6 steps experts recommend when getting hearing aids

My first clues 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 stalled for years before finally going through the process of getting a hearing aid. 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 would be $7,000 for the “best” option (they mysteriously didn’t happen to have any other options handy), then marched right back out the door, discouraged.

I started asking friends and neighbors whether they wore a hearing aid, or knew anyone who did, and could point me to a good audiologist.

I finally found one — and it made all the difference.

The joy of reconnecting

I’ve 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.

After talking with a few audiologists around the country, it turns out that my experience is pretty typical.

“There are a lot of people who stall before getting one,” says Meagan Bachmann, director of audiology at Atrium Health Wake Forest Baptist, in North Carolina.

“Hearing is important because it connects us with people,” she says. “Multiple studies show that not hearing can affect your ability to connect with others and participate in life, so you have to think of it in terms of overall health.”

Steps to take

To speed up the process and make it less frustrating, here’s what the pros recommend:

■ Get tested and take the results seriously: If you have concerns about needing hearing aids, know that many of them these days are small, nearly invisible, rechargeable, and pretty easy to wear and maintain. And believe it or not, hearing aids can be fun — these days, there are colors to choose from and ways to bejewel them.

■ 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.

They should take the time to work with you to find a hearing aid that meets your needs and 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.

“Although all hearing aids are amplifiers, not everybody needs the same thing,” Bachmann says. “Fitting a hearing aid is an art.”

Greta Stamper, an audiologist at the Mayo Clinic in Jacksonville, Florida, agrees. “Hearing loss is not a one-time thing. It’s a chronic health condition. It should be a partnership between you and your audiologist,” she says.

■ 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 to check with your audiologist before taking that route.

■ Know your rights: “We select what is the most likely to be successful, and if it doesn’t work out you come back and do something else,” Stamper says. 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.

■ Embrace the process: Expect it to take a little time and a few expert tweaks. Audiologists say that your brain needs time to adjust to a hearing aid and that the settings should be adjusted little by little as your brain adapts to them.

“A 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,” Stamper says.

■ Be realistic: “Although hearing aids can be enormously beneficial, they may not give you back your normal hearing,” Stamper says. Depending on the situation, there might be limitations to what a hearing aid can do.

“It might just be lots of improvement in the key areas in which you’re struggling,” she says.

Using hearing aids is a process, the audiologists say, and although it requires some patience, it can be well worth the journey.