How to stop your headphone from making your hearing aid whistle without changing the volume?

After buying a new noise-cancelling headphone, you can try it for the first time. However, as the headphone cup covers your ears, you suddenly hear whistling noises. You try adjusting for a fit over your ears to get the noise to stop. However, to no avail, the feedback sound keeps on going.

Anyone with behind-the-ear (BTE) hearing aids experiences knows this problem too well. In current times, having digital hearing aids has dramatically improved feedback. Because back in the day, with an analog hearing aid, just smiling alone caused a whole lot of feedback noises.

Before throwing away your top-of-the-line headphones, let’s explore other ways to solve this noisy problem.

#1. You have uneven ears

Not everyone has symmetric ears perfectly aligned. But some headphones are designed with that assumption. If you can, adjust on one side: either the left or right cup of your headphones. It is just a matter of ensuring that nothing is touching the hearing aids or covering the area where the microphones are on the hearing aids.

#2. You need to reprogram the feedback suppression

Modern hearing aids include a feature that can automatically control the level of whistling noise each hearing aid can give off. However, when sound escapes the ear and returns back to the microphone, it causes feedback. To solve this problem, you can ask your audiologist to reprogram the feedback suppression system. Then, bring your headset along to your visit to test if the changes made any difference.

#3. Earmold is too loose

If you have an earmold that is older than a couple of years or you are someone who needs to get new earmolds regularly, having a loose earmold that isn’t sitting well in your ear may be the problem. It would be best to consider getting a new earmold for a better and snuggle fit.

What if turning down the volume only works

If you find none of the three solutions work for you, but only if you turn down the volume, you can stop the feedback. Unfortunately, now you’re not hearing at your optimal level. As a result, it will be harder to listen using your headset. In this case, you should try switching from over-the-ear headphones to telecoil or Bluetooth connectivity. These would altogether remove any chance for feedback.