The good audiologist or hearing aid consultant spends considerable time and effort in selecting and/or adjusting the hearing aid to the patient, but sometimes neglects a factor of equal or greater importance, i.e., the adjustment and conditioning of the patient to accept and utilize a hearing aid to the best advantage.
The patient is usually all pleased and excited at hearing loud noises where only muted or no noise has been heard for some time, and consequently he is inclined to be noncritical. It is very easy for the audiologist to go along with this spirit of optimism, if for no other reason than that it seems too bad to spoil the patient's illusion so soon. However, the patient is eventually going to learn that loud noises are not necessarily intelligible noises and may be very irritating. He is also going to learn that even a well-fitting ear mold is