Can Hearing Aids Cause Headaches?

Everyone with hearing loss has a different situation, and hearing aids are made to help with those different situations. There’s a way to fix hearing aids that give you headaches or other kinds of pain, whether you’ve been using them for years or just started.

If your hearing aid is set up right, it will meet your needs and fit comfortably in your ear. If your hearing aid hurts or makes you feel bad – including giving you a headache – you should make sure it’s set up right and that it’s the right device for you by speaking to an expert audiologist. Read on to find out more about how and why hearing aids can sometimes cause headaches.

Headaches When You First Start Wearing Hearing Aids

Your brain is a very complex machine, and it will always try to compensate if it feels something is wrong. When you first start wearing hearing aids, the brain needs to get used to the new sound environment that the hearing aid creates. Because of this, it’s very common for people using the devices for the first time to feel dizzy or get a headache. Your brain is trying to work out how to deal with the new sounds and the new capacity to hear. The longer you have been experiencing hearing loss, the more of a challenge this can be.

Apart from getting advice from an audiologist as soon as possible when you realize you have hearing loss – which can minimize the chances of getting headaches when you wear hearing aids – you should also try to get used to them gradually. Listen to the advice your audiologist offers; they might suggest you wear your hearing aids for short periods of time and build up to wearing them all day, for example. Since they are the experts, following their advice is always recommended.

Hearing Aids Aren’t Fitted Correctly

Tinnitus and headaches are only two of the symptoms that might be brought on by hearing aids that pick up and amplify excessively loud noises. It usually means the volume is turned up too high. Equally, hearing aids that are not turned up enough can also cause headaches, as can hearing aids that don’t fit in the ear in the right way. In other words, your hearing aid could cause headaches if you’re not using them correctly.

This is another reason for getting advice from an audiologist who will be able to adjust your hearing aid accurately and show you how to do the same. Although over-the-counter hearing aids are available, there is more likelihood that you’ll get headaches from using them because they won’t have been fitted by an audiologist. Make sure you’re aware of this when you’re making the decision about where to buy hearing aids from.

Is It the Hearing Aid?

In some cases, it might not be the hearing aid that is causing the headache, but instead, it could be the hearing loss itself.

The Egyptian team at Assiut University Hospital found a link between migraines and tinnitus, which can lead to hearing loss. Sixty-two percent of people who experience migraines have some kind of problem with their cochlea or auditory pathways.

It’s often known that migraine attacks can cause visual disturbances like visual aura, but fewer people are aware that ear issues and hearing complaints are common among migraine experiencers. Vertigo and dizziness, symptoms that might come from a problem with the vestibular system affect about 40% of people who experience migraines, for example.

In other words, you might experience migraines or bad headaches. This could lead to some hearing loss. You then wear hearing aids to compensate for the hearing loss, but the headaches continue because no cause has been determined. This could lead you to feel that the hearing aid has caused the headache when in reality, it has not.

Speak to an Audiologist

Having your personalized hearing aid fitted and adjusted is one of the best ways to make sure it fits properly, and in this way, you can reduce the possibility of headaches. Ear impressions will be used to create a one-of-a-kind set of hearing aids for you. Adjusting the hearing aid’s settings so that you can isolate the sounds you want to amplify while decreasing the volume of the ones you don’t is important after you’ve found the proper fit.

To make an appointment and to find out more about hearing loss and hearing aids, please contact the experts at Atlantic Audiology at (401) 262-0170.