How to Maintain Hearing Aids

Daily cleaning and maintenance is required to keep a hearing aid running in optimum condition. Even a tiny bit of condensation or debris trapped inside of your hearing aid or ear mold can seriously affect how well you hear. Practice a daily maintenance regimen and clean your hearing aids thoroughly. You'll experience the full benefit of your hearing aids and make them last longer.

Things You'll Need

• Wax remover
• Ear mold air blower
• Cotton swab
• Rubbing alcohol
• Dry Aid
• Hearing aid stethoscope
• Hearing aid battery tester

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Instructions

• 1

  Remove your hearing aids each night before you go to bed. Detach the ear mold (the rubber part that fits inside your ear) from the ear hook. Use a wax remover to clean ear wax from the inside of the ear mold. Work the wire on the wax remover inside of the hole in the ear mold to remove the wax.

• 2

  Check for condensation. Condensation in your ear-mold tubing or ear hooks can block out sound completely. Look at the tubing on the ear mold to see if there are tiny droplets of water inside. If you notice condensation inside the ear mold, blow out the condensation with an ear mold air blower. Insert the tip of the blower into the tubing on the ear mold and squeeze the bulb on the blower five to 10 times. You should see the condensation disappear. Repeat the same process on the ear hooks of your hearing aids.

• 3

  Take out the the batteries. Check the battery compartment on your hearing aids for corrosion or rust. This happens when humidity or moisture gets trapped inside of your battery compartments. It is important to remove the corrosion, because it can cause your hearing aids to make a whirring sound or give you weaker amplification. Dip a cotton swab in rubbing alcohol and rub on the inside of the battery compartment until it is completely clean.

• 4

  Place your hearing aids inside a jar of Dry Aid and store them overnight. Dry Aid removes the moisture from the inside of your hearing aids and keeps them running in optimum condition. Buy Dry Aid at your neighborhood pharmacy or online at Hearing U.S.A. (See Resources.)

• 5

  Test your hearing aids daily. Do a sound check each morning to make sure they are working properly. Remove the ear mold from your hearing aids and listen to them through your hearing aid stethoscope. Say the "Ling Sounds" to make sure all of the speech frequencies are working properly. Say, "ooh," "ahh," "eee," "sh," "mm," "s" as you listen through the stethoscope. If you can hear each of those sounds as you typically do, your hearing aids are working properly.