Simon Ollert to host second soccer camp for children with hearing loss
June 20, 2017
Not Hearing or Not Listening: 7 Ways to Tell if Your Child Understands You
June 22, 20173 Hearing Aid Care Tips for Summer
Today marks the official start of summer, which means the potential for hot weather, outdoor sporting activities, beach days and barbecues.
How will your delicate hearing devices cope with all the added demands? Do you know how to care for your hearing aids come rain or shine?
Here are our top tips to keeping your hearing aids in good condition, whatever your summer has in store for you.
Water-resistant Hearing Aids
Most hearing aids are water-resistant, and can survive some splashes and near-drownings. If your hearing aids do get wet, it’s best to quickly dry them to ensure they keep working long into the future.
The best way to dry your hearing aids is to:
- Remove any surface water with a soft dry cloth
- Take out the battery and check inside the battery door for surface water
- Leave the hearing aids in a warm dry place, such as an airing cupboard or a shelf above a radiator (do not place directly on a heat source) to dry out for about an hour. *Never try to dry out a hearing aid by placing the hearing aid in a microwave this will cause irreversible damage to your hearing aid!
- Insert a fresh battery
- You should be good to go!
Read more: Ask Anna: What do I do if my hearing aids get wet?
If you’re regularly partaking water activities, such as sailing or kayaking, you may like to consider a water-resistant hearing aid, like the Phonak Lyric.
Lyric is suitable for people with mild to moderate hearing loss. It sits completely inside the ear canal so that it provides natural sound quality while staying out of sight, and can be worn 24 hours a day, seven days a week, for months at a time. It is designed in such a way that it is suitable to be worn when showering and is water-resistant enough for water activities where your head is not submerged. If you have Lyrics and wish to go swimming, or think you may potentially end up in the water during other water sports, you can use custom swim plugs to protect them. (Lyric is not suitable for use by scuba divers.)
Covering up – It’s not always about the sun
If you want to keep your hearing aids free from sand and sweat, you might like to try accessories, such as EarGear. Made from water-resistant spandex nylon, these sleeves come in a range of colors and sizes, and are available for hearing aids, BAHA processors and Cochlear Implants. They have been designed to protect from chafing, minimize wind noise, and protect devices from sweat and dirt.
Use a Drying Box
Humidity and sweat can damage hearing devices but, help is at hand. If you use a drying box each night, it will help you get the best performance out of your hearing aid by ensuring proper long-term function and cutting down on the need for repairs. Drying boxes also help maintain good hygiene standards.
There is a range of cleaning and drying kits on the market but, for an all-in-one solution to cleaning, drying, and storing your hearing aids, the D-Dry UV-C light kit might appeal. It simultaneously dries and cleans hearing devices overnight. The drying power works to combat the effects of humidity your devices have experienced all day, whilst the UV-C light reduces germs, which in turn lessens the risk of skin infections/ear infections.
If you’ve had too much fun this summer and find your hearing aids do not work properly, be sure to take them to your audiologist or hearing care professional and discuss with them what happened.
Find more hearing aid care tips, here. (PDF)
