Caring for your hearing aids probably feels easy enough. When you first obtained your hearing aids, you most likely got a set of care guidelines, after all. In regard to routine hearing aid maintenance, most hearing specialists will give you a step-by-step instruction tutorial. Still, getting all of that information at once means you most likely didn’t remember some of it. So you might still have questions like, how frequently should I clean my hearing aid? Or, how frequently should I get my hearing aid serviced? How can I get the most life from 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 work better longer.
Tip #1: Keep your hearing aids dry
Moisture and electronics don’t really get along that well. While your hearing aids may provide a certain amount of water resistance, you generally want to keep them dry. Beyond the obvious, this means you need to do things like the following:
- Find a cool and dry spot to store your hearing aids when you aren’t using them. Many individuals wonder what the best way to store hearing aids is. 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 they went. Also, cats like to play with hearing aids and dogs will occasionally attempt to eat them, so don’t just leave them lying about.
- When you’re wearing your hearing aids, don’t use hair care products. When you’re going to use hair spray or gel, take out your hearing aids. These kinds of products can really gunk up your devices.
- Keep a dehumidifier going during those more humid months. When it’s really humid, your hearing aids can have more dampness than you would want even inside. And the delicate electronics inside of your device will be damaged. Prolonging hearing aid life might mean keeping that dehumidifier going.
Tip #2: Check (and clean) those earwax filters
Earwax production is a healthy and normal thing for the human body to do. It’s also something that hearing aid designers know is going to happen. The majority of modern hearing aids include features that are designed to cope with a modest earwax production.
It’s up to you to be sure there’s not too much earwax on your hearing aids. This means inspecting and replacing the wax guards when needed (and making that part of your hearing aid cleaning routine). You can purchase 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 the majority of models, it will be about once a month or so.
Tip #3: Take care of the batteries
Your batteries keep your hearing aids going. Your hearing aid will last much longer if you keep your batteries fresh. The following are some tips for battery care:
- Remember to switch off your hearing aids when you aren’t using them. Or else, your battery will just sit there and drain. For this reason, when you need your hearing aids the most, they might not be charged enough to function.
- Get a battery charger or a rechargeable device: That way, you won’t be chucking batteries (and money) away over and over again.
- Be certain all of the battery contacts and components are dry. 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.
Tip #4: Clean your hands before handling your hearing aids
The majority of the time, you should be wearing your hearing aids. But they depend on you to put them in. You use your fingers to put your hearing aids in, and those fingers could contain all sorts of things (salt, maple syrup, Cheeto dust, and so on). Your hearing aids are delicate devices by design, so crumbs aren’t exactly great for them.
In general, you should only touch your hearing aids with clean hands. So give your hands a quick wash before you need to take them out and handle them.
Tip #5 Keep us in the loop
You may think that you won’t require any help from us once you’ve purchased your hearing aids. But… this is not typically true. Here are a few very good reasons why scheduling regular appointments with us is still significant.:
- Check the status of your hearing loss (making sure it’s not advancing faster than expected).
- Cleaning and maintenance.
- To help you ensure your devices fit well.
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 contact us as soon as possible in situations like this.
If your hearing aid needs any repairs, or you need a new one, we can help with that.
Want to talk to us about your next set of hearing aids? Make an appointment today!