It most likely feels like a simple thing to take care of your hearing aids. After all, you were most likely given a set of care instructions when you initially purchased your devices. In regard to routine hearing aid maintenance, most hearing specialists will give you a step-by-step instruction tutorial. But it’s quite likely that you might forget some of that information that you got all at once. So you still might be wondering, what should my cleaning schedule look like? Or, how frequently should I get my hearing aid serviced? How can I get the most life out of my hearing aids?
These five, easy-to-follow tips can help provide some answers, as well as easy ways to help in maintaining your hearing aids so they work better longer.
Tip #1: Try not to allow your hearing aids to get wet
Electronics usually don’t like wetness. Although your hearing aids might offer a certain amount of water resistance, you generally want to keep moisture away from them. Here are a few ways to do just that:
- Keep your hearing aids somewhere dry and cool. Many people question what the best way to store hearing aids is. Well, don’t, for example, store them in your bathroom (which gets really steamy at least once a day). It also helps to keep them in the same spot every day so you aren’t wondering where they went. In the same way, don’t leave your hearing aids just lying about, dogs like to eat them and cats love to play with them!
- Don’t use hair products while your hearing aids are in. That is, remove your hearing aids before utilizing a lot of hair spray or hair gel. These types of products can really gunk up your devices.
- When it’s humid outdoors, run a dehumidifier. When it’s extremely humid, your hearing aids can have more moisture than you would want even indoors. And the delicate 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!
Tip #2: Keep the earwax filters nice and clean
The human body naturally produces earwax in a healthy way. It’s also something that hearing aid makers recognize is going to occur. Most modern hearing aids have features that are designed to cope with a modest earwax production.
Your job is to make sure your hearing aids don’t become overloaded with ear wax. So make swapping out your wax guard, when necessary, a regular element of your cleaning regimen. Depending on which model hearing aid you have, you can invest in specialized little tools for this and we can help you with that.
How often should wax guards be swapped? Well, for the majority of models, it will be around once a month or so.
Tip #3: care for the batteries
Your Hearing aids rely on your batteries for power. Your hearing aid will last much longer if you keep your batteries fresh. The following are a few tips for battery care:
- Don’t forget 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 most need your hearing aids, they may not be charged enough to work.
- Make certain all of the battery contacts and components are 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.
- Invest in a rechargeable hearing aid or a battery charger: That way, you won’t be chucking batteries (and money) away over and over again.
Tip #4: Only use clean hands to handle your devices
The majority of the time, your hearing aids should be in your ears. But they don’t get there by themselves. You use your fingers to put in your hearing aids, and those hands could contain all kinds 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 wash.
Tip #5 Keep us in the loop
You may assume that you won’t need any help from us once you’ve purchased your hearing aids. Typically, though, this is not the situation. Most people who have hearing loss will want to make routine appointments with us for the following reasons:
- Cleaning and maintenance.
- To track and monitor the development of your hearing loss.
- To help you fine-tune your fit.
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 get in touch with us as soon as you can in cases such as this.
We will be able to help you repair your devices, or get a new set if necessary.
Want to talk to us about your next pair of hearing aids? Set up an appointment today!