Can you hear everything you should be able to? That can be a hard question to answer. 

Hearing loss is typically a gradual decline, meaning we don’t often notice that we’re having a harder time hearing. It’s different from breaking a bone where you can very quickly see the difference before and after the break—with hearing loss, your hearing declines over years, making it hard to compare your hearing level today to what it was a decade ago. 

Even more, once you get a hearing aid, you may find that you can hear better, but that doesn’t necessarily mean you’re hearing at the level you should be at. This is why we prioritize hearing aid verification at the Hearing Care Clinic: to ensure you’re hearing all the sounds you should be able to hear. 

Signs You Should Get Your Hearing Checked

You may not be able to tell how bad your hearing has gotten—that’s what our job is—but there are some signs to keep in mind that it might be time for a hearing test.

• It sounds like people are mumbling or not speaking clearly
• House guests comment on the loud volume of your TV
• Your friends or family get annoyed because you mishear them
• It’s a challenge to understand conversations
• You often have to ask people to repeat themselves
• It’s hard for you to hear if there’s a lot of background noise (such as traffic or restaurant chatter)

Another sign that you may benefit from a hearing test is if you hear a persistent ringing, roaring, or buzzing sound, which could be tinnitus. This phantom sound could be a sign of hearing loss. 

If you suspect that you have hearing loss, our no-pressure hearing tests can help you validate your concerns and offer guidance for your next steps to restore this key sense, whether it’s wax removal or a hearing aid. 

How Do I Know If My Hearing Aid is Working?

Having a hearing aid is one thing, but having a hearing aid that truly restores your hearing is something else—we understand the difference at Hearing Care Clinic, which is why we take the time to verify hearing aid settings for every hearing aid we install. 

We use the Verifit® 2 system from Audioscan to verify all the hearing aids we place, which comes with many features and benefits. 

The hearing aid installation process begins with the placement of a tube, also known as a probe, into your ear. The probe is used to obtain real-ear measurements, which measure what is coming out of the hearing aid at the level of the eardrum—it’s a way to verify that what you should hear is truly what you’re receiving as an input. 

Once the tube is in place, the hearing aid is inserted on top. From there, we test the hearing aid to ensure it’s working as expected. 

Speechmap®

The Verifit 2 offers Speechmap, a guided workflow that aids hearing instrument verification by verifying how well you can hear certain sounds and how comfortable it is for you to hear these sounds. 

With this information, we can adjust the hearing aid as needed to confirm you’re hearing what you should be hearing and that the sound coming through the hearing aid isn’t uncomfortable. By taking the time to make these adjustments, we ensure that your hearing aid is something you continue to use and are completely satisfied with. 

What Happens If I Still Can’t Hear with a Hearing Aid?

You’ve had your hearing aid fit, and all the tests have been completed, but maybe a few months down the line, you’re starting to feel like everyone around you is mumbling again. Maybe not as bad as before you received a hearing aid, but enough so that you are still asking people to repeat themselves.

Things can change over time. A hearing aid with settings that worked perfectly before may need adjustments to keep up, and that’s okay. In some cases, you may become acclimated to the hearing aid, so you need to change the programming as time goes on. 

At Hearing Care Clinic, we understand that hearing aid care is not a one-and-done operation—it’s something that can take multiple adjustments. Maybe you felt that the hearing aid was at a comfortable setting in the clinic, but after a few weeks, something doesn’t seem right. Or, perhaps after a few months, your hearing has worsened, and so you need to make adjustments. Sometimes, the hearing aid might malfunction altogether, requiring a replacement or repair.

In each of these cases, your course of action should be the same—reach out to the clinic where you received your hearing aid. At Hearing Care Clinic, we will undergo the verification and validation process for the hearing aid again and make adjustments until you’re back to feeling like the hearing aid is working as it should.

Needing these adjustments is normal, especially as you get used to having a hearing aid, so don’t hesitate to reach out so that we can make sure your hearing aid is operating as it should. 

Do You Hear That? It’s Your Sign to Get Started.

If you feel as though your hearing has declined over the years and find yourself asking people to repeat themselves more often than not, it may be time to inquire about a hearing aid. 

Call Hearing Care Clinic today to schedule a no-pressure hearing test. We’ll see where your hearing levels are and then offer unbiased recommendations on where to go from there. In the end, the decision to take care of your hearing, and how you want to go about that, is up to you. 

References



Jorgensen LE; and; Novak M. Verification and Validation: Just the Standards. Semin Hear. 2022 Jul 26;43(2):85-93. doi: 10.1055/s-0042-1749208. PMID: 35903074; PMCID: PMC9325086.

Jorgensen LE. Verification and validation of hearing aids: Opportunity not an obstacle. J Otol. 2016 Jun;11(2):57-62. doi: 10.1016/j.joto.2016.05.001. Epub 2016 May 14. PMID: 29937811; PMCID: PMC6002586.