It most likely feels like a simple thing to take care of your hearing aids. When you first got your hearing aids, you probably got a set of care guidelines, after all. 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 might forget some of that information that you got all at once. So you could 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 make my hearing aids last as long as I can?
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 may offer a certain level of water resistance, you typically want to keep moisture away from them. Here are a few ways to do just that:
- When it’s humid outdoors, run a dehumidifier. When it’s extremely humid, your hearing aids can have more dampness than you would want even inside. And that dampness can compromise the delicate electronics inside. Prolonging hearing aid life may mean keeping that dehumidifier running.
- When you’re wearing your hearing aids, avoid using hair care products. When you’re going to use hair spray or gel, take out your hearing aids. These kinds of products can really gunk up your devices.
- Keep your hearing aids someplace cool and dry. Many individuals wonder what the best way to store hearing aids is. Well, don’t, for example, keep them in your bathroom (which gets really steamy at least once a day). It also helps to store them in the same place every day so you’re not trying to figure out where they went. In the same way, don’t leave your hearing aids just lying around, dogs like to eat them and cats like to play with them!
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. As a result, most hearing aids are created to deal with a moderate amount of earwax.
Your task is to make sure your hearing aids don’t become overloaded with ear wax. So make swapping out your wax guard, when needed, a routine element of your cleaning routine. Depending on what model hearing aid you have, you can get specialized little tools for this and we can help you with that.
How frequently should wax guards be swapped? You will change these wax guards approximately once every month on the majority of models.
Tip #3: care for the batteries
Your Hearing aids depend 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:
- Invest in a rechargeable device or a battery charger: This will save you lots of money on wasted batteries.
- Make certain all of the battery contacts and components are dry. You can wipe them with a clean cloth if they aren’t. This is yet another part of your device where moisture is the enemy.
- Remember to shut 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 might not be charged enough to work.
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 on their own. You use your hands to put in your hearing aids, and those hands could contain all kinds of things (salt, maple syrup, Cheeto dust, and so on). Your hearing aids are delicate devices by design, so crumbs aren’t exactly very good for them.
It’s essential 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 cleanse.
Tip #5 Stay in touch with your hearing specialist
It might feel like, once you purchase your hearing aids, you can leave your hearing specialist in the dust. Typically, though, this is not the situation. Here are some very good reasons why scheduling regular appointments with us is still significant.:
- Cleaning and maintenance.
- To track and monitor the progression of your hearing loss.
- To help you calibrate your fit.
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 get in touch with us as quickly as you can.
We will be able to help you repair your devices, or get a new set if necessary.
Make an appointment with us today to discuss your current or next pair of hearing aids.
