Taking care of your hearing aids likely feels simple enough. After all, you were probably given a set of care guidelines when you originally bought your devices. Most hearing specialists will give you a step-by-step how-to in regard to routine hearing aid maintenance. But it’s very likely that you may forget some of that information that you got all at once. So you might still have questions like, how frequently should I clean my hearing aid? How about my service schedule? How can I get the most life out of 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 do well with wetness. Although your hearing aids may provide a certain degree of water resistance, you generally want to keep moisture away from them. Here are a few ways to do just that:
- Avoid using 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.
- Find a cool and dry place to keep your hearing aids when you’re not wearing them. Understanding the best way to store your hearing aids can be a bit of a challenge for lots of people. Well, don’t, for instance, store them in your bathroom (which gets really steamy at least once a day). And in order to keep track of your hearing aids, keep them in the same spot every day. Also, cats love to play with hearing aids and dogs will sometimes try to eat them, so don’t just leave them lying around.
- When it’s humid outside, run a dehumidifier. Even inside, high humidity means your hearing aids could be more moist more often. And the fragile electronics inside of your device will be damaged. If you want to get the most longevity out of your hearing aid as possible, get that dehumidifier running!
Tip #2: Keep the earwax filters nice and clean
Earwax production is a normal and healthy thing for the human body to do. Hearing aid designers are well aware of this. As a result, most hearing aids are created to deal with a moderate amount of earwax.
It’s up to you to make sure there’s not too much earwax on your hearing aids. This means checking and replacing the wax guards when needed (and making that part 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 help you with that.
How often should wax guards be swapped? Well, for most models, it will be about once every month or so.
Tip #3: Keep your batteries charged and fresh
Your batteries keep your hearing aids working. Your hearing aid will last much longer if you keep your batteries fresh. So there are a few battery-care steps you can take:
- Get a battery charger or a rechargeable device: That way, you won’t be throwing batteries (and money) away over and over again.
- When you’re not wearing your hearing aids, don’t forget to switch the power off. Otherwise, your battery will just sit there and drain. Because of this, when you need your hearing aids the most, they may not be charged enough to function.
- 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 electronics in general, moisture will lead to a bad outcome here.
Tip #4: Only use clean hands to handle your hearing aids
Most of the time, you should be wearing your hearing aids. But they don’t get there on their own. Your hands (which you need to handle your hearing aids) could be covered in all sorts of offending substances. Your hearing aids are delicate devices by design, so crumbs aren’t really very good for them.
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 us in the loop
It might feel like, once you have your hearing aids, you can just forget all about your hearing specialist. But… this is not normally true. Most individuals with hearing loss will want to schedule regular appointments with us for the following reasons:
- To keep track of and monitor the advancement of your hearing loss.
- To clean and maintain your hearing aids.
- To help make sure your devices fit well.
When something breaks, what should you do?
Occasionally, something could go wrong (maybe you accidentally step on them) in spite of your best effort. When this takes place, you should contact us as quickly as possible.
We will be able to help you repair your devices, or get new ones if necessary.
Schedule an appointment with us today to discuss your current or next set of hearing aids.