It most likely seems like a simple thing to take care of your hearing aids. When you first obtained your hearing aids, you most likely got a set of care instructions, after all. The majority of hearing specialists will give you a step-by-step how-to when it comes to routine hearing aid maintenance. But it’s very likely that you might forget some of that information that you got all at once. So you could still have questions like, how frequently should I clean my hearing aid? How about my service schedule? How can I get the most life out of my hearing aids?
If you want to keep your hearing aids in good working order, check out the following tips.
Tip #1: Keep your hearing aids dry
Electronics typically don’t do well with wetness. Even though your hearing aids may offer a certain level of water resistance, you typically want to keep moisture away from them. Beyond the obvious, this means you should do things like the following:
- When it’s humid outside, run a dehumidifier. When it’s extremely humid, your hearing aids can have more dampness than you would want even inside. And that dampness can compromise the sensitive electronics inside. If you want to get the most longevity out of your hearing aid as you can, get that dehumidifier running!
- When you’re wearing your hearing aids, avoid using hair care products. When you’re going to use hair spray or gel, remove your hearing aids. Your hearing aid can really become gunked up from these types of products.
- Find a dry and cool spot to keep your hearing aids when you’re not wearing them. Knowing the best way to store your hearing aids can be somewhat of a challenge for many people. Well, don’t, for instance, store them in your bathroom (which gets really steamy at least once every day). And in order to keep track of your hearing aids, store them in the same place every day. In the same way, don’t leave your hearing aids just lying about, dogs love to eat them and cats like to play with them!
Tip #2: Check (and clean) those earwax filters
The human body naturally produces earwax in a healthy way. Hearing aid designers are well aware of this. Consequently, most hearing aids are designed to deal with a moderate amount of earwax.
It’s up to you to be sure there isn’t too much earwax on your hearing aids. This means inspecting and swapping the wax guards when needed (and making that part of your hearing aid cleaning schedule). You can buy and utilize special cleaning tools for this, depending on your hearing aid model (ask us for guidance here).
How frequently should wax guards be swapped? You will change these wax guards about once every month on the majority of models.
Tip #3: care for the batteries
Your Hearing aids depend on your batteries for power. Your hearing aid will last a lot longer if you keep your batteries fresh. The following are some tips for battery care:
- Keep all of the contact points on the battery dry and clean. You can wipe them down with a clean cloth if they aren’t. This is yet another place in your device where moisture is the enemy.
- When you’re not wearing your hearing aids, don’t forget to turn them off. This just kills the battery for, well, no good reason. Consequently, when you need your hearing aids the most, they might not be charged enough to work.
- Get a battery charger or a rechargeable device: That way, you won’t be throwing batteries (and money) away over and over again.
Tip #4: Only use clean hands to handle your hearing aids
Most of the time, your hearing aids should be in your ears. But they depend on you to put them in. You use your hands to put your hearing aids in, and those fingers could contain all types of things (salt, maple syrup, Cheeto dust, and so on). Your hearing aids are sensitive devices by design, so crumbs aren’t exactly very good for them.
In general, you should only handle your hearing aids with clean hands. So before you put in or take out your hearing aids, give your hands a quick cleanse.
Tip #5 Stay in touch with your hearing specialist
It may seem like, once you purchase your hearing aids, you can just forget all about your hearing specialist. But… this is not usually true. Here are a few very good reasons why scheduling regular appointments with us is still important.:
- Cleaning and maintenance.
- To help you fine-tune your fit.
- Check the status of your hearing loss (making sure it’s not progressing faster than expected).
What should you do when something breaks?
Occasionally, in spite of your best efforts, something goes wrong with your hearing aids (perhaps you accidentally step on them). You should contact us as soon as you can in situations like this.
We will be able to help you repair your devices, or get new ones if needed.
Make an appointment with us today to talk about your current or next pair of hearing aids.