Buying Hearing Aids in Edinburgh, Part Two

What Happens During The Fitting of The Hearing Aids

This article covers the second part of the process of buying a hearing aid, the actual dispensing part. You have decided to buy a set of digital hearing aids and your hearing aid dispenser is now delivering them.

During the fitting there are important considerations that you need to be aware of. Lets have a look at what they are. 

Do the aids fit comfortably?

This may seem a silly question, but it is an important one. You will need to be comfortable wearing your aids, you will be wearing them all day, every day from now on. 

The aids should be comfortable with a good fit. If they are custom hearing aids they should fit snugly and there should be no pressure points. If they are Behind The Ear hearing aids, they should sit on the ear comfortably and any ear connection should be snug.

The tubing or wire if it is a Receiver In The Ear device should be tight against the side of your face. You should be able to insert the hearing aids in your ears or on your ears, by yourself. You shouls also be able to take them out, or off with ease?

Lastly, you should be able to handle them and their batteries with ease

Were You Given information concerning batteries?

The hearing care professional cover information in relation to the batteries that are used in your new hearing devices. They should also show you how to put batteries into the hearing aid. It is important that you can manage the batteries.

It is also important that you can put the batteries in the hearing aid by yourself. The professional will also give you information on where you can buy batteries, how much they cost and why you should always keep spare batteries handy.

Were all the controls explained to you?

If your desired hearing aids have controls or buttons on them, or if you have chosen a remote control. The professional should explain the function of those buttons or the functions of the remote control. 

It is important that you can operate all of the hearing aid controls or remote control functions yourself. Make sure that you have the dexterity to operate the controls on your hearing aid or remote control. 

Clean & care of the hearing aids ?

The hearing aid dispenser should cover how to keep earwax out of the sound bore of the hearing aid. They should also discuss general day to day cleaning and maintenance. 

If they don't talk about a de-humidifier box, ask them why it is a good idea that you use a dehumidifier box for night storage. 

They should discuss with you how often to return for regular checkups and cleaning of your hearing aid. These visits are important for the upkeep of your hearing aid and its ongoing reliability. 

Did you receive written material on the information you received?

There is a lot of information to take in during this session, most hearing aid dispensers would provide written material on the information for you or point you to any online resources you could access yourself. 

Your hearing aids should come with a detailed user manual that will cover a lot of what is discussed. You should have a read of it.  

Using telephones and assistive listening and alerting devices

The hearing aid dispenser should talk to you about telecoil use, using mobile phones and using landline phones. They may also cover using assistive listening devices using telecoils with audio loops, FM and Infrared systems.

There is a plethora of devices available that help the hearing impaired. Devices that alert for fire and safety, amplified phones and doorbells.

These are all options that can really deliver assistance to you in a host of lifestyle situations. This type of information should be seen as good info, not the dispenser trying to sell you more stuff.  

In the next part we will cover what happens next. 

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