Have you now had your hearing test?

New hearing aid just been fitted?

Swapped from analogue to digital?

Welcome to a dedicated page for you.  Whether you have just had your first ever hearing test or the aid you have just had fitted is your first or maybe one of many, the whole process can sometimes be daunting.  It is often the case that no matter how well the audiologist explained things to you, by the time you got home and the family asked questions it was difficult to remember accurately all of the answers.  Or maybe you've just thought of something that you need answering.  Hopefully we will have provided the solution for you here.

We intend that this information will help you and serve as an aide memoire.  We have also included a diary of someone's journey into using digital hearing aids for the first time as an illustration of just some of the situations you may encounter and not realise that it is perfectly normal to hear sounds that are unfamiliar or seem different.

The Hearing Test

The questions you gave us permission to ask at the beginning are designed to help us assess your needs as well any medical conditions we need to be aware of.

The hearing test and assessment is designed to provide the practitioner with the information necessary to analyse if you need something to improve your hearing.  It will also enable the audiologist to decided whether to offer you one or two hearing aids and at what power rating.

Don't worry if you think you gave a wrong answer when you pressed the patient signal button, our methods of testing allow for these potential problems and the programming protocols for the hearing aids when it/they are fitted provide further checks against you having got mixed up.  Sometimes the tests we need to conduct can seem confusing for you, but we are used to the concerns people have, so please don't worry.  Our main aim is to enable you to hear better again.

Your ears were examined to check if there was any wax blocking your hearing potential and for any other underlying health problems, which might have needed referring to a specialist or GP.

The material that is put into your ear[s] to provide the mould is very similar to that which your dentist uses for his impressions.  Very rarely some people can experience a little discomfort during the removal when the silicon has set around one of the little hairs that sometimes can be seen near the entrance to the ear - these are not to be confused with the tiny "hair-cells" you may have heard of.  These are invisible to the naked eye and are contained deep inside the inner section of the ear.

There are different causes of hearing loss including hereditary factors, injury, illness and unfortunately ageing.

The Fitting

The first thing we have to do is check again that your ear is healthy enough for the mould to be fitted and then assure that it does fit snugly.  A close fit is essential to help prevent the "whistling" noises that so many people associate with hearing aids "not working".  In fact if it is making that noise it shows that it is very much working but not necessarily in the right position!

We will then run a series of tests designed to confirm that, together with your audiometric details gathered at the hearing test, we can programme your very sophisticated digital hearing aid to provide you with the right level of amplification.

It is then most important that we have joined the aid to the mould and shown you how to do this followed by a cleaning regime.  Then we show you how to work the aid before finally helping you get used to inserting and removing the aid.

It is most important that you and your family and friends realise that it will take some time before you are able to obtain the best results, that it is not the same or as good as "normal hearing" and that some people will do better faster than others.

*This would be a good time to skip ahead to where the next asterisk is placed. It will bring you to the beginning of one person's true story of embracing digital hearing aids.

The Follow-up

By the time you attend for this appointment you will have had the hearing aid for some weeks and will have gone through a variety of experiences - not all of them necessarily positive.  But we hope you were inspired by Damian Barry's account of his own discovery of the benefits of digital hearing aids.

It is most important on this visit to hear the good and bad of your previous weeks' experiences in order to make accurate and efective adjustments.  Not veryone will need re-programming and will have had only positive situations with their new equipment.  We still need these people to attend the follow-up as it provides very important data in providing assistance for the next generation of attendees.

Long-time  users  of  analogue hearing aids have  frequent l osses  of  confidence when they first try to use the new digital aids. When DAMIAN BARRY, Hearing Concern's chief executive, met audiologist Ian Croft at a presentation recently, he was persuaded to switch from analogue to digital. Here he records his experiences and the conflicting emotions in the critical first three weeks - the time it usually takes for the brain to adapt. (Phillip Barron - former Editor Hearing Concern)

Consultation and lunch

First hearing test since my schooldays. And the hearing in my right ear has got much worse - nearly at the bottom of the audiogram. The audiologist, Ian Croft, says some analogue aids can cause damage because they magnify sound often to volumes higher than normal ears can cope with. All those years wearing over-amplified aids! Now I have two new digital hearing aids and sounds are dull: lower, quieter. At lunch in a restaurant background noises are lower and I can talk to Ian comfortably - whereas before I hated restaurants because of the strain of holding a conversation amid all the other noises.

These digital aids have different settings and it's important to keep switching them depending on where I am. Here there's music, so I switch to that setting and Ian said the shock of hearing lyrics for the first time in a restaurant registered on my face. My main concern though is how quiet everything is. Am able to hear on a mobile phone for the first time without all the cackling, buzzing sounds I associate with them. And travelling back to London I bump into a colleague at Liverpool Street station. Her aunt is with her and before I realise what is happening I am having a full, flowing conversation - in one of the noisiest places imaginable.

The first week

Two sounds - and a conference –In the garden next morning I hear an ambulance siren fast approaching while at the same time the birds are making their tweeting noises. Amazing to hear two sounds at the same time. The real test comes in representing Hearing Concern at a conference. With the directional programme set, I am able to have conversations with ease whenever someone is facing me. But now it's the second day of the conference and we are sitting in a room facing one way towards the speaker. It's all question and answer and I'm missing out when people are speaking from rows behind me. Tempted to go back to the analogue aids I have in my bag. Everything is too quiet. All my life I have been used to louder sounds than I'm now experiencing.

I remember lan's explanation. I also remember hearing the music and being able to use the mobile. The temptation subsides. My resolve increases.

Hearing aid failure

I resist the temptation to go back to analogue but, on only my fourth day with digital, the right hearing aid doesn't work. Change the battery several times as advised. No good. The feeling of real disappointment I am experiencing shows I am actually missing the hearing aid - I must be getting used to it. Spend the day wearing only the one aid - when, mysteriously, upon trying the other it decides to work. Perhaps it was moisture in the tube, apparently this is not uncommon.The analogue versus digital debate is now raging in my mind and the temptation to go back to analogue increases. I don't feel I am succeeding. The quietness is starting to annoy me. Need to pump up the volume - find I can use the mobile but not the landline phone. Time to evaluate the pros and cons.

Pros

·   Use mobile - although quiet

·   Take part in conversation

·   Pick out words to music

·   New sounds, footsteps, clicking plates, drawers opening and shutting

·   Ambulance sirens and birds singing at same time

Cons

·   Difficult to use landline phone

·   Too quiet - takes some getting used too

·   Side conversation gets cut off

·   No real volume control  

At home with the kids

Programme setting 1 is working well talking with the children. The clarity in their voices is something I have never heard before. Television programmes are also clearer. But still difficulty using the landline phone. Do I need a different special one? I was using an ordinary phone before. I go back to analogue to use the phone. The shock of sound blasting down my ear is too much to bear. It is now actually painful wearing analogue aids! So quickly back to digital.

The downside is the kids' excitable, noisy mood. So many new sounds, it's getting too much. So I turn to programme 4, which reduces sudden loud sounds. Bearable.

Back at the airport

What a difference a few days makes - the tannoy is much better. Can follow the announcements! And the safety checks (though really I know the words by heart). To make digital aids workable I realise I must keep switching the four different programmes for different situations. I realise now that the benefits of digital outweigh the benefits of analogue.

The second week

Yet next day it's difficult again. The quietness gets to me and I am losing confidence in using the phone. And at a meeting I am told I am talking too loudly. Maybe I am trying to hear myself!

Second consultation

Explain to lan my on-and-off attitude about digital, but with the wonders of computer technology he adjusts my aids and I feel I can hear again. Now it's a quiet evening around the table but I can't follow a conversation! Too much bass. I'm missing the old programme settings and the digital aid seems to think it's analogue.

At the airport and the announcements are clearer. At home talking with the kids is manageable although not as good as last week. The constant laughing is bearable and I don't tell them to be quiet. I spend the day getting used to the programme lan has adjusted. My brain certainly needs time to get used to it all again.

At the supermarket

Very noisy. At a distance I hear someone call my name. I turn. They look surprised, say: "You heard me?" And for the first time I have a chat at the check out. Always avoided that in the past. But I am still not getting the hang of the phone.

Cinema, concerts and car

Went with my son to see Star Wars. Experiment with the loop. Nothing. (I forgot to check if a loop is installed). Now fatherly duties. At school for a concert. When talking I can follow when one person is speaking. But when the children sing I can't make out the words any better than with analogue. My daughter has finished her GCSE exams and I drive her to Dublin to see Coldplay in concert. Discovery - how pleasant to be able to chat when driving. I have always hated conversations while driving and trying to follow it against the noise of the car. Maybe I'll start giving lifts now and have great conversations.

The third week

Fifteen days now. I've lost the craving for analogue, the temptation to revert has almost gone. And I have a grin-and­-bear-it attitude every time I remember the noise screaming down my ear. The trouble is: the landline phone.

Aftercare

I realise with shock how important is the 'aftercare' lan has given and whether other people newly fitted with digital aids receive that. Next a day of tannoy announcements, travelling around London, going to meetings. They are clear and easy to make out but listening to music in the evening is not as good as before. But I can live with that. I have a garden party given by the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland soon - a new environment to test my new digital world.

After nine weeks

Today is day 60 of wearing digital hearing aids. I've had another aftercare visit to lan to fine tune them and four programme settings have been introduced again. The journey has been tough and I now fully understand what people mean when they have talked about their experiences. I am convinced that digital aids are best. I can use the mobile phone and landline, hold conversations in noisy places, chat in the car, listen to music ­and at last I have enjoyed the loop experience at the cinema.

Send in your experiences

Please write to me with details of your personal experiences of digital aids and what the aftercare was like. I am building a portfolio to get a better picture of the situation in the UK so that Hearing Concern can make proposals to the Government. If I had not had the aftercare I would still be using analogue aids. 

Hearing Concern, 95 Gray's Inn Road, London, WC1X 8TX