Our senior audiologist Hannah Harris offers some guidance to help you look after your hearing aids.

Excessive wax, moisture and debris can cause a hearing aid to sound weak, distorted or even to appear ‘dead.’

Keeping your hearing aids clean and free of wax and moisture will improve the quality of the sound and their longevity.

Daily:

Every day you should wipe over the whole hearing aid with a dry tissue.

For stubborn, dried on wax, you may use a cleaning wipe (avoiding the microphone and wax filter areas).

Weekly:

The hearing aid’s microphones should be cleaned with a brush to remove debris build-up. If the microphone is blocked or partially blocked, sound is not able to get in.

The microphones are located in the back of the hearing aid. They are very small holes on a ‘behind the ear’ hearing aid, or usually have a small cover on ‘in the ear’ hearing aids.

For a rechargeable hearing aid, it is good to clean inside the charger to stop debris sitting on the charging contacts. You can do this with a brush or tissue.

Monthly:

If your hearing aid has a wax filter this needs to be replaced monthly as a minimum. If you produce more wax you will need to replace this more frequently.

To do this use a replacement stick which has a new white wax trap on one end. The other end removes the old wax trap.

For hearing aids with a dome, roll the dome around (separately) in an alcohol wipe to remove any wax from underneath. This also helps prevent staining from excessive wax. Always fully dry with a tissue before attaching to the aid.

If your hearing aid has a tube attached to a mould you can pick out the wax using a loop tool. For ventilated moulds you will need to remove wax build-up by using the loop or pushing a wire through from the other end (where the tube enters the mould). A blocked vent may make the sound very boomy and hollow and your ear may sweat more.

Every One To Three Months:

If your hearing aid has a dome this will need replacing every one to three months depending on how waxy or thin the material has become.

You can also periodically remove the dome to give it a deeper clean. Once the dome has been removed from the receiver, you can roll the dome around in a wet wipe to remove any debris from underneath. Make sure the dome is fully dry before inserting back onto the receiver.

Six-Monthly:

For a hearing aid with a mould, your tubing needs to be replaced twice yearly. If the tubing becomes very hard, or if you see moisture/wax in the tubing, this will need to be replaced more often.

Recommendations:

If you notice moisture on the hearing aid, corrosion inside the battery door or wear of the hearing aid shell, it would be good to use a drying pot nightly. *

For excessive moisture, or if your hearing aid regularly breaks down, you can use an electrical drying pot which absorbs more moisture from the aid.

*Always remember to remove batteries first. For rechargeable models turn hearing aids off.

Support:

If you need a cleaning refresher or would like to be shown how to clean part of your hearing aid, please book an appointment with me or your audiologist.

Webshop:

All cleaning and drying accessories or tools can be bought from our webshop Hearbase Direct. Prices include VAT and postage is free.

My Favourite Picks

The PerfectDry Lux is very efficient at absorbing moisture from hearing aids. It uses the latest in hearing aid hygiene and also disinfects them.

These cleaning wipes are ideal for dissolving ear wax and stubborn build-up on your hearing aids.

This is a great little pack of tools to help you clean different parts of your hearing aids.

All these items are available from our webshop

To make an appointment to see Hannah or one of our other audiologists ring 0800 028 6179 or email admin@hearbase.com