The short answer to this very common question is as often as possible—ideally for most, if not all, of the waking day. Many people who are considering hearing aids won’t necessarily struggle to hear or communicate in quiet settings or in one-on-one conversations. This especially will be the case if you have a milder hearing loss. Many of these people may reasonably assume then, that there isn’t much sense in wearing their hearing aids all the time. Rather, they might prefer to just wear the hearing aids on a more situational, case-by-case basis. For example, these individuals may struggle when watching TV, or listening to their friends while dining out, and will then choose to only wear their hearing aids for these situations or environments.
We Hear with the Brain, Not the Ears
We really hear with the brain, rather than the ears. The ears’ job is to just deliver the sound to the hearing nerve and brain for processing. The brain needs to then make sense of what the ears have heard. The problem with wearing your hearing aids on a situational basis is that hearing aids take time to get used to, and the brain will then never have a proper, complete amount of time to adapt to hearing through hearing aids.
When first wearing hearing aids, the brain can find all the new sounds and information to be a bit overwhelming. You’re suddenly hearing sounds you haven’t heard properly in quite some time—footsteps approaching, papers rustling, dishes clanging, and so on. You may perceive these sounds as quite distracting at first—this is because the sounds are all very new to you, and it can be hard to tune them out at first! However, with time and consistent use of your hearing aids, your brain becomes more adept at filtering these sounds out from what you’re trying to listen to.
Now, if you only put your hearing aids on when in a more challenging environment, such as a noisy restaurant, the brain can become completely overstimulated with sound. This can lead to a very frustrating sense that you’re hearing worse with your hearing aids in, rather than better. While hearing aids are equipped with advanced technology to help focus less on background noise and more on conversational speech—they will still amplify some background noise to a degree. Again, with consistent use of your hearing aids, the brain will be able to better focus on a conversation, rather than surrounding background noises. But if you only wear your hearing aids for specific places and situations, then the brain never really has a chance to get used to hearing softer background noises that you may hear just by sitting in your lounge while reading a book. Even more so, the brain will then find louder background noises that you may hear while out shopping or in a pub to be unacceptably loud and distracting. In fact, I would argue that a lack of consistent use of hearing aids is probably one of the chief culprits of why someone may still struggle to hear and communicate in a noisy environment, even while wearing their hearing aids.
Won’t I Rely Too Much on My Hearing Aids?
A concern that is sometimes expressed by my patients is that they worry that if using their hearing aids all the time, they will become overly reliant on their hearing aids. The fear is that this may then cause a further decline in their hearing abilities—that their ears will essentially become “lazy”. While hearing loss does naturally progress and worsen over time, hearing aids will not accelerate this process. If anything, early adoption and consistent use of hearing aids can lead to better long-term hearing and speech understanding outcomes by keeping the hearing nerve and brain active and stimulated.
Conclusion
Based on the above, I therefore almost always recommend that my patients wear their hearing aids as consistently as possible. Ideally, hearing aids should go in your ears as soon as you wake up in the morning—and then are only taken out before going to bed at night. Generally, the only times I’d advise not to wear your hearing aids is when bathing or swimming (it’s best to keep your hearing aids dry, even if they are technically “waterproof”), or if doing anything abnormally loud—such as attending a rock concert, using power tools, etc. By wearing your hearing aids on a consistent, daily basis, then you can be sure you’re doing your part to get the most benefit out of your hearing aids and will be well on your way to hearing your best.
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