Taking care of your hearing aids likely seems simple enough. When you initially obtained your hearing aids, you probably got a set of care guidelines, after all. Most 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 frequently should I clean my hearing aid? What 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 tip-top working order, look at the following tips.
Tip #1: Try not to allow your hearing aids to get wet
Moisture and electronics don’t really get along that well. While your hearing aids might offer a certain level of water resistance, you typically want to keep them dry. Here are a few ways to do just that:
- When it’s humid outside, run a dehumidifier. Even indoors, high humidity means your hearing aids could be more moist more frequently. And the delicate electronics inside of your device will be compromised. Prolonging hearing aid life might mean keeping that dehumidifier going.
- When you’re wearing your hearing aids, don’t use hair care products. When you’re going to utilize hair spray or gel, take out your hearing aids. Your hearing aid can really get gunked up from these kinds of products.
- Find a cool and dry place to keep your hearing aids when you aren’t using them. Many people wonder what the best way to store hearing aids is. So the steamy bathroom won’t be a very good place to keep your hearing aids. It also helps to store them in the same place every day so you aren’t wondering where they went. Also, cats like to play with hearing aids and dogs will occasionally try to eat them, so don’t just leave them lying around.
Tip #2: Check (and clean) those earwax filters
Earwax production is a healthy and normal thing for the human body to do. Hearing aid makers are well aware of this. Most modern hearing aids incorporate features that are designed to manage a moderate earwax production.
Your task is to make sure your hearing aids don’t become overloaded with ear wax. So make swapping out your wax guard, when needed, a regular element of your cleaning routine. Depending on which model hearing aid you have, you can get specialized little tools for this and we can assist you with that.
What is the replacement schedule for earwax guards? You will change these wax guards about once every month on the majority of models.
Tip #3: Take care of 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 a few tips for battery care:
- Get a battery charger or a rechargeable hearing aid: This will save you a lot of money on wasted batteries.
- Keep all of the contact points on the battery clean and dry. If they are dirty or wet, you can make use of a clean, dry cloth to wipe them. As with most electronics, moisture will result in a bad time here.
- When you’re not using your hearing aids, remember to switch the power off. This just kills the battery for, well, no good reason. And that means your hearing aids could quit working when you really need them.
Tip #4: Clean your hands before handling your hearing aids
Most of the time, you should be wearing your hearing aids. But they depend on you to put them in. You use your hands to put in your hearing aids, and those hands could contain all types of things (salt, maple syrup, Cheeto dust, and so on). By design, hearing aids are really sensitive and probably won’t do well with things like crumbs.
It’s important that you don’t touch your hearing aids with dirty 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
You might think that you won’t require any help from us once you’ve purchased your hearing aids. Usually, though, this isn’t the situation. Most individuals who have hearing loss will want to set up routine appointments with us for the following reasons:
- To clean and maintain your hearing aids.
- To help make sure your devices fit well.
- To keep track of and monitor the progression of your hearing loss.
When something breaks, what should you do?
Occasionally, something could go wrong (perhaps you accidentally step on them) despite your best effort. When this happens, you should contact us as quickly as you can.
If your device needs any repairs, or you need to get a new one, we can help with that.
Make an appointment with us today to discuss your current or next pair of hearing aids.
