Establishing good habits will help you keep your hearing aids in good shape. Generally keeping them away from water, removing them when undergoing excessive activity that will cause you to sweat, storing them in a hearing aid dryer overnight in order to dehumidify and sterilize them will go a long way towards ensuring their operability and that you’re getting your money’s worth.

That said, cleaning your hearing aids with the proper hearing aid cleaning tools is also imperative. Keeping them clean and changing components as needed is just as vital to ensuring that your hearing aids will work when you need them!

What Hearing Aid Cleaning Tools You’ll Need…
Making sure you clean your hearing aids properly starts with being equipped with the right hearing aid cleaning tools. Whether you buy a hearing aid cleaning kit or decide to buy the components piecemeal, these are what you’ll need to clean and care for your hearing aids.

●Alcohol hearing aid cleaning wipes: Alcohol may be a great solvent (even of salt and wax) but it can damage the delicate components of hearing aids. Instead of using alcohol, get a few packs of alcohol-free clearing aids that can gently lift away dirt and grime.

●Cleaning brushes with soft bristles (and magnets): Cleaning brushes top the list for 

essential hearing aid cleaning tools. In fact, buying the right brushes will give you just about everything you need to clean your hearing aids the right way.

The brush will help you dislodge wax and dirt and gently clean both the exterior and any ported holes on the hearing aid. Some brushes also come with a wax loop, a wire loop that can be used to coax stubborn wax from off of the hearing aids. In addition, some brushes also feature a magnet at the tip that can be used to easily manipulate those pesky, little, hard-to-handle hearing aid batteries. Some people use old toothbrushes to clean their hearing aids, but then they’ll miss the other added perks!

●A wax pick: What a wax loop can’t do a wax pick can help you with, but you don’t need to purchase a purpose-made wax pick. You can improvise one from a small, thin plastic toothpick or something else like it.

●A bulb blower: A bulb blower is mostly useful for clearing out wax and liquids from the hearing aid tubing of behind the ear (BTE) hearing aids, so you may also want one of these.

First Aid for Hearing Aids: Hearing Aid Cleaning 101
To give your hearing aids the proper cleaning and keep them clean and fresh, follow some of the following tips.

●Wipe down the outside with a hearing aid wipe: Whether you need to clean BTE or ITE (In the Ear) hearing aids, you’ll want to start your cleaning ritual off by wiping down the exterior with an alcohol-free hearing aid cleaning wipe.

●For ITE hearing aids: turn them upside down and use a hearing aid cleaning brush to clean wax off of the exterior and out of the small microphone ports. Cleaning the hearing aid upside down will prevent wax from falling deeper into these holes; instead, it should drop out.

If any wax or residue didn’t come off from cleaning with the hearing aid brush, use a wax loop or wax pick to remove any stubborn particles.

●For BTE hearing aids: Cleaning BTE hearing aids is slightly different. After cleaning off the exterior, remove the earmold and soak it in warm, soapy water to soften any wash or residue.

After soaking for a short period of time, you might want to use a bulb blower to force any liquids, wax or any other residue from the inside of the tubing in order to clear it out. Then set your hearing aids in a cool, dry place to dry thoroughly before attempting to install or use them again.

●Wipe down again: After cleaning in the manner described above for BTE and ITE hearing aids, wipe them down one more time before allowing them to dry completely so that you can use them again.

●Store in a dry location (such as a hearing aid dehydrator): If you will not be using your hearing aids after cleaning and drying, or if you are drying them in the evening, keep them in a hearing aid dryer that will help preserve them and prevent corrosion from moisture exposure due to cleaning.

Other Basic Care Tips
In addition to the routine cleaning mentioned above, making sure you rotate out any hearing aid parts that need changing will help keep your hearing aids in tip-top shape!

●Changing domes: If your hearing aids come with domes, you will need to change these periodically. Depending on how clean you keep your hearing aids, your domes may last a bit longer, but as a general matter of principle, it’s still a good idea to change them every three months at a minimum.

●Changing wax guards: Your hearing aid domes will come with wax guards that help protect them from wax accumulation, corrosive damage, and diminished function. Regardless of how often you clean your wax domes (it should be about every day, by the way), you should change your wax guards no less frequently than once per month.

●Replacing hearing aid tubing: BTE hearing aids contain hearing aid tubing that transmits sound from the hearing aid behind the ear into the ear canal so that the person can hear it. Keeping your hearing aid tubing clean in the manner described above is imperative because if you don’t they will become clogged and you won’t be able to hear whatever sounds the hearing aid picks up at all.

Cleaning goes a long way, but over time your hearing aid tubing will become brittle and its performance will be impacted. Clean or not, you should change your hearing aid tubing at least every six months.

Need Help? Contact Us!
Whether you have questions about keeping your hearing aids clean or you just need to know what hearing aid cleaning tools and essentials you need to keep on hand, we can help, with information and great prices!

Take a look through our collection via the links above and get in touch with us at Sales@LocalBattery.com any time you feel you need a little bit of extra assistance!