You take good care of your hearing aids. When you go to bed, you always put them snuggly on the charger and you clean them daily.
Suddenly and distressingly, your hearing aids aren’t working the way they once did. There are several things you can do to diagnose the problem, thankfully. Just don’t forget: your main job is to refrain from damaging your hearing aid further (or you may need to replace them).
Troubleshooting your hearing aid
Of course, when you first got your sweet new hearing aids, you made a point of storing the owner’s manual in a safe spot. Hopefully, you did so that you can consult with your owner’s manual to do maintenance and troubleshooting. Each model of hearing aid can be rather different so it’s important to follow the manual’s recommendations.
On most models there are some other things you can check, here are a few:
- Check your battery: You’ll still want to check the battery power even if you had your hearing aids on the charger overnight. If your hearing aid has replaceable batteries, it may be a good plan to check if those batteries are correctly inserted or if a new one resolves the issue.
- Keep your microphone clear: Check for anything blocking the microphone of your hearing aid. A blocked microphone can create feedback or can cause your hearing aids to sound broken or silent.
- Look for noticeable damage: Does your hearing aid have any obvious loose components or cracks around its shell? Cracks, clearly, could indicate more significant damage (or let in moisture).
- Wax buildup: Perform a visual check of your hearing aid to ensure that there is no wax accumulation interfering with standard operation. Even if you undertake routine cleaning, sometimes wax can build up quickly, so it’s worth checking this off your list.
Once again you can discover how to deal with each of these concerns by consulting your owner’s manual. In some cases, you may be able to perform maintenance yourself.
When does my hearing aid require repair?
Your hearing aid will most likely need to be professionally repaired if you do routine upkeep and it still malfunctions. That may not always sound desirable, after all, you depend on your hearing aid for day-to-day communication (not to mention dinners with your family, staying up to date with your favorite Netflix series, and so on).
You won’t automatically be without your hearing aid for lengthy periods of time just because it needs to be serviced. Sometimes, we can do the repair in office and you can take it with you when you go.
Or, you’ll be able to bring your hearing aids in for professional assistance and get them back in a matter of a few hours (this, obviously, depends on the degree of the damage, all the more reason to bring your devices in for repair as soon as possible).
There are still some instances where such fast repair isn’t possible. And in those cases, you might find yourself in need of a backup pair of hearing aids. So if you have an old pair lying around, ask whether they will serve temporarily. Or maybe we have a loaner pair you can use.
Don’t wait to get assistance with your hearing aids
It’s crucial to get your hearing aid checked and repaired if you start to notice the audio quality is starting to falter.
Any amount of downtime should be avoided. Untreated hearing loss can impact your general health, including your mental health. More to the point, once your hearing aids are forgotten in a box somewhere, it’s all too easy to pretend they’re not there, all the while, your hearing grows worse and worse.
The best way to keep your hearing working properly is to keep those hearing aids working. And the best way to do that is to clean them, keep them charged, and, when needed, bring your hearing aids to get some professional help.