NEW YORK (AP) 鈥� My first tip-off were the little things, the high-pitched little things: the doorbell and ringtones my kids could hear but I could not.
Then it was the garbled-sounding conversations, and the accompanying annoyance of having to ask people to repeat themselves. Or worse, giving up and just playing along without being able to follow everything that was being said.
Even then, I before finally going through the process of . How do you even begin? Will it look clunky and make me feel like a dinosaur? And the cost!
Getting a hearing test, and confirmation that I needed a hearing aid, was just the beginning.
Finding an expert
The doctor handed me a list of places I could go to get fitted. I made some calls and narrowed it down to the places that took my insurance and my zero-interest health care credit card.
The first couple places were demoralizing: I walked in, was told it鈥檇 be $7,000 for the 鈥渂est鈥� option (they mysteriously didn鈥檛 happen to have any other options handy), then marched right back out the door, utterly discouraged.
I started asking friends and neighbors whether they wore a hearing aid, or knew anyone at all with a hearing aid, and could point me to a good audiologist.
It took a lot of poking around, but I found one 鈥� and it made all the difference.
The joy of reconnecting with the world
I鈥檝e been wearing my hearing aids for several months now, and they are as easy as slipping on a pair of glasses, are almost invisible, have reconnected me with the world, and, as crazy as this may sound, they bring me joy.
After talking with a few audiologists around the country, it turns out that my experience is pretty typical.
鈥淭here are a lot of people who stall before getting one,鈥� says Meagan P. Bachmann, director of audiology at Atrium Health Wake Forest Baptist, in North Carolina.
鈥淗earing is important because it connects us with people,鈥� she says. 鈥淢ultiple studies show that can affect your ability to connect with others and participate in life, so you have to think of it Maybe you no longer go to family events, or you don鈥檛 understand your doctor. People start to withdraw. A lot of people come in because it鈥檚 gotten so bad that it is impacting their relationships.鈥�
Steps to take
To speed up the process and make it less frustrating, here鈥檚 what the pros recommend:
1. Get tested, take the results seriously, and know that many if not most hearing aids these days are small, nearly invisible, rechargeable, and pretty easy to wear and maintain. And believe it or not, hearing aids can be fun 鈥� these days, there are colors to choose from and ways to bejewel them. One company, Deafmetal, makes jazzy-looking 鈥渟afety rings鈥� to help keep hearing aids in place.
2. Shop for an expert audiologist. Look for someone who takes your insurance or any sort of medical credit card you might have, or has a payment plan of some kind, if needed. This is a world at the awkward juncture of consumerism and medical care, but a good audiologist should come across as a medical provider, not a salesperson. And a good audiologist should take the time to work with you to find a hearing aid that meets your individual needs, and also fits your budget.
A good place to start is often with your doctor; with the American Academy of Audiologists, which lists providers on its website; or by word of mouth.
鈥淎lthough all hearing aids are amplifiers, not everybody needs the same thing,鈥� says Bachmann. 鈥淔itting a hearing aid is an art. It changes the acoustics, and everyone is different. You want someone who listens to your lifestyle needs. Do you have a lot of difficulty with noise? Are you mostly in quiet situations? How much technology do you need, and what kind?鈥�
Greta Stamper, an audiologist at the Mayo Clinic in Jacksonville, Florida, agrees. 鈥淗earing loss is not a one-time thing. It鈥檚 a chronic health condition. It should be a partnership between you and your audiologist,鈥� she said. 鈥淚t鈥檚 someone asking you what you鈥檙e looking for and how it鈥檚 going. You shouldn鈥檛 feel pressured or pushed.鈥�
3. A note on cost. Although hearing aids can be pricey, there are affordable options, and a good audiologist should be able to let you try out options at several price points. Insurance often covers much of the cost, and there are ways to pay for the remaining cost in installments. Also, avoidance has pretty high costs as well, audiologists say, and the longer the wait, the harder it may be to solve the problem with a hearing aid. Although there are cheaper hearing aids at big box stores, Bachmann warns that it鈥檚 good to check with your audiologist before taking that route. 鈥淪ome of those hearing aids are locked, so that you鈥檙e not allowed to have them programmed by an outside audiologist,鈥� she says.
Remember, says Stamper, that hearing aids are an investment, and usually last between five and six years.
4. Know your rights. 鈥淲e select what is the most likely to be successful, and if it doesn鈥檛 work out you come back and do something else,鈥� says Stamper. She said most states mandate a trial period. In some cases, hearing-aid companies also cover the cost of multiple visits to your audiologist while you are getting used to your new hearing aid and get training in how to use and maintain it.
5. Embrace the process, and expect it to take a little time and a few expert tweaks. Audiologists say your brain needs time to adjust to a hearing aid, and that hearing-aid settings should be adjusted little by little as your brain adapts to them.
鈥淎 big misconception is that you can just wear them a couple hours a day. Your brain does better with it if you use them most of the day. Your brain needs to adapt to hearing sounds it hasn't heard for a while, and it takes the brain awhile to relearn how to process all those sounds,鈥� says Stamper.
6. Be realistic. 鈥淎lthough hearing aids can be enormously beneficial, they may not give you back your normal hearing,鈥� says Stamper. Depending on the situation, there might be limitations to what a hearing aid can do.
鈥淚t might just be lots of improvement in the key areas in which you鈥檙e struggling,鈥� said Stamper.
Using hearing aids is a process, the audiologists say, and although it requires some patience, it can be well worth the journey.
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Katherine Roth, The Associated Press
