Keeping your hearing aids clean.

 

Irrespective of the type of hearing aid you wear, it needs to kept clean, To make sure the aid functions and performs as we would like it to some daily cleaning is recommended ! Since the invention of the electronically amplified hearing aid by Louis Weber and Siemens in 1913, ear wax has been a consistent test of a hearing aids reliability. This is even more so now that hearing aids are being built smaller to fit further into the ear canal close to where the wax is produced. For many years hearing aids were designed and built with out any in-built protection against ear wax ingress.

 

Thankfully today hearing aid manufacturers build hearing aids with wax protection systems, be it a simple plug in filter like the Cerustop which protects the receiver ( speaker ) of the hearing aid from wax and debris, or a more sophisticated acoustic membrane system like the Phonak Smart Guard. The plastic housing of the latest mini behind the ear RIC ( receiver in Canal ) models are etched and nano coated with a material designed to prevent moisture and wax getting inside aid and destroying the electronics. One such system is the isolate nanotech coating from GN Resound.

 

Whilst these systems help protect the microphones, receivers and key amplifier components in hearing aids but they need to be cleaned on a regular basis to make sure the hearing aid can function as we want it to.

 

Here are some videos which demonstrate how easy it is to clean a hearing aid. It does not take long but if you can begin a routine where you clean your hearing aids on a regular basis; your hearing aids will reward you with a long working life with minimal disruption.

 

Video 1 - How to Clean and change the Cerustop Filter on a Custom Hearing Aid