It most likely seems like a simple thing to care for your hearing aids. After all, you were most likely given a set of care instructions when you initially purchased your devices. 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 may 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 maintaining your hearing aids so they function better longer.
Tip #1: Try not to let your hearing aids get wet
Electronics typically don’t do well with moisture. Even though your hearing aids might provide a certain level of water resistance, you typically want to keep them dry. Here are a few ways to do just that:
- Keep a dehumidifier going during those more humid months. When it’s extremely humid, your hearing aids can have more moisture than you would want even indoors. And the fragile electronics inside of your device will be damaged. If you want to get the most life out of your hearing aid as possible, get that dehumidifier running!
- When you’re wearing your hearing aids, avoid using hair care products. When you’re going to utilize hair spray or gel, take out your hearing aids. These kinds of products can really gunk up your devices.
- Keep your hearing aids somewhere dry and cool. Knowing the best way to store your hearing aids can be a bit of a challenge for many people. So the steamy bathroom isn’t going to be a great place to store your hearing aids. And in order to keep track of your hearing aids, keep them in the same spot every day. In the same way, don’t leave your hearing aids just lying around, dogs like to eat them and cats like to play with them!
Tip #2: Keep the earwax filters nice and clean
The human body normally produces earwax in a healthy way. It’s also something that hearing aid manufacturers recognize is going to occur. As a result, most hearing aids are created to deal with a modest amount of earwax.
Your job is to make sure your hearing aids don’t become overloaded with ear wax. This means inspecting and swapping the wax guards when needed (and making that part of your hearing aid cleaning routine). You can invest in and use specialized cleaning tools for this, depending on what model you have (ask us for recommendations here).
How frequently should wax guards be swapped? Well, for most models, it will be about once every month or so.
Tip #3: care for the batteries
Your Hearing aids rely on your batteries for power. The better your hearing aid batteries are, the longer your device will last. So there are a few battery-care steps you can take:
- When you’re not using your hearing aids, remember to switch the power off. This just drains the battery for, well, no good reason. Because of this, when you most need your hearing aids, they might not be charged enough to function.
- Make sure all of the battery contacts and components are dry. If they are dirty or wet, you can make use of a clean, dry cloth to wipe them. This is yet another place in your device where moisture is the enemy.
- 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: Clean your hands before handling your hearing aids
The majority 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 delicate and probably won’t do well with things like crumbs.
In general, you should only touch your hearing aids with clean hands. So give your hands a quick wash before you have to take them out and handle them.
Tip #5 Stay in touch with your hearing specialist
It might feel like, once you purchase your hearing aids, you can just forget all about your hearing specialist. In most cases, though, this isn’t the case. Most individuals who have hearing loss will want to set up regular appointments with us for the following reasons:
- To clean and maintain your hearing aids.
- To help you ensure your devices fit well.
- Keep track of the status of your hearing loss (making sure it’s not advancing faster than expected).
When something breaks, what should you do?
Sometimes, something could go wrong (maybe you accidentally step on them) in spite of your best effort. You should call us as soon as you can in cases such as this.
We will be able to help you repair your devices, or get new ones if needed.
Want to speak with us about your next pair of hearing aids? Make an appointment today!