Navigating an airport can be challenging enough for someone with full hearing capabilities. It becomes even more chaotic if you suffer from hearing loss. Here are a few tips that will help you survive the experience and get to your destination with less struggle.

Download your airline's app before your travel date.

Trying to hear announcements in the airport will be tough even if you wear a hearing aid, thanks to all of the background noise. To ensure you don't miss your flight or overlook a gate change, download your airline's smartphone app before you head to the airport. This way, you can keep track of flight updates in real time without having to rely on your hearing.

Inform the TSA agent immediately if you're wearing hearing aid.

You can wear your hearing aids through the x-ray and metal detector machines and security checkpoint, but you should point them out to the TSA agent before doing so. If you fear that you'll have trouble communicating this orally, you can type a message out on your smartphone in a note and show it to the TSA agent as soon as you arrive at the gate. This will help prevent over-reactions and additional screening if they set off the metal detector as you walk through it. You are not required to bring medical documentation for your hearing aids.

Let the gate agent know you have hearing loss.

When you arrive at your gate, walk up to the gate agent and inform them that you have hearing impairment. They can come notify you when it is time to board so that you don't have to worry about missing the announcement. This way, you can focus on your reading or other activities while waiting for your flight rather than having to stare at the gate in anticipation. The gate agent can also inform your flight attendant that you have hearing loss so that he or she can give you personalized instructions rather than you having to try to figure out the safety speech when you board.

Take advantage of being able to use your smartphone in airplane mode.

Most airlines now let you continue to use your smartphone throughout the flight as long as it is in airplane mode. This means you can connect to the plane's WiFi and keep using apps like those that translate others' speech into text and any other hearing loss-related apps you regularly rely on. This will come in very handy on the noisy plane.

If you're new to the world of hearing loss and need to know more about this topic and living with hearing loss in general, speak with your audiologist or with hearing aid experts.