From frustration to joy: What I learned about getting a hearing aid
[June 05, 2025]
By KATHERINE ROTH
NEW YORK (AP) — My first tip-off were the little things, the
high-pitched little things: the doorbell and ringtones my kids could
hear but I could not.
Then it was the garbled-sounding conversations, and the accompanying
annoyance of having to ask people to repeat themselves. Or worse, giving
up and just playing along without being able to follow everything that
was being said.
Even then, I stalled for years before finally going through the process
of getting a hearing aid. How do you even begin? Will it look clunky and
make me feel like a dinosaur? And the cost!
Getting a hearing test, and confirmation that I needed a hearing aid,
was just the beginning.
Finding an expert
The doctor handed me a list of places I could go to get fitted. I made
some calls and narrowed it down to the places that took my insurance and
my zero-interest health care credit card.
The first couple places were demoralizing: I walked in, was told it’d be
$7,000 for the “best” option (they mysteriously didn’t happen to have
any other options handy), then marched right back out the door, utterly
discouraged.
I started asking friends and neighbors whether they wore a hearing aid,
or knew anyone at all with a hearing aid, and could point me to a good
audiologist.
It took a lot of poking around, but I found one — and it made all the
difference.
The joy of reconnecting with the world
I’ve been wearing my hearing aids for several months now, and they are
as easy as slipping on a pair of glasses, are almost invisible, have
reconnected me with the world, and, as crazy as this may sound, they
bring me joy.
After talking with a few audiologists around the country, it turns out
that my experience is pretty typical.
“There are a lot of people who stall before getting one,” says Meagan P.
Bachmann, director of audiology at Atrium Health Wake Forest Baptist, in
North Carolina.
“Hearing is important because it connects us with people,” she says.
“Multiple studies show that not hearing can affect your ability to
connect with others and participate in life, so you have to think of it
in terms of overall health. Maybe you no longer go to family events, or
you don’t understand your doctor. People start to withdraw. A lot of
people come in because it’s gotten so bad that it is impacting their
relationships.”
Steps to take
To speed up the process and make it less frustrating, here’s what the
pros recommend:
1. Get tested, take the results seriously, and know that many if not
most hearing aids these days are small, nearly invisible, rechargeable,
and pretty easy to wear and maintain. And believe it or not, hearing
aids can be fun — these days, there are colors to choose from and ways
to bejewel them. One company, Deafmetal, makes jazzy-looking “safety
rings” to help keep hearing aids in place.
2. Shop for an expert audiologist. Look for someone who takes your
insurance or any sort of medical credit card you might have, or has a
payment plan of some kind, if needed. This is a world at the awkward
juncture of consumerism and medical care, but a good audiologist should
come across as a medical provider, not a salesperson. And a good
audiologist should take the time to work with you to find a hearing aid
that meets your individual needs, and also fits your budget.
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This image released by Deafmetal shows a selection of their hearing
aid devices. (Deafmetal via AP)
 A good place to start is often with
your doctor; with the American Academy of Audiologists, which lists
providers on its website; or by word of mouth.
“Although all hearing aids are amplifiers, not everybody needs the
same thing,” says Bachmann. “Fitting a hearing aid is an art. It
changes the acoustics, and everyone is different. You want someone
who listens to your lifestyle needs. Do you have a lot of difficulty
with noise? Are you mostly in quiet situations? How much technology
do you need, and what kind?”
Greta Stamper, an audiologist at the Mayo Clinic in Jacksonville,
Florida, agrees. “Hearing loss is not a one-time thing. It’s a
chronic health condition. It should be a partnership between you and
your audiologist,” she said. “It’s someone asking you what you’re
looking for and how it’s going. You shouldn’t feel pressured or
pushed.”
3. A note on cost. Although hearing aids can be pricey, there are
affordable options, and a good audiologist should be able to let you
try out options at several price points. Insurance often covers much
of the cost, and there are ways to pay for the remaining cost in
installments. Also, avoidance has pretty high costs as well,
audiologists say, and the longer the wait, the harder it may be to
solve the problem with a hearing aid. Although there are cheaper
hearing aids at big box stores, Bachmann warns that it’s good to
check with your audiologist before taking that route. “Some of those
hearing aids are locked, so that you’re not allowed to have them
programmed by an outside audiologist,” she says.
Remember, says Stamper, that hearing aids are an investment, and
usually last between five and six years.
4. Know your rights. “We select what is the most likely to be
successful, and if it doesn’t work out you come back and do
something else,” says Stamper. She said most states mandate a trial
period. In some cases, hearing-aid companies also cover the cost of
multiple visits to your audiologist while you are getting used to
your new hearing aid and get training in how to use and maintain it.
5. Embrace the process, and expect it to take a little time and a
few expert tweaks. Audiologists say your brain needs time to adjust
to a hearing aid, and that hearing-aid settings should be adjusted
little by little as your brain adapts to them.
“A big misconception is that you can just wear them a couple hours a
day. Your brain does better with it if you use them most of the day.
Your brain needs to adapt to hearing sounds it hasn't heard for a
while, and it takes the brain awhile to relearn how to process all
those sounds,” says Stamper.
6. Be realistic. “Although hearing aids can be enormously
beneficial, they may not give you back your normal hearing,” says
Stamper. Depending on the situation, there might be limitations to
what a hearing aid can do.
“It might just be lots of improvement in the key areas in which
you’re struggling,” said Stamper.
Using hearing aids is a process, the audiologists say, and although
it requires some patience, it can be well worth the journey.
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