Health

All the better to hear you with…

According to Damien O'Connor, there's a few tips to maintaining and improving the sound quality of your hearing aids.

Your hearing specialist may have recommended that you clean the wax from the tubing, or replace the wax guards. However, most hearing aids have wax which accumulates deeper in the aids, past the wax guards. The wax vaporises and can also attach to the receivers (loudspeakers), which can occur even if the wax has not been physically pushed down into the aids. Vacuuming the tubing (at least every couple of years) can sometimes remove this, otherwise a repair may be needed.

Wax guards do need to be changed, but only once the other components have been cleaned and the sound quality is still not as you would expect. Before changing the wax guards, also wash or replace the domes and wipe and clean the ear moulds.

If your hearing aids have thin or standard tubes, the thin tubes can kink and affect sound quality so they need regular replacing. Standard tubes shrink after a year or so and also need replacing - leaks in the couplings can occur and the tubes can even slip out of the moulds.

A lesser known issue with hearing aids is microphone blockage, diagnosed by few clinicians. When this occurs, the hearing aids may emit a beep as they switch on, but no sounds are picked up by them. These can be easily cleaned by a professional, and in some cases, a repair may be warranted.

If your hearing aids are whistling, which wasn’t the case when you first got them, it is possible you have a wall of wax in your ears. This wall makes the amplified sound bounce out of your ear and leak back into the microphones causing a feedback loop. Ears also change shape over time, so moulds can become loose.

When stickers are removed from batteries, they should be kept out of the aids for at least two minutes to let the batteries charge up fully. Then battery life can be maximised.

After a few years, your hearing can get worse. A hearing test every 2-3 years is suggested. At the same time, your hearing aids will need a service and can be set optimally for your hearing loss.

Considering the cost of hearing aids, it is worth having them reviewed. WHAT The Hearing Centre’s Audiologist Damian O'Connor can check them, so that they can be used successfully and operate well in a variety of environments.

WHAT The Hearing Centre in Lane Cove can also repair and optimise most brands of hearing aids. Even if you purchased them elsewhere, in most cases they can maintain and service them for you. They can also often improve the sound by setting them using expert calibration, especially if you feel the quality and loudness could be improved.

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