Regular cleaning and proper care are important to ensure your hearing aids work properly and continue to work properly through the years. Healthy Hearing’sarticle on Cleaning your Hearing Aids and Starkey Hearing’s post on the Do’s and Don’ts of Hearing Aid Care provide great tips for proper hearing aid cleaning and care. Hearing Aid Cleaning and Care Do’s Starkey Hearing suggests DOING the following:

• “Wear your hearing aids every day, for at least 10 to 12 hours a day.”
• “Open the battery door of hearing aids every night to let the device air out and extend the life of the batteries.” In addition, Healthy Hearing suggests removing hearing aid batteries and brushing the battery compartment with a cleaning brush every night.
• “Clean your hearing aids every morning by wiping off the microphone and receiver (speaker) with a soft cloth.”Healthy Hearing suggests cleaning your hearing aids every night before bedtime as well.
• “Have spare batteries with you at all times.”
• “Contact your hearing health care professional with any questions or concerns.”

Another “do” that Healthy Hearing suggests, is get the proper tools for at-home cleaning. Ask your hearing healthcare professional which tools are best for cleaning your hearing aid. A few common hearing aid cleaning tools that come in handy include:

• Hearing aid cleaning brush: Great for cleaning “the body, faceplate or sound port of a hearing device.”
• Wax pick and wire loop: Used for safely removing earwax and debris from inside hearing aid openings.
• MultiTool: A great all-in-one cleaning tool.

Hearing Aid Cleaning and Care Don’ts Starkey Hearing suggests NOT DOING the following:

• “Don’t wear your hearing aids in the shower or while swimming.”
• “Don’t let others wear your hearing aids.”
• “Don’t apply hair spray, gel or dry shampoo while wearing your hearing aids.”
• “Don’t store your hearing aids in the bathroom.”
• “Don’t try to repair your hearing aids yourself.”

Healthy Hearing lists a couple other things you should avoid, including:

• Avoid cleaning hearing aids with wipes that have chemicals or alcohol in them, which could damage the hearing aids.
• Avoid leaving your hearing aids in extremely cold or extremely hot temperatures.

While you should have your hearing aids cleaned regularly by your hearing care professional, practicing proper cleaning and care on a daily basis will help keep your hearing aids working as well as they should, for as long as they should. If you have any questions about proper cleaning and care, or if your hearing aid isn’t working properly, the audiologists at Center for Hearing can help. Contact us and make an appointment today!