A Simple Guide to Hearing Aid Fittings

If you’ve recently had a hearing test and found out that you needed hearing aids, then your audiologist will have invited you to a hearing aid fitting. A hearing aid fitting is a consulting session where you and a professional choose a hearing aid and correctly calibrate it for your unique variety of hearing loss. Knowing ahead of time what a hearing aid fitting involves is crucial because it prepares you for the journey ahead. Here’s what can you expect during a hearing aid fitting.

Evaluation of your hearing needs

After a hearing test, an audiologist — a certified professional with expertise in ear health — will evaluate your results. The results of a hearing test show the nature of your hearing loss (whether you find it hard to listen to voices in loud rooms, for example) and how severe your hearing loss is. The type of hearing loss that you have will determine the appropriate model of hearing aid to choose. Some people with relatively minor hearing loss use miniature devices, like completely-in-canal hearing aids, which sit inside the ear canal and have no external components. These tiny devices are discreet but have limited functionality due to their size. Other people with more profound hearing loss may require larger devices, so-called behind-the-ear hearing aids which have more features and often, more sensitive internal components.

Hearing aid selection

The next part of a hearing aid fitting involves selecting the right hearing aid for you. Choosing a hearing aid can be a complicated process, not just because there are many form factors, but because every model of hearing aid has a variety of features which may or may not be beneficial. Entry-level hearing aids usually come with a standard set of features, such as volume adjust, two channels for preferentially amplifying sounds in different frequency ranges and TV and radio connectivity. More advanced devices and premium models come with sophisticated technologies and connectivity options, such as wind-cancellation, directional microphones, synchrony between multiple devices, adaptive calibration (for when you move from one sound environment to another) and Bluetooth.

During the hearing aid selection, your audiologist will give you an opportunity to trial hearing aids for a short amount of time. The purpose of trialing the hearing aids is to make sure that they amplify sounds to the desired degree. Once you’ve settled on a model that you like, the audiologist will take an impression of your ear and send it off to the lab for the mold. The mold is a part of the device uniquely shaped to fit your ear canal. Your hearing aids will then be sent back to the audiologist for calibration.

Programming your hearing aids

Once your hearing aids have been made, it’s time to calibrate them for your particular variety of hearing loss. Programming your hearing aids can take a long time. Audiologists have the expertise needed to help make the process as smooth as possible.

Hearing aids out of the box may be too quiet or loud, or they may not amplify sounds in the correct range. You and your audiologist will work together to adjust the settings until they meet your needs.