Caring for your hearing aids probably seems easy enough. After all, you were likely given a set of care guidelines when you first bought your devices. In regard to regular hearing aid maintenance, most hearing specialists will give you a step-by-step instruction tutorial. Still, getting that much information at once means you most likely didn’t remember some of it. 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 from my hearing aids?
If you want to keep your hearing aids in tip-top working order, look at the following tips.
Tip #1: Keep your hearing aids dry
Electronics usually don’t like moisture. Hearing aids are somewhat water resistant but aren’t at all waterproof, so they need to be kept as free from moisture as possible. Beyond the obvious, this means you should do things like the following:
- Keep your hearing aids somewhere dry and cool. Many individuals question what the best way to store hearing aids is. So the steamy bathroom won’t be a very good place to store your hearing aids. And in order to keep track of your hearing aids, keep them in the same place every day. By the same token, don’t leave your hearing aids just lying around, dogs like to eat them and cats like to play with them!
- Stay away from using hair products while you’re wearing your hearing aids. When you’re going to use hair spray or gel, remove your hearing aids. Your hearing aid can really become gunked up from these types of products.
- Keep a dehumidifier running during those more humid months. When it’s really humid, your hearing aids can have more moisture than you would want even indoors. And that dampness can compromise the sensitive electronics inside. 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 healthy and normal thing for the human body to do. It’s also something that hearing aid designers recognize is going to occur. The majority of modern hearing aids incorporate features that are designed to cope with a modest earwax production.
Your task is to be certain your hearing aids don’t become inundated with ear wax. This means checking and replacing the wax guards when needed (and making that an element of your hearing aid cleaning schedule). Depending on what model hearing aid you have, you can get specialized little tools for this and we can assist you with that.
How often should wax guards be replaced? Well, for the majority of models, it will be around once a month or so.
Tip #3: Take care of the batteries
Your Hearing aids count on your batteries for power. The better your hearing aid batteries are, the longer your hearing aid will last. The following are a few tips for battery care:
- When you’re not using your hearing aids, remember to turn them off. This just kills the battery for, well, no good reason. And that means your hearing aids could stop working when you least want them to.
- Keep all of the contact points on the battery dry and clean. If they are dirty or wet, you can make use of a clean, dry cloth to wipe them. As with electronics in general, moisture will lead to a bad outcome here.
- Get a battery charger or a rechargeable hearing aid: This will save you a lot of money on wasted batteries.
Tip #4: Wash your hands before handling your hearing aids
The majority of the time, you should be wearing your hearing aids. But they don’t get there by themselves. You use your fingers to put in your hearing aids, and those fingers could contain all kinds of things (salt, maple syrup, Cheeto dust, and so on). By design, hearing aids are really delicate and probably won’t do well with things like crumbs.
Generally, you should only touch your hearing aids with clean hands. So before you put in or take out your hearing aids, give your hands a quick wash.
Tip #5 Keep up with your hearing specialist
You may assume that you won’t need any help from us once you’ve purchased your hearing aids. In most cases, though, this isn’t the case. Here are a few very good reasons why scheduling routine appointments with us is still relevant.:
- To keep track of and monitor the progression of your hearing loss.
- To help you ensure your devices fit well.
- To clean and maintain your hearing aids.
When something breaks, what should you do?
Sometimes, something could go wrong (perhaps you accidentally step on them) in spite of your best effort. When this happens, you should get in touch with us as quickly as possible.
We will be able to help you repair your devices, or get new ones if needed.
Want to talk to us about your next pair of hearing aids? Schedule an appointment today!