In my opinion this consumer has not had the whole "hearing aid" concept from start to finish explained to him/her. What I explain to my patients is that a hearing aid is an "aid" to help you hear better, but not like your normal God-given ears. Everyone hears; it is their understanding that is the biggest issue for new hearing instrument wearers. I like to set goals for my patients and start off taking baby steps on the first initial fit of the hearing aids. I set realistic expectations, council on communication skills, and also assign homework.

I believe that we, as hearing professionals, need to divide up a patient's audiogram (hearing test) into two parts; the first part deals with the hearing loss, and the second part deals with where the patient's speech understanding falls. The biggest concentration should be making sure that the consumer/patient really understands what his/her word discrimination is and how we(the patient and I) are going make the best of what we have to work with. I like to assign concentration paragraphs, if you have a husband that could practice with his wife or vice versa. I like to practice using basic computer programs for concentration and speech in noise games. We can make this fun and the patients love the challenge, and they feel they are working towards something with a return on this big investment.

I agree with this angry consumer that there are a lot of hearing health care practitioners who do not know how to adjust hearing aids correctly, but there are a vast majority that do know how. I also believe that proper information, realistic expectations and goals are the most important part of the success of wearing a hearing aid. Everyone does things a little different, but I do agree there should be a norm on what is protocol or the "must do" at delivery. I think that the most crucial time that we need, as hearing professionals, is to spend time not only counseling but active listening to our patients needs. I find that telling stories about other people and their journey with hearing aids helps this new patient understand that he/she is not alone when it comes to learning how to "hear" again.

In the end, every patient is different. You have some people who absolutely love the hearing aids and then you have some who hate them. I believe with proper information and the right hearing provider you (the patient) will do very well. You have to be ready to make that next step.