Caring for your hearing aids probably seems simple enough. After all, you were likely given a set of care instructions when you first bought your devices. With 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 probably didn’t remember some of it. So you still might be wondering, what should my cleaning routine look like? How about my service schedule? How can I make my hearing aids last as long as possible?
These five, simple-to-follow tips can help give you some answers, as well as easy ways to help in maintaining your hearing aids so they function better longer.
Tip #1: Keep your hearing aids dry
Moisture and electronics don’t really jive. Even though your hearing aids might offer a certain degree of water resistance, you generally want to keep them dry. Here are several ways to do just that:
- When you’re wearing your hearing aids, don’t use hair care products. That is, remove your hearing aids before using a lot of hair spray or hair gel. Your hearing aid can really get gunked up from these kinds of products.
- Find a dry and cool place to keep your hearing aids when you aren’t using them. Many people question what the best way to store hearing aids is. So the steamy bathroom isn’t going to be a very good place to keep your hearing aids. And in order to keep track of your hearing aids, store them in the same spot every day. In the same way, don’t leave your hearing aids just lying around, dogs like to eat them and cats love to play with them!
- When it’s humid outside, run a dehumidifier. Even inside, high humidity means your hearing aids may be more moist more frequently. And that moisture can compromise the delicate electronics inside. Prolonging hearing aid life might mean keeping that dehumidifier going.
Tip #2: Check (and clean) those earwax filters
Earwax production is a normal and healthy 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 be certain your hearing aids don’t become overwhelmed with ear wax. This means inspecting and swapping the wax guards when needed (and making that an element of your hearing aid cleaning routine). Depending on which 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 most models.
Tip #3: Take care of the batteries
Your Hearing aids count on your batteries for power. The healthier your hearing aid batteries are, the longer your hearing aid will last. The following are some tips for battery care:
- Make sure 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.
- When you’re not wearing your hearing aids, remember to switch the power off. Or else, your battery will just sit there and drain. For this reason, when you most need your hearing aids, they may not be charged enough to function.
- Get a battery charger or a rechargeable device: That way, you won’t be throwing batteries (and money) away again and again .
Tip #4: Wash your hands before handling your hearing aids
Most 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 your hearing aids in, and those fingers could contain all kinds of things (salt, maple syrup, Cheeto dust, and so on). Your hearing aids are sensitive 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 before you put in or take out your hearing aids, give your hands a quick wash.
Tip #5 Stay in touch with your hearing specialist
It might seem like, once you purchase your hearing aids, you can just forget all about your hearing specialist. Usually, though, this is not the situation. Here are several very good reasons why scheduling regular appointments with us is still important.:
- To help you ensure your devices fit well.
- To track and monitor the advancement of your hearing loss.
- To clean and maintain your hearing aids.
What should you do when something breaks?
Occasionally, despite your best efforts, something goes wrong with your hearing aids (perhaps you accidentally step on them). When this occurs, you should contact us as quickly as possible.
We will be able to help you fix your devices, or get new ones if needed.
Schedule an appointment with us today to discuss your current or next pair of hearing aids.