It most likely feels like a simple thing to care for your hearing aids. After all, you were likely given a set of care guidelines when you first bought your devices. The majority of hearing specialists will give you a step-by-step how-to when it comes to routine hearing aid maintenance. Still, getting all of that 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? Or, how often should I get my hearing aid serviced? How can I make my hearing aids last as long as I can?
These five, easy-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 jive. While your hearing aids might offer a certain level of water resistance, you typically want to keep moisture away from them. Beyond the obvious, this means you need to do things like the following:
- When it’s humid outside, run a dehumidifier. Even indoors, high humidity means your hearing aids might be more moist more often. And the delicate electronics inside of your device will be damaged. Prolonging hearing aid life might mean keeping that dehumidifier going.
- 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 kinds of products.
- Find a cool and dry spot to store your hearing aids when you aren’t wearing them. Many individuals question what the best way to store hearing aids is. So the steamy bathroom won’t be a very good place to keep your hearing aids. It also helps to store them in the same place every day so you’re not trying to figure out where you put them. By the same token, don’t leave your hearing aids just lying about, dogs love to eat them and cats like to play with them!
Tip #2: Check (and clean) those earwax filters
The human body normally generates earwax in a healthy way. Hearing aid designers are well aware of this. Consequently, most hearing aids are designed to deal with a modest amount of earwax.
Your task is to be certain your hearing aids don’t become inundated with ear wax. This means checking and swapping the wax guards when necessary (and making that part of your hearing aid cleaning routine). You can invest in and utilize special cleaning tools for this, depending on what model you have (ask us for recommendations here).
What is the replacement schedule for earwax guards? You will change these wax guards approximately once every month on most models.
Tip #3: Keep your batteries charged and fresh
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 turn off your devices when you aren’t using them. This just drains the battery for, well, no good reason. Consequently, when you most need your hearing aids, they might not be charged enough to work.
- Keep all of the contact points on the battery dry and clean. You can wipe them down with a clean cloth if they aren’t. This is yet another place in your device where moisture is the enemy.
- Invest in a rechargeable hearing aid or a battery charger: This will save you a lot of money on wasted batteries.
Tip #4: Clean your hands before handling your hearing aids
Most of the time, you should be wearing your hearing aids. But they don’t get there on their own. You use your hands to put your hearing aids in, and those fingers could contain all types of things (salt, maple syrup, Cheeto dust, and so on). Your hearing aids are delicate devices by design, so crumbs aren’t really very good for them.
In general, you should only touch your hearing aids with clean hands. So give your hands a quick clean before you have to take them out and handle them.
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 typically true. Most people with hearing loss will want to set up routine appointments with us for the following reasons:
- To keep track of and monitor the development of your hearing loss.
- To help you fine-tune your fit.
- 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 occurs, you should contact us as quickly as you can.
We will be able to help you repair your devices, or get a new set if needed.
Schedule an appointment with us today to talk about your current or next pair of hearing aids.