Taking care of your hearing aids probably seems simple enough. When you initially got your hearing aids, you probably got a set of care guidelines, after all. The majority of hearing specialists will give you a step-by-step how-to when it comes to routine hearing aid maintenance. Still, getting all of that information at once means you most likely didn’t retain some of it. So you might 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?
These five, simple-to-follow tips can help provide some answers, as well as simple ways to help in taking care of your hearing aids so they work better longer.
Tip #1: Try not to let your hearing aids get wet
Moisture and electronics don’t really get along that well. While your hearing aids might provide a certain degree of water resistance, you generally want to keep moisture away from them. Beyond the obvious, this means you need to do things like the following:
- When you have your hearing aids in your ears, don’t use hair care products. That is, remove your hearing aids before utilizing a lot of hair spray or hair gel. Your hearing aid can really get gunked up from these types of products.
- Keep your hearing aids somewhere cool and dry. Understanding the best way to store your hearing aids can be somewhat of a challenge for many people. So the steamy bathroom isn’t going to be a very good place to store your hearing aids. It also helps to store them in the same spot every day so you’re not trying to figure out where you put them. Also, cats like to play with hearing aids and dogs will sometimes attempt to eat them, so don’t just leave them lying around.
- When it’s humid outdoors, run a dehumidifier. Even indoors, high humidity means your hearing aids might be more moist more often. And the fragile electronics inside of your device can be compromised. If you want to get the most life out of your hearing aid as you can, get that dehumidifier going!
Tip #2: Check (and clean) those earwax filters
Earwax production is a normal and healthy thing for the human body to do. It’s also something that hearing aid makers know is going to occur. The majority of contemporary hearing aids incorporate features that are designed to deal with a moderate earwax production.
It’s up to you to make sure there’s not too much earwax on your hearing aids. This means inspecting and replacing the wax guards when necessary (and making that an element of your hearing aid cleaning program). You can buy and use specialized cleaning tools for this, depending on what model you have (ask us for recommendations here).
What is the replacement schedule for earwax guards? Well, for most models, it will be about once every month or so.
Tip #3: Keep your batteries charged and fresh
Your Hearing aids rely on your batteries for power. Your hearing aid will last much longer if you keep your batteries fresh. So there are several battery-care steps you can take:
- Invest in a rechargeable device or a battery charger: This will save you a lot of money on wasted batteries.
- Keep all of the contact points on the battery clean and dry. You can wipe them down with a clean cloth if they aren’t. As with most electronics, moisture will lead to a bad outcome here.
- Remember to turn off your devices when you aren’t using them. This just drains the battery for, well, no good reason. And that means your hearing aids might quit working when you least want them to.
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. Your hands (which are required in order to handle your hearing aids) could be covered in all kinds of offending materials. By design, hearing aids are very 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 Keep us in the loop
It may feel like, once you have your hearing aids, you can just forget all about your hearing specialist. Typically, though, this is not the case. Here are some very good reasons why scheduling routine appointments with us is still relevant.:
- To help you fine-tune your fit.
- Cleaning and maintenance.
- Check the status of your hearing loss (making certain it isn’t progressing quicker than expected).
What should you do when something breaks?
Occasionally, something could go wrong (maybe you accidentally step on them) despite your best effort. You should call us as soon as possible in situations 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 discuss your current or next set of hearing aids.
