Guide to Troubleshooting Your Hearing Aid

If you own a hearing aid, you might already know how complicated it is to solve the issues you encounter with it. Because it breaks, you can lose important moments in your life or paramount pieces of information, this being the reason why you have to troubleshoot whatever is wrong with it as fasts as possible, right on the spot. Even though you may consider it complicated, fixing a hearing aid is extremely easy. Follow the tips listed below, and you’ll have your hearing aid working in no time!

Step 1: Overall check-up

When your hearing aid is not working at all, the first thing you will want to try is checking if it is turned on properly. Also, most hearing aids have a setting that you need to make sure it’s looking properly. If no answer is received from your device, you can start checking if the battery is in good shape. To do that, you’ll have to carefully remove it from its case and either place it into another device to see if it works, either simply replace it with a new one and check if there is any feedback from your hearing aid. If none of these options work, there might be an issue with earwax stuck in your earmold. Cleaning it up might be the answer to this problem and should immediately solve the issue. Unfortunately, if this action does nothing to your hearing aid, you might want to call a hearing professional and see what’s there to do.

Step 2: Solving whistling

Hearing a whistling sound while wearing a hearing aid is no news. Many people encounter this problem when using a hearing aid, and the good part is that there is a solution for it. Reducing the volume to the minimum and checking if the earmold is inserted correctly are just the first two steps towards troubleshooting your device. If the earmold is not inserted correctly, probably this was the main cause of the whistling. Another one could be related to the battery. Don’t forget that a hearing aid that is causing wounds inside the ear is not suitable for you and you should change it right away. Plus, you can find several types of hearing aid gels or lubricants in shops in case you don’t have the option of replacing your old hearing aid.

Step 3: Solving low volume

The last step would be solving the issues you encounter with low volume. Many people consider that a hearing aid is not helpful at all if the volume is not high enough. This is the reason why you need to check thoroughly the tubing for moisture or fraying. Tubing should be replaced every now and then to avoid other problems in the future. Cleaning earmold is necessary for this case as well. The same steps should be followed when encountering distorted noises and sounds. If the problem persists, the only thing left to do is purchasing a new hearing aid or talking with a specialist for further instructions.

[expand title = “References”]

Daily Care and Troubleshooting Tips for Hearing Aids. https://www.asha.org/uploadedFiles/AIS-Hearing-Aids-Troubleshooting.pdf. Accessed on: 16 November 2017

Care and Maintenance of Hearing Aids. http://www.betterhearing.org/sites/default/files/hearingpedia-resources/eGuide_Care_Maintenance_Hearing_Aids.pdf. Accessed on: 16 November 2017

Troubleshooting Tips for Your Hearing Aid. https://www.webmd.com/healthy-aging/hearing-aid-troubleshoot#1. Accessed on: 16 November 2017

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