Tips for Maintaining Your Hearing Aids: Insights from Specialists

If you wear hearing aids, you probably appreciate how important these devices are to your hearing. While they do not treat hearing loss, hearing aids enhance sounds, making it easier to hear them. In effect, these devices improve your ability to listen, communicate and engage with others in conversations. Maintaining your hearing aids is absolutely crucial, as it ensures that they perform in top condition at all times. Specialists in the field have provided some insights into the best ways to maintain your hearing aids.

Wash Your Hands Before Handling Your Device

Always make it a point to wash your hands before you handle your hearing aids. Why? Because your hands come into contact with many different contaminants during the course of your day, most commonly dust, dirt and bacteria. You can easily transfer all these contaminants to your device if you fail to wash your hands. Dirt and dust can clog the microphones and speakers in your device, affecting their sound quality. Bacteria on your device can transfer to your ear canal, causing infection and potentially affecting your hearing health.

Don’t Immerse Your Device in Water

While most modern hearing aids are water-resistant, that’s not enough reason to submerge your device in water, even for a short time. In other words, don’t shower, swim or take a bath when wearing your device. Additionally, please avoid using water to clean any part of your device. You risk damaging some inner components of your hearing aids if you allow water or moisture to come into contact with them.

Always Clean Your Ears Before You Wear Your Device

Your hands are not the only things that require cleaning. It’s important to also clean your ears before you wear your hearing aids. Wearing these devices comes with an increased likelihood of wax buildup or cerumen in your ear canal. That’s because the devices stimulate the glands in the ears that produce cerumen, creating more earwax. Failing to clean your ears will create an accumulation of earwax, which can cause your device to whistle, affecting its quality.

Turn Off Your Hearing Aids When They’re Not in Use

Your device runs on batteries, and it’s important to conserve their power for as long as possible. Standard hearing aid batteries can last anywhere between three and 22 days, depending on how often you use the device, the type of hearing aid and the device’s capacity. You can easily extend your battery’s health simply by turning off your hearing aids whenever you’re not using them.

Schedule Routine Check-Ups with a Hearing Instrument Specialist

A hearing instrument specialist knows the ins and outs of how hearing aids function. They can help you with repair issues and general maintenance to ensure that your device remains in peak condition. They can also offer a more thorough cleaning beyond the basic ones you do at home.

If you want to learn more about how to maintain your hearing aids don’t hesitate to visit a hearing instrument specialist to assist you with the proper device care.