Caring for your hearing aids likely feels simple enough. After all, you were most likely given a set of care instructions when you first bought your devices. In regard to routine hearing aid maintenance, the majority of hearing specialists will give you a step-by-step instruction tutorial. Still, getting all of that information at once means you probably didn’t remember some of it. So you may still have questions like, how often should I clean my hearing aid? Or, how often should I get my hearing aid serviced? How can I get the most life from my hearing aids?
If you want to keep your hearing aids in good working order, look at the following tips.
Tip #1: Keep your hearing aids dry
Moisture and electronics don’t really jive. While your hearing aids might 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:
- When it’s humid outdoors, run a dehumidifier. Even indoors, high humidity means your hearing aids may be more moist more often. 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 going!
- Avoid using hair products while your hearing aids are in. When you’re going to utilize hair spray or gel, remove your hearing aids. Your hearing aid can really get gunked up from these types of products.
- Find a cool and dry place to store your hearing aids when you aren’t using them. Knowing the best way to store your hearing aids can be somewhat of a challenge for lots of people. Well, don’t, for example, keep them in your bathroom (which gets nice and steamy at least once every day). It also helps to store them in the same spot every day so you aren’t wondering where you put them. Also, cats like to play with hearing aids and dogs will occasionally try to eat them, so don’t just leave them lying around.
Tip #2: Keep the earwax filters nice and clean
Earwax production is a healthy and normal thing for the human body to do. It’s also something that hearing aid manufacturers understand is going to happen. Consequently, most hearing aids are created to deal with a moderate amount of earwax.
Your task is to be certain your hearing aids don’t become overwhelmed with ear wax. This means examining and replacing the wax guards when necessary (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 assist you with that.
What is the replacement schedule for earwax guards? You will change these wax guards about once every month on the majority of models.
Tip #3: Care for the batteries
Your Hearing aids depend on your batteries for power. The better your hearing aid batteries are, the longer your hearing aid will last. The following are some tips for battery care:
- Be sure all of the battery contacts and components are dry. You can wipe them with a clean cloth if they aren’t. As with electronics in general, moisture will lead to a bad time here.
- Get a battery charger or a rechargeable device: That way, you won’t be throwing batteries (and money) away again and again .
- When you’re not using your hearing aids, don’t forget to switch the power off. This just kills the battery for, well, no good reason. And that means your hearing aids may quit working when you least want them to.
Tip #4: Wash your hands before handling your hearing aids
Most of the time, you should be wearing your hearing aids. But they don’t get there by themselves. You use your hands to put your hearing aids in, and those hands 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 really very good for them.
In general, you should only handle your hearing aids with clean hands. So give your hands a quick wash before you have to take them out and handle them.
Tip #5 Keep us in the loop
It might seem like, once you have your hearing aids, you can just forget all about your hearing specialist. Generally, though, this is not the situation. Here are a number of very good reasons why scheduling regular appointments with us is still significant.:
- Cleaning and maintenance.
- Keep track of the status of your hearing loss (making sure it’s not advancing quicker than expected).
- To help make sure your devices fit well.
What should you do when something breaks?
Occasionally, something could go wrong (maybe you accidentally step on them) despite your best effort. You should get in touch with us as soon as possible in situations such as this.
We will be able to help you repair your devices, or get a new set if needed.
Want to speak with us about your next pair of hearing aids? Set up an appointment today!