How to Deal With Restaurant Noise When Wearing
Hearing Aids
Simple tips to defeat the inevitable presence of restaurant noise... and that one person with the overly clamorous voice.
How to Deal With Restaurant Noise When Wearing
Hearing Aids
Simple tips to defeat the inevitable presence of restaurant noise... and that one person with the overly clamorous voice.
Restaurants are great for many reasons. They provide a respite on nights you don't feel like cooking or doing dishes. They're an ideal place to enjoy a night with your friends and family. They help take the pressure off deciding what to do for a first date. But, restaurants also tend to be noisy. It can be difficult to have a conversation at your table when the voices you're trying to hear are drowned out by conflicting ambient noises. Between the chatter from other patrons, the clanging of eating utensils against plates, the sounds coming from the kitchen, the overhead music that always seems to be turned up a couple levels too high, and the one person in your vicinity who always seems to have an overly boisterous laugh, it can quickly become frustrating to attempt to have a conversation with the people who you're trying to an enjoy a night with.
Though conversations in this environment are already challenging, they become even more difficult if you have hearing loss or wear hearing aids. Below are a few tips that can help you cut through the ambient noises in restaurants while wearing hearing aids:
Pick the restaurant
If you're in charge of picking the restaurant to go to, choose one that you know is quiet. Typically, bars and grilles tend to be more noisy than other restaurants. Also, it will be beneficial to start noting the décor and layout of restaurants you go. Places with carpet, heavy drapes, low ceilings, and kitchens that aren't visible usually minimize ambient noises.
*Bonus tip: start checking local reviews. Many places are now implementing noise ratings in their reviews.
If at a lunch or dinner meeting, sit facing the primary speaker
Speaker here is referring to a person, not the thing that projects music. Hearing in noisy environments is partly dependent upon reading visual cues from lip movements. So, the clearer you can see a person's face, the better you'll be able to understand what they're saying.
Schedule around lunch and dinner rushes
This one is simple: less people means less noise.
Don't nod in agreement if you don't hear what is said
Pretending to hear what someone is saying can not only become a bad habit, but it can also leave you misinformed and confused. Instead of nodding your head in agreement, don't be afraid to ask for clarification.
Make sure to wear your hearing aids
Seems obvious, right? Your hearing aids are vastly important in situations where there's a lot of background noise. Though your hearing aids will still pick up some of the ambient noise, they will amplify the voices of the people closest to you. Hearing aid technology has come a long way, and they're now able to amplify the person you're looking at (and therefore trying to hear) over the other people in the room.
Consider Accessories
If you have a more severe level of hearing loss, hearing aids might not be sufficient in a large group with multiple people speaking. Wireless hearing aid accessories can be helpful in this situation. For example, a small wireless microphone can be placed on a table pointing at the person you'd like to focus on. This enables a vast improvement in terms of reducing competing noise. These accessories can be paired with most modern hearing aids.
Inspect your hearing aids before your outing
Most hearing aids that require disposable batteries will alert you when your battery is close to being drained. Check the status of your batteries before you head out and always remember to take spare batteries with you just in case. In the case of rechargeable instruments, make sure you have a solid charge in them before heading out to a busy restaurant.
Don’t stress
Everyone knows that restaurants have a reputation of being noisy places, so no one will be surprised if you have a hard time hearing. If you are struggling to hear, stressing out will just make your mind race and make it much more difficult to keep up with the conversation. Be calm, and try to enjoy the moment.
Restaurants are great for many reasons. They provide a respite on nights you don't feel like cooking or doing dishes. They're an ideal place to enjoy a night with your friends and family. They help take the pressure off deciding what to do for a first date. But, restaurants also tend to be noisy. It can be difficult to have a conversation at your table when the voices you're trying to hear are drowned out by conflicting ambient noises. Between the chatter from other patrons, the clanging of eating utensils against plates, the sounds coming from the kitchen, the overhead music that always seems to be turned up a couple levels too high, and the one person in your vicinity who always seems to have an overly boisterous laugh, it can quickly become frustrating to attempt to have a conversation with the people who you're trying to an enjoy a night with.
Though conversations in this environment are already challenging, they become even more difficult if you have hearing loss or wear hearing aids. Below are a few tips that can help you cut through the ambient noises in restaurants while wearing hearing aids:
Pick the restaurant
If you're in charge of picking the restaurant to go to, choose one that you know is quiet. Typically, bars and grills tend to be more noisy than other restaurants. Also, it will be beneficial to start noting the décor and layout of restaurants you go to. Places with carpet, heavy drapes, low ceilings, and kitchens that aren't visible usually minimize ambient noises.
*Bonus tip: start checking local reviews. Many places are now implementing noise ratings in their reviews.
If at a lunch or dinner meeting, sit facing the primary speaker
Speaker here is referring to a person, not the thing that projects music. Hearing in noisy environments is partly dependent upon reading visual cues from lip movements. So, the clearer you can see a person's face, the better you'll be able to understand what they're saying.
Schedule around lunch and dinner rushes
This one is simple: less people means less noise.
Don't nod in agreement if you don't hear what is said
Pretending to hear what someone is saying can not only become a bad habit, but it can also leave you misinformed and confused. Instead of nodding your head in agreement, don't be afraid to ask for clarification.
Make sure to wear your hearing aids
Seems obvious, right? Your hearing aids are vastly important in situations where there's a lot of background noise. Though your hearing aids will still pick up some of the ambient noise, they will amplify the voices of the people closest to you. Hearing aid technology has come a long way, and they're now able to amplify the person you're looking at (and therefore trying to hear) over the other people in the room.
Consider Accessories
If you have a more severe level of hearing loss, hearing aids might not be sufficient in a large group with multiple people speaking. Wireless hearing aid accessories can be helpful in this situation. For example, a small wireless microphone can be placed on a table pointing at the person you'd like to focus on. This enables a vast improvement in terms of reducing competing noise. These accessories can be paired with most modern hearing aids.
Inspect your hearing aids before your outing
Most hearing aids that require disposable batteries will alert you when your battery is close to being drained. Check the status of your batteries before you head out and always remember to take spare batteries with you just in case. In the case of rechargeable instruments, make sure you have a solid charge in them before heading out to a busy restaurant.
Don’t stress
Everyone knows that restaurants have a reputation of being noisy places, so no one will be surprised if you have a hard time hearing. If you are struggling to hear, stressing out will just make your mind race and make it much more difficult to keep up with the conversation. Be calm, and try to enjoy the moment.