by Neil Bauman, Ph.D.
A lady wrote,
I just want to thank you for your great website. I’ve had hearing aids for 3 days and yours has been the best site I’ve found to explain what I’ve been feeling. Noises are overwhelmingly loud! I’m short-tempered and my head hurts trying to get accustomed to the hearing aids.
If this is happening then two things are wrong. First, and I don’t like to have to say this, but you have a hearing aid dispenser that either doesn’t know how to fit hearing aids properly, is ignorant of your needs as a hard of hearing person, is too lazy to do the job properly, or has a total lack of respect for you as a hard of hearing person.
She set your hearing aids to the proper level you need for your hearing loss (which seems logical and the right thing to do)—but the way she did it is wrong. If you have a significant hearing loss, It needs to be done in stages.
This is because your brain needs time to adjust to louder sounds. Your hearing aid dispenser should have set the volume to somewhat below where you need it and told you to get used to the louder sounds, then come back in a week or so and have the volume adjusted a bit louder and then come back in another week or so for some more and by that time you should be pretty well adjusted to your new hearing aids without having noise overload and getting headaches.
The other thing she did wrong was telling you to wear your new hearing aids all the time from the get-go. A better way is to start gradually—especially if the volume is set to where you need it—not increased gradually over time as I suggested above. If you haven’t already done so, read my article, “Becoming Friends with Your New Hearing Aids. It explains how to go about this. Some wise audiologists actually give this article to every one of their new hearing aid wearers.
Either way, following these two suggestions will make it ever so much easier to get used to wearing your new hearing aids.
Just got my first hearing aids Monday. My audiologist started me out at my optimum volume and suggested that I start wearing them all day. I was really surprised by how noisy the world is at this volume. The telephone is so loud that I want to race to it quickly to stop it. Obviously this is against what you are recommending. However, I’m not getting a headache, and I don’t find them physically uncomfortable. Since I am extremely tolerant of life’s little annoyances I’m just wearing them all day. It wouldn’t occur to me to put them in the drawer and not use them. I want to wear them all day – the sooner I can get used to them the better I think – and the sooner I will know what, if any, adjustments need to be made. Are these suggestions made because most people really do not want to wear them all day or is there some scientific reason that I should start out at a lower volume and not wear them all day. Yes, some noises are pretty loud but if I don’t mind it is this okay? I also don’t understand the denial thing. I’m tired of asking my wife to repeat herself all the time. I’ve been wanting hearing aids for a few years now and the cost has stopped me. When I met the criteria for free aids from the Veterans Administration I ordered them immediately. Why wouldn’t you want to try to find a solution for a physical problem? Makes no sense to me.
Ken
In my previous comment I used the term “little annoyance”. Please understand I was not referring to hearing loss. I was talking about some of the overly loud noises I heard when I put in the hearing aids. I understand that many people are hypersensitive to louder noises and these sounds would be more than a little annoyance to them.
Hi Ken:
If you can stand the sudden extra noise, more power to you. Not everyone can. If you want to wear your hearing aids all day from the get go–go ahead.
However, there are numbers of people who cannot do what you do. Maybe you only have a mild hearing loss and for people like you it is easier to wear hearing aids from the starting gate.
It’s not that people don’t want to wear hearing aids like you imply–but that the sudden audio overload is just too much to handle all at once. It takes time for your brain to change so working with it at its speed only makes sense.
You say, “Why wouldn’t you want to try to find a solution for a physical problem? Makes no sense to me.”
You are totally missing the boat. These people ARE working on the problem–but it takes time. What you are suggesting is like taking a “couch potato” and in one day turning him into a totally fit Seal or Ranger. You just can’t do that. It takes time to get your body in shape. Your auditory system is no different. That is why I recommend the slower (but sure) method.
Regards
Neil
Hi, I have been wearing oticon aids for 3 years delta 4channel oticon , I recently in April purchased alta pro oticon22 channel. I have experienced a migraine so severe
I ended up in the hospital yesterday . I did take out the alta pros and placed my deltas back in they prescribed me migraine meds I started to feel better and put my alta pros bak in within 10 minutes headache started again i then pulled them out and the headache has started to calm but is still there . Has anyone experienced this I am at a loss I will do an MRI tomorrow ….
Thank you , shanie
I hope this helps you shane…. I too have oticon – I am in the second week level 3 and for the last 3 days have experienced migraine headaches..took them off today for a rest … head feels better
Hi, I haven’t worn my hearing aids for a month or so because I am emarassed.. My head hurts when I wear them! Is it because of my audiologist or because I have not been wearing them?
Hi I am trying oticon alta 2 , I wore them for 13 hours between 2 days and got a migraine again , I see that the doctor recommends trying an hour at a time I will try it I want to hear better very frustrated . I will say the doctors information makes sense I about fell over when I heard the toilet flush yesterday ???? . I would accept any suggestions …thank you
I have wore hearing aids since I was 3, now I am 30. Different brands styles analog digital in the ear and out I dislike them all. I didn’t get headaches when as a kid but that’s cause I didn’t wear them all the time, only to school that’s it. When at home they were put up. Mainly because I was little I tend to lose them. But as I got older I wore them more, had headaches all the time. My headaches were so bad my head is throbbing my eyes are throbbing I get sick to my stomach. But when I take hearing aids out, the headache eases off but doesn’t go away til the next day after some sleep. Point is, I dont think it has anything to do with your brain needs time to adjust or you are new to it. I believe that your ears, your brain is over working constantly when wearing it. Hear this, hear that, it’s going to be a headache for the rest of my life, unless I choose not to wear them period. I did notice when I went without hearing aids for 2 months I did not get one headache and I put them on again the headaches are back.
Hi Candice:
Your brain DOES need time to adjust to new hearing aids, but getting headaches constantly is a problem.
I can think of two possibilities of what is causing your headaches.
First, it could be that your hearing aids/earmolds are putting pressure on your ear somewhere and this results in headaches. Thus when you take them out the headaches go away. One way to prove whether this is the case or not is to wear your hearing aids but leave them turned off. If you get the headaches, then you know it is a “physical” problem regarding the “fit” of the hearing aids in your ears.
Second, if the above does not produce headaches, then you know it is the amplification of the hearing aids that is producing the headaches. The solution is to turn down the volume until the headaches disappear. That’s the maximum volume you can stand and your audiologist should not try to make you wear them at a louder volume.
One possibility is that it is not the overall volume that is set too high, but the volume at a given frequency. If your audiologist tests your uncomfortable listening level (UL) at each audiological test frequency and then sets the compression on your aids to just below these levels BY FREQUENCY, that should largely solve this problem. Unfortunately, few hearing aid dispensers and audiologists ever check your UL by frequency, so you’ll have to specifically ask them to do this.
I think one of the above is your problem and hopefully it can be solved by someone who is willing to work with you doing the above.
Cordially,
Neil
Actually Sir, not to be rude. My hearing aids were not set too loud. I spoke to my audiologist that told me to just stop wearing them. The answer I was given, if she turns it up loud enough for me to hear, the problem would be worse if she turns them down I may as well not wear it. I rather not hear than to deal with excruciating
migraines every day. Also by not wearing them not only has the migraines stopped, I dont have to go to the neurologist anymore, wasting time and money for meds that dont work. Hearing aids are not for everyone. Have an awesome day.
Hi Candice:
Actually, your hearing aids WERE set too loud–the proof was you got the migraines. They could have been set to a lower volume such that you wouldn’t get migraines. I’m not saying they would be effective for hearing at that volume. Your audiologist is probably right there.
Another point is that your hearing aids may have been too loud for you at only one or two frequencies. If they were set to be below your uncomfortable loudness level BY frequency, this might be avoided. Few audiologists bother to set the UCL by frequency–and thus cause pain from certain sounds. In your case, this may be triggering the migraines.
However, I agree with you, if not wearing hearing aids prevents the migraines and the other health problems, go for it. I don’t wear my hearing aids in certain sound conditions because I get headaches from wearing them. I’ve found other assistive devices let me hear in such conditions without headaches. So do what works for you.
Cordially,
Neil
Hello, I’ve had hearing aids for a few years now and have been wearing them to school and workplaces mainly. The last couple of days I’ve stared a new senior school and I am just sick of the overwhelming headaches that feel like a brick sitting in my head. I’m also sick of the fact that I still can’t hear that well. I’f I could basic things like everyone else, I would be more willing to tolerate the headaches. I’ve asked so many people if there’s at least a mild solution that would ease the pain, non. Is there anything I can do?
Hi Pat:
Hearing aids should not give you headaches. If they do they are set wrong for you in those situations that are causing your headaches. You need to go back to where you got them and have them set so they work better for you and do NOT cause you headaches.
Maybe you just need to turn down the volume, on use a “noise” program or whatever. And if nothing works, take them off in situations that give you headaches. I do the same. Just wear your hearing aids where they help you–not all the time if they are causing you headaches.
Cordially,
Neil
I had my hearing aids now for about a week. I have never felt this tired in my life. By about 5 a clock I feel exhausted and a headache is starting to develop. By the end of the night I have a quite bad headache. My right ear pick up much louder sound tgen my left. I sort of gotten used to it know but it feels as if all my hearing comes from my right. My audiologist warmed me that I would be overwhelmed and at times just wanting to rip them out and the last two days that’s exactly how I feel. She told me that if I don’t wear them all day every day my brain will never “get used to it” and every time I put them in I have to “start all over”. I do recognise that they help me so much. I can hear things like the microwave beeping, my daughter talking to me with her head turned away. Talking whilst driving without having to look at my passenger etc. But I’m so tired and the head feels as if it’s about to explode
Hi Sara:
I hate to say this, but your audiologist is lying to you while telling you the truth. She is totally ignorant of the real needs of hard of hearing people and needs to learn this before she fits another person with hearing aids.
Let’s look at this more closely. You are wiped out and have headaches because your brain is having to put up with too much sound too quickly and is totally overloaded.
In effect, what she has done (using a swimming analogy) is taken you–a brand new swimmer–and thrown you in the English Channel and told you to swim all the 22 or so miles of choppy water from England to France for your FIRST swimming lesson. You can see at once how ridiculous it is.
You have to first get used to the water, then learn to float, then learn to do basic swim strokes, the start to build up your endurance, and then practice every day for years before you are read to attempt swimming the English Channel.
You need to use the same process in learning to wear hearing aids. Yes she is right that you need to wear them all day every day so that your brain will completely adapt to them. BUT she is totally wrong in expecting you to do that from the very first day. You need to build up slowly, just like learning to swim.
It takes your brain about 90 days to adapt to wearing hearing aids so you have 90 days to build up to wearing them all day in all listening situations.
So let’s look at what she should have told you and done.
First, she should have set your hearing aids to a lower level of amplification than you ultimately need and then increase the amplification every week or two as your brain adjusts to louder sounds coming in. In fact, some hearing aids have this built in. The audiologist sets the ultimate amplification level you need for your hearing loss, then programs the hearing aids to give you reduced sound for the first week or so, then more sound the next week and more sound the next week until the proper level is achieved after several weeks of wearing your new hearing aids. That way your brain is not overloaded and you do not end up with headaches and rip your new “ears” out because you can’t stand the racket.
Second, just like learning to swim, you have to build up your endurance. You start wearing your hearing aids for say an hour a day, and then increase that time by a half hour or hour a day as you can handle it. In a couple of weeks to a month, you’ll then be wearing them all or most of the day. This is how you build up your endurance–NOT jumping in cold turkey like your audiologist is expecting you to do. This is just plain stupid and wrong.
Third, you build up your tolerance to loud sounds gradually. In other words you start out only wearing your hearing aids in relatively quiet situations, then over the next few weeks you build up to louder and louder environments. Again, this lets your brain gradually adjust to the new sounds it is hearing, rather than overloading it all at once.
Again, using our swimming analogy, your swim instructor starts you off swimming in a calm swimming pool, not out in choppy ocean with 3 foot waves. You’d just drown if she did that–and that is exactly what is happening to you–you are drowning in sound your brain is not prepared for.
So you need to do these three steps concurrently and in time–two to three months–your brain will have largely adapted to your wearing hearing aids in all listening conditions.
I wrote an article that one smart audiologist prints out and gives to ALL her new hearing aid wearers. It shows you how to become friends with your new hearing aids the right way. You can read this article at http://hearinglosshelp.com/blog/becoming-friends-with-your-new-hearing-aids/
Don’t let your audiologist railroad you into thinking you have to do all of this the very first day. That is just plain wrong. Build up gradually as your brain adapts.
Cordially,
Neil
I purchased my new Phonak Auedo Heaing Aids yesterday, 1/25/18. I wore them home and kept them in my ear for approx. 5 hrs. Today 1/26/18, I wore my hearing aids for approx. 7 or 8 hrs. and I am experiencing very uneasiness. I am dizzy, feeling overloaded from after hearing various noises and experiencing lacking control in my mental judgement.
Hi Gene:
You are wearing your hearing aids too long, too loud and too soon. You need to take time–maybe one hour the first day and work up maybe an hour a day. When you get such symptoms, you are going at it much too fast. Your brain needs time to adjust to the extra volume you now hear. Read my article at http://hearinglosshelp.com/blog/becoming-friends-with-your-new-hearing-aids/ for the proper way to adjust to new hearing aids.
You should also read this short article on the results of learning to wear hearing aids the way the above article teaches. It’s at http://hearinglosshelp.com/blog/becoming-friends-with-your-new-hearing-aids-revisited/ .
Cordially,
Neil
Interesting stories. Last two months I borrowed Signia Pure 7Nx, Resound Linx2, Audeo50 Phonak and Oticon opn 1. I do have a headache with Oticon. I did not suffer any problems with Signia Pure – that was just a pleasant sound all the day (since first moment), I felt I could lean onto them. So I am not sure if it is about “getting used”. Moreover, the best audiologist is that one who wears hearing aid too. Healthy people just repeat what someone told them at training course. I am sorry. And, pardon my English, I am not a native speaker.
I have had hearing loss since I got out of the Navy in 1993. The last few years it has gotten worse. Six weeks ago I received my first set of hearing aids, (Oticon OPN1 Rechargeable). I was not instructed on adhering to a schedule or “break-in” period. The last week, I have woken up in the morning with what I can only describe as a migraine on two occasions. I have never had migraines before and was wondering if this could be related to the hearing aids and not getting used to them.
Hi Mel:
Why has your tinnitus gotten worse? Has your hearing been dropping in these past years?
If you have been wearing your hearing aids all the time for the past 6 weeks, without any problems, I somehow don’t think your migraines are related to them unless you were around a lot of noise in the past couple of days that might have brought the migraines on.
Cordially,
Neil
Hi
I’ve been suffering from meniere disease for 4months. I have moderate hearing loss and tinnitus. So i purchase signia prompt click cic today. I wore it about 3hours.After that, i felt pain around orbit and temple. May it be related to hearing aid i wore?
Could you give me some suggestion?
Hi Moe:
Why not get rid of your Meniere’s disease rather than put up with it? You can read how in my comprehensive article at https://hearinglosshelp.com/blog/atlas-adjustments-alleviate-menieres-disease/ . Doctors don’t know about this so won’t tell you about this reputable treatment that works for almost everyone with Meniere’s.
Now to your question on your hearing aid causing you pain. It could be that it fits too tightly into your ear canal and thus is causing you pain. This may go away if you only wear it for 1 hour the first day and increase it in 15 minute increments each day while your ears and head get used to it. It wouldn’t be a bad idea to go back to your audiologist and explain the problems you are having and see whether there are any pressure points that need to be fixed.
Cordially,
Neil
Is there any correlation between bluetooth and headaches? I have been suffering from headaches since I got new aids with bluetooth technology. These are my third set of hearing aids in 10 years, so I am not an amateur! I appreciate your comments about volume increase as a possible cause as well.
I am aware that many people are now “allergic” to EMF signals. I would appreciate your opinion possible correlations.
In Gratitude,
Nancy
Hi Nancy:
The pulsed EMF signals from bluetooth gizmos can cause headaches. But so can pulsed microwaves from other devices you use such as a cell phone, tablet or computer, or smart TV and smart speakers, etc. So if these devices give you headaches, then your hearing aids might also do the same. But if not, I’d rather doubt the bluetooth in your hearing aids is the culprit. There’s always a chance, but probably more unlikely. The easy way to find out is not to wear those hearing aids for a week and see whether you don’t get headaches, then wear them again and if the headaches come back, maybe there is some truth to it.
But at the same time, a more likely scenario is a volume increase. If your new aids sound significantly louder, especially in the higher frequencies, that could be another possibility. To prove this, turn down the gain a bit (or have your audiologist turn down the gain if you can’t) and see what happens. If it is the aids being set too loud (but that is the right target volume) then I’d suggest you have the aids turned down to just below where they cause headaches and wear them for a week or so, then go back and have your audiologist turn up the gain a wee bit and do that for another week or two, and keep doing that as your brain adjusts until you are at your target gain. By then, your brain should have adapted so you don’t get headaches.
Some hearing aids actually have this built right into them–so your audiologist can program them to start out softer and the aids will automatically then increase the gain a bit every week or two until it reaches target.
Cordially,
Neil