JM MacDonald Opticians

Frequent Questions

How do I get used to my hearing aid?

Give yourself time to discover

Wearing hearing aids and hearing a greater range of sounds may tire you at first. Make a commitment to get used to your hearing aids, your positive attitude and desire to hear better are crucial factors to your success. If you get tired, take a break- but be sure you try again very soon.

Adjust to your own voice

At first, your own voice is very likely to sound different, because it is being amplified by your hearing aids. Over time you will adjust to it.

Adapt the volume to the situation

Modern hearing aids automatically select an optimal volume level when they are switched on and rarely need further adjustment

Important to note: Don’t try to understand soft voices over a great distance. Even people with good hearing cannot do that. If you have a volume control, don’t set it too high or the sound will be distorted.

What kinds of problems can earwax cause?

A build-up can cause:

• Infections
• Discomfort / earache
• Hearing loss
• Itchy ears

And for hearing aid wearers it can:

• Cause a need for frequent cleaning of the hearing aid
• Cause damage
• Cause the hearing aids to make a whistling noise
• Cause discomfort or poor fitting of a hearing aid and its day-to-day wearing

How can you safely look after your ears?

How can you safely look after your ears?

The production of earwax is your ears’ way of being self-cleaning and this process is usually enough to prevent major issues. Normally earwax will make its way out of the ear entirely on its own.

Often, people use cotton buds to remove any built-up earwax, but this is actually more likely to lead to an earwax blockage and further issues.

Impacted earwax is often caused by:

• Cotton buds
• Earplugs
• Earphones
• Hearing aids

The following are symptoms which, if experienced, may mean you need to have an earwax build-up removed. Otherwise, impacted earwax can cause infection.

Impacted earwax symptoms:

• Sudden hearing loss
• Ear feeling full and uncomfortable
• Earache
• Tinnitus