Expectations
It is very important for a patient to have realistic expectations about their hearing aids. Although this topic is discussed in much more detail in an actual Hearing Aid Evaluation (HAE), we feel it is important to address it here as well.

If you are a candidate for hearing aids, that means that you have a hearing loss and your auditory system is damaged. Even with the best possible hearing aids for your hearing loss, things are not going to sound like they did when you had normal hearing. These are a few things to be aware of:

Occlusion - The sensation of plugged ears. Because you now have hearing aids in the part of your ear that was open, you may experience problems with your own voice sounding echoey, hollow or like you are talking in a barrel. For people with occlusion, the size of the hearing aid plays a big role.

Loudness Perception - We realize that you may not be used to hearing many of the sounds that a hearing aid will bring back into your life, so we gradually increase the volume of your hearing aid to progress at a comfortable pace. This is why during your trial period it is important to make and keep your follow-up visits.

Feedback - There will be situations when your hearing aid may give you feedback or whistle. Whenever you cover your ITE hearing aid with your hand or telephone, it may cause feedback. There are adjustments we can make and different positions to hold the phone to reduce the feedback.

These are just a few of the issues that we encounter on a routine basis and try to overcome. Your success as a hearing aid user will come from your motivation and realistic expectations of what a hearing aid can do. Technology has changed over the years and we are much better off than we were - but there are still limitations - and if you are aware of them and are willing to accept them, your success will be much better.

Benefits of Binaural Amplification
In the past, sound was recorded with one microphone: "mono." Music and speech recorded in mono sounds flat and unnatural. Mono recording has been replaced with stereo recording. This uses two microphones which creates a more natural and lively sound.

With a hearing loss in both ears, the situation is similar. The hearing system also functions on the principle of stereo sound. The hearing center of the brain relies on two independent "microphones" - the ears. If only one ear is functioning properly, you could have difficulty understanding speech in noisy environments and in locating the direction from which a sound is coming. This means that it is advisable to wear a hearing instrument in both ears, assuming your hearing loss requires this.

In general, benefits include:

• ability to localize sound
• better speech understanding in a noisy environment
• requires less volume from the hearing aids
• hear equally from both sides
• better sound quality
• less listening fatigue.