Which hearing aid should I choose?

Because hearing loss is so gradual, it’s not always easy to notice if you’re not hearing as well as you used to. Here are some signs you can look out for:

• The TV’s volume is too loud for other members of your family
• You find it difficult to keep up with conversations when there’s background noise
• Chatting on the phone is tricky even when the room is quiet
• You feel like people are mumbling a lot, and you have to ask them to repeat what they’ve said.

Often it’s your loved ones who notice a hearing loss before you do – so they might hint that you’re finding it difficult to hear too.

Luckily, at Boots Hearingcare, it’s easy to find out if you how well you’re hearing. Our free online hearing check can give you an idea in only a few minutes. You can also book a free 15-minute hearing check at your local Boots Hearingcare by clicking here or calling us on 01 5060164 .

If the test indicates that you could be hearing better, we’ll invite you back for a full hearing assessment, which takes around 75 minutes. If we think a hearing aid could help you, then you’ll be invited for further appointments to discuss the different options and have your hearing aid fitted.

We’ll help you choose the right hearing aid based on a few different factors: the first is the nature and severity of your hearing loss. We’ll also ask you about your lifestyle, the type of work you do, and your hobbies: for example, making a lot of phone calls, spending a lot of time in the car, having a very active social life, or spending more time at home are all factors that can help your Hearing Aid Audiologist advise you on which hearing aids will work best for you. They’ll also bear in mind your ease with technology, the style you’d prefer, and the shape and size of your ear canals when they present the different options to you.

At Boots Hearingcare, hearing aids start from €650 a pair.

When your Hearing Aid Audiologist fits your hearing aid for the first time, they’ll tailor its settings so it’s right for you. In your follow-up appointments, they can make other minor adjustments and tweaks if you’d like them. You might find it useful to keep a hearing diary in order for you to remember certain situations where you noticed you’d like the volume or the settings to be tweaked, and then bring it to your next appointment to show your Hearing Aid Audiologist.

It might take a little while to get used to your new hearing aids and you might find they need a couple of adjustments.

Hearing with both ears is called binaural hearing. Binaural hearing allows you to determine which direction a sound is coming from: it will reach one ear a fraction of a second sooner (and more loudly) than the other.

Your brain uses the time between when the sound reaches both your ears to calculate the direction that the sound has come from. This means that the only reliable way to tell where a sound comes from is by having two healthy ears, it also helps to hear better in background noise.

Binaural hearing is essential for things like being able to determine where a car is coming from so you can cross the road safely – it could save your life!

Two healthy ears – two hearing aids
Most forms of age-related hearing loss affect both ears. Even if one ear is worse than the other, it’s usually better to have two hearing aids – they can be programmed differently so that each one is perfectly tailored to the hearing loss in that ear. In short, you need both your ears working at their best to let you hear at your best – it’s as simple as that.