Hearing Aids, Choosing The Right One For You

Choosing Hearing Aids For Our Patients in Edinburgh

Choosing the right hearing aid for you is an in-depth process. We need to understand a lot of information in order to recommend the right choices out of the hundreds of hearing aids that are available. In order to do the job right, we have a process that allows us to discover all of the information we need. 

We incorporate that process in the hearing test and consultation that we perform in Edinburgh. Assessing your hearing loss correctly is critically important, however, it is actually one of the least important factor in selecting a hearing aid.  The main concern is helping you stay active, allowing you to enjoy your life as much as possible. With this in mind, the success for us in fitting hearing instruments successfully is understanding the Patient's lifestyle needs and making good recommendations based on them.

Choosing The Right Hearing Aid

We take time getting to know you, your hobbies and interests, your social activities and your needs for those activities.  We need to understand the types of listening situations  you experience regularly and the situations you want to be able to hear clearly in. The hearing aid recommendation will vary based on your activity, are you sedentary, just at home, wishing to listen to the television and radio mostly? Or do you have a more active lifestyle with many social activities?

Understanding Your Life Needs

So, it is imperative that we understand your lifestyle and we ask all of the right questions. We need to know things like 

• Are you working?
• What type of sound environment do you work in?
• Do you attend meetings on a regular basis?
• Do you go to church or some other large social gatherings?
• Do you spend time in crowded areas?
• Having problems with the TV?
• Having problems on the phone?

These questions are important, they help us determine what level of hearing aid technology is right for you. The level of technology has to be able to manage the listening environments that you experience on a daily basis. Our aim is to provide you with real benefit in the real world, because that is where you live.

Bring Your Spouse With You

We would typically ask that your spouse, a significant other, or loved one attend the test with you. You should try to make sure that you bring someone along with you. It helps us to form a better picture of each your life, needs, and preferences. 

Watching you interact with someone you know and observing your communication style is helpful in our understanding of what aspects of the hearing aids might be important for you.  Family members will also often assist in the consultation by offering  more information about your hearing experiences and specific challenges.

Physical Aspects

There are many physical aspects that we need to consider in the recommendation process. They include your dexterity, your ability to hold and manipulate small objects, your vision, your ear canal size, and your cognitive ability. Understanding of these is key in choosing the right hearing aid for you.  You need to be able to insert and remove the hearing aids we choose for you, you need to be able to change the hearing aid batteries yourself, unless you have a full time caregiver. In order to do so you need to be able to see them, hold them and manipulate them. If you can't put the hearing aid in or change your batteries, you won't get any benefit from them no matter how good they are.

The Right Hearing Aid Technology

The physical style and appearance of the hearing aid has little to do with the level of technology or  the daily ability of the aid.  It is the technology level inside the hearing aid that truly determines your overall listening experience.  You may not need the very best we offer, a less expensive technology can work for someone based on their lifestyle needs. However, advanced noise control and complex signal processing capabilities are needed to help people who have active lifestyles that put them in complex sound situations.  

Your Preferences

More often than not, we will show you a number of hearing aid options that are based on your lifestyle, personality, financial factors, and cognitive ability. Your personal preference though is the ultimate rule. If you don't like them, you probably will not wear them. If you don't wear them, you get no benefit. So we will make strong recommendations based on all of the factors, but you make the final decisions. 

The consultation that we undertake is made up of a hearing test and a comprehensive interview. This allows us to give the best recommendations possible. The decision to get new hearing aids, or to wear them as a first-time user, is not an easy one to make. It is a considerable investment of your finances, time, and effort.  So we want to take every opportunity to make it a resounding success for you. You can take a look at the big hearing aid brands here. 

Speak To Us If You Are Looking For Hearing Aids in Edinburgh

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