What Will Happen During Your Hearing Aid Fitting?

If you have been advised that you need hearing aids, chances are you will be attending a hearing aid fitting with a qualified audiologist in the very near future. If that’s the case, you may be wondering what will happen during the appointment.

Hearing aid fittings are there to ensure that your hearing devices are perfectly chosen and fitted for your specific needs, with that in mind, the audiologist will need to do a few key things, which we will take a look at below.

Confirmation of Diagnosis

Most hearing aid fitting appointments will start with your audiologist taking you through your hearing function test results, so that you can find out a little more about your level of hearing loss, what it means for you and how the audiologist plans to treat it.

Normally, if you’re attending a hearing aid fitting, you will already have had a hearing evaluation conducted by your audiologist and they will have decided that hearing aids are the best option for you, which means they will normally have created your hearing devices in advance of the appointment, ready for your fitting.

Earpiece or Earmold Fitting

If you have decided to wear hearing aids that use earmolds, your audiologist may next fit the earmold into your ear to ensure that it is comfortable for you to wear. They will then measure what length the tube connecting the hearing aid to the mold needs to be.

If your hearing aid does not have an earmold but is a model that fits inside the ear canal, the audiologist will pick out the correct size earpiece and again measure the right length of tubing for you.

Programming

The next thing that will happen is usually that your audiologist will start programming your hearing aids so that they are able to enhance your hearing function as optimally as possible. In order to do this, they will need to carry out various tests. This will usually involve placing a small tube connected to a minute microphone into the ear. 

Your audiologist will play a series of sounds through this microphone and record the volume near your eardrum. They will also ask you what you can hear and how various calibrations sound until they have the perfect settings for you. This can take a while, but it is necessary if you want to be able to hear with optimum clarity and comfort.

Teaching You How to Use It

Once your hearing aid has been correctly set up for your own unique needs, your audiologist will typically use the rest of your hearing aid fitting to demonstrate the functionality of your hearing aids, so that you know what all of the settings can do for you. They may also give you a quick lesson on cleaning and caring for your hearing aid, as well as how to insert and remove them safely, which it is really important to pay attention to if you want to get the most of your hearing aids.

As you can see, the average hearing aid fitting packs in a lot of important processes and information, so it is important that you don’t skip it, and see your audiologist whenever they recommend you do so.