in-the-ear (ITE) and in-the-canal (ITC) hearing aids that sit inside the ear or outer bowl itself. Your hearing instrument specialist will recommend the right hearing aid for your specific needs.

For more information about potentially upgrading your hearing aids, please contact one of our hearing instrument specialists at the Center for Better Hearing. Call us today at 510-768-7091.