Guide to Troubleshooting Your Hearing Aids

Hearing aids may well be relatively small devices, but if you’re fitted with one, chances are that you’re pretty reliant on it. Your hearing aid will improve your auditory capabilities, alerting you to dangers, helping you to communicate with others and improving the amount of entertainment in your life, as you’ll be able to listen to music, watch television and engage in a host of other activities. This means it can be an inconvenience if your hearing aids begin to malfunction or aren’t operating optimally.

Whether you have a brand-new aid that you haven’t gotten used to or an older device that’s started to malfunction more frequently than you’d like, you have to start troubleshooting to determine if you need hearing aid repairs. While some problems require professional assistance, there are some you can troubleshoot on your own before scheduling an appointment, including the following:

Feedback

One of the most common problems with hearing aids tends to be feedback. This is a whistling sound produced by hearing aids while they are inside your ear. Most modern hearing aids have automatic feedback cancellation, so if you have an older hearing aid, it may be time to upgrade. If you still experience problems, you can reduce feedback by avoiding covering your hearing aids. If you are experiencing feedback, check that you don’t have a hat or scarf covering the device, or that you are not leaning up against a pillow or cushion. You may find that feedback occurs when the volume on your hearing aid is too high – try turning it down or replacing it to its default setting. A final step that you should take would be to ensure that the tip of your hearing aid is in the right position. Feedback is more common when the tip has become dislodged or is not in the right place.

Sore or itchy ears

This is a problem that tends to be more common amongst first time hearing aid users or people who are just not all too used to wearing hearing aids. An itching or tickling sensation inside your ears isn’t something to be too concerned about, but it can impact your day to day life, making you feel uncomfortable or irritating you. To relieve this sensation, consider placing a little hearing aid gel or specialist lubricant on the entrance of your ear before putting your hearing aids in. You may also want to repeat this after removing your hearing aids at night. These products are specially designed to minimize itching sensations by relieving dry skin. Double check what gels are recommended for your style of hearing aid. If your ears feel sore, ensure that you are definitely inserting the right hearing aid into each ear. Hearing aids for the left ear are usually marked with a blue mark while hearing aids for the right ear tend to have a red mark. If you begin experiencing itchiness or soreness, you may require a new earmold or the device may need to be fit again as your ear anatomy can change.

Poor sound quality

If you have recently had a new hearing aid fitted and are already experiencing poor sound quality, you may not be experiencing a problem with the device itself. Hearing aid fitting can require some adjustments based on your experiences with your day-to-day needs. You will simply need to schedule a follow-up appointment with your hearing instrument specialist to have your devices adjusted. They can then reprogram your hearing aid to better suit your needs and preferences.

Deciding it’s time to take your aid to your local clinic

If the above techniques haven’t brought you much joy, or if they work temporarily, only for the same problems to start occurring once again, you may find that it’s time to take your hearing aid into your local clinic. Sure, hearing aids may succumb to an occasional problem that you can rectify yourself. But if problems persist, there’s likely to be a deeper problem at the root of things. A hearing instrument specialist at your local clinic will be able to dig a little deeper and determine precisely what’s causing issues. If necessary, hearing aid repairs can be carried out. Wrongs will be put to rights, and you will have a hearing aid that is in perfect working order.

If you’d like to learn more on this topic and get even more insight into troubleshooting your hearing aid, reach out to Modern Hearing by calling:

• Green Bay: (920) 434-6800
• New London: (920) 982-3313
• Shawano: (715) 524-4242