Caring for your hearing aids probably seems easy enough. After all, you were most likely given a set of care instructions when you initially bought your devices. The majority of hearing specialists will give you a step-by-step how-to when it comes to regular hearing aid maintenance. But it’s quite likely that you might forget some of that information that you got all at once. So you could still have questions like, how often should I clean my hearing aid? Or, how often should I have my hearing aid serviced? How can I get the most life from my hearing aids?
These five, easy-to-follow tips can help provide some answers, as well as easy ways to help in taking care of your hearing aids so they function better longer.
Tip #1: Try not to let your hearing aids get wet
Moisture and electronics don’t really jive. Hearing aids are somewhat water resistant but aren’t at all waterproof, so they should be kept as dry as possible. Here are a few ways to do just that:
- Find a cool and dry place to store your hearing aids when you’re not wearing them. Understanding the best way to store your hearing aids can be a bit of a challenge for lots of individuals. Well, don’t, for instance, store them in your bathroom (which gets nice and steamy at least once every day). It also helps to keep them in the same spot every day so you’re not trying to figure out where they went. Also, cats like to play with hearing aids and dogs will sometimes try to eat them, so don’t just leave them lying about.
- Keep a dehumidifier running during those more humid months. When it’s really humid, your hearing aids can have more dampness than you would want even indoors. And that dampness can compromise the sensitive electronics inside. If you want to get the most life out of your hearing aid as you can, get that dehumidifier going!
- When you’re wearing your hearing aids, avoid using hair care products. When you’re going to utilize hair spray or gel, remove your hearing aids. These types of products can really gunk up your devices.
Tip #2: Check (and clean) those earwax filters
Earwax production is a normal and healthy thing for the human body to do. Hearing aid manufacturers are well aware of this. Consequently, most hearing aids are created to deal with a modest amount of earwax.
Your task is to be certain your hearing aids don’t become overloaded with ear wax. This means inspecting and replacing the wax guards when necessary (and making that part of your hearing aid cleaning program). Depending on what model hearing aid you have, you can get specialized little tools for this and we can assist you with that.
How frequently should wax guards be replaced? Well, for most models, it will be around once every month or so.
Tip #3: care for the batteries
Your batteries keep your hearing aids going. Your hearing aid will last a lot longer if you keep your batteries fresh. So there are a few battery-care steps you can take:
- Keep all of the contact points on the battery dry and clean. If they are dirty or wet, you can use a clean, dry cloth to wipe them. This is yet another place in your device where moisture is the enemy.
- When you’re not using your hearing aids, don’t forget to switch the power off. This just kills the battery for, well, no good reason. And that means your hearing aids might quit working when you least want them to.
- Get a battery charger or a rechargeable hearing aid: That way, you won’t be throwing batteries (and money) away again and again .
Tip #4: Wash your hands before handling 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 hands could contain all kinds of things (salt, maple syrup, Cheeto dust, and so on). By design, hearing aids are very sensitive and likely won’t do well with things like crumbs.
It’s essential that you don’t touch your hearing aids with dirty hands. So give your hands a quick clean before you need to take them out and handle them.
Tip #5 Keep up with your hearing specialist
It might feel like, once you have your hearing aids, you can leave your hearing specialist in the dust. Generally, though, this is not the case. Most people who have hearing loss will want to make routine appointments with us for the following reasons:
- To help make sure your devices fit well.
- To clean and maintain your hearing aids.
- To keep track of and monitor the progression of your hearing loss.
When something breaks, what should you do?
Occasionally, in spite of your best efforts, something goes wrong with your hearing aids (maybe you accidentally step on them). You should call us as soon as possible in cases such as this.
If your device requires any repairs, or you need a new one, we can help with that.
Make an appointment with us today to talk about your current or next set of hearing aids.