Tim Gaule
I am a member of the SaddleBrooke Hearing Discussion Group. Our group meets at 10 a.m. on the second Friday of every month in the Sonoran Room at the MountainView clubhouse. In this month’s article I would like to discuss the importance of caring for your hearing aids. Since I wear behind-the-ear hearing devices, I will focus on those types of devices. While some of my suggestions also apply to in-the-ear devices, I encourage you to review your hearing aid manual for cleaning instructions or talk with your audiologist or hearing specialist.
It is important to keep your hearing devices away from moisture and chemicals. Leave hearing aids out during bathing. Put your aids in after applying hair products, and be careful when using sunscreens. Now that the weather is getting warmer, I often use Ear Gear sleeves for my hearing instruments. They are spandex sleeves that fit over your devices. I use them for protection against moisture, especially if I am working out at the fitness center. They make sleeves for various sizes of behind-the-ear devices as well as cochlear implants. Their website is www.gearforears.com. You can also order Ear Gear products from Amazon, but I would first use the Ear Gear website for help in determining the correct size and model. Besides protecting against moisture, they also protect against dirt. I occasionally wash mine in the washing machine using a garment bag.
You should clean your hearing aids often. Cleaning them at bedtime gives them several hours to air out before you put them in again. I typically place my devices in a hearing aid dryer, which I received with my cochlear implant. For hearing aids with “button” batteries, remove the batteries and keep the battery compartment open to dry overnight. Avoid using wipes with chemicals or alcohol when cleaning hearing aids, as they could damage your devices.
My behind-the-ear device is what is known as a “receiver-in-canal” device. My receiver is a custom earmold. Other receiver-in-canal devices use a dome instead of a custom mold. Either way, this should be the first component that you clean. You can clean it with a cloth or tissue. Some earmolds or domes may also have wax traps. These need to be replaced periodically with a compatible wax trap using a special tool obtained from your audiologist.
You also need to clean the microphone ports on the hearing aid itself. These ports are how sound enters into the hearing aid. Most likely, you received a small brush with your hearing aid. Use that brush to carefully wipe away any debris. You should do that every week.
I am happy to answer any general questions that you have about hearing aids, or better yet, plan on attending one of our monthly meetings. My contact email is [email protected].