Along with providing some excellent hearing health benefits, hearing aids also represent a significant investment to most users. Like nearly all high-tech devices, proper hearing aid maintenance improves performance and increases longevity. Knowing how to clean your hearing aids is a significant part of proper maintenance, so I’ve put together a quick guide to cleaning your hearing aids.
Establish A Regular Cleaning Schedule
Our busy lifestyles can cause us to put off taking care of many essential tasks. It is worth noting that many issues with hearing aid performance or longevity stem from infrequent cleaning. Consequently, frequent cleaning provides the best assurance that you will get the best possible benefit from the device.
For this reason, I recommend that my patients establish a daily cleaning schedule either as a regular part of your morning or before bed routines.
Assemble The Tools
Having the right tools on hand and kept in a convenient place encourages and makes cleaning a quick and painless task. You should have:
- a soft cloth
- a soft bristle brush
- a wax pick
- a bulb blower
Cleaning ITE Hearing Aids
To clean an ITE (in the ear) model hearing aid, follow these steps:
1. Open up the battery case and blow out any accumulated moisture.
2. Use the soft cloth to wipe your device down quickly.
3. With each opening of the device alternately facing downward over a towel, use the brush to clear wax and debris away from and out of the openings.
4. If debris is stuck inside the opening, use the wax pick to work it free gently.
5. Finish by wiping the entire device with a clean, dry cloth or tissue. This will remove debris from the case of the hearing aid.
