You may be feeling the air trapped between the tip of the ear-piece and your eardrum, or you may have wax in your external auditory canal. This feeling usually passes in a few days.

If the sensation continues to bother you, your dispenser can probably alter the ear-piece and relieve the problem.

My own voice sounds different, or loud.

There are several explanation for this:

Because your mouth is very close to the hearing aid microphone, your own voice will sound louder than that of a person who is several feet away.
Because of the hearing loss, you have not been hearing your own voice unless you speak loudly. Since the hearing aid amplifies everything, it also amplifies your voice. In most cases this is an advantage because many hearing impaired persons tend to talk too loud in order to hear and monitor their own voices.
Hearing your own voice through hearing aids is not the same as hearing naturally. If you have set the hearing aid volume controls to their lowest comfortable levels, you will find this sound easier to adjust to. Over time, you may increase the volume levels.

My hearing aids whistle, or make noises.

This may be caused by two major problems:

An improperly fitted ear piece. This is most likely the cause. Sound escapes from the ear canal around the ear piece, is picked up by the hearing aid microphone, and causes the hearing aid to "squeal". This is commonly called "feedback".
A defective hearing aids. This would be due to a mechanical defect and should be repaired.

What can hearing aids do?

They can provide emphasis of certain parts of the audio spectrum. For example, most provide high-pitch emphasis since this is the area most frequently lost by those with hearing impairment.

What is a HFE aid?

High frequency emphasis (high pitches amplified) is frequently provided for those who have lost their hearing primarily in the high frequencies. For these individuals, speech is heard, but distinguishing words and/or speech sounds is not easy. These hearing aids are selected so that low-pitched sounds, where hearing is normal, reach the ear without being made louder.

What can hearing aids not do?

No hearing aid will totally eliminate all background noise while enhancing speech. However, hearing aids are designed to try to improve the amplification of speech signals and suppress background noise.

Why does it take longer for me to adjust to hearing aids?

Not everyone will receive the same degree of benefit from hearing aids. This depends on the nature and severity of the person's hearing loss, and possibly more important, the individual's motivation to wear hearing aids.

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