Common Hearing Aid Repairs

Some of you might be surprised to learn that in spite of having almost no moving parts, hearing aids do need regular care and maintenance.  

This is because they are electronics working in a warm moist environment.The most common hearing aid repair is what we call a wax guard.   It's basically a little filter to keep earwax, moisture, and other debris out of the hearing aid speaker.  

This device is very small and it plugs up quite easily for some people.  Often people come to our office thinking that their hearing aid is broken and it turns out to simply be a plugged wax guard.  This can even happen for people who are long time hearing aid users.  Sometimes it even happens soon after it's been replaced.  Fortunately, replacing them is usually quite simple. Another frequent hearing aid fix is, surprisingly, the battery.  

Sometimes people will replace battery and if it doesn't work they begin to think "My hearing aid is broken."   Occasionally the problem is simply a batch of bad batteries.  Yes, straight out of the package some batteries don't hold a charge.  

In this case simply try another package of batteries.  After the wax guards and batteries are checked, another point of concern with hearing aids is the speakers themselves.   This can be caused by wax or moisture getting past the wax guard into the speaker.  

For this concern your hearing aid needs to come to our office  for us to see if it can be vacuumed clean or if it needs repair.  For many hearing aids, the speakers are parts that we can repair or replace right here in our office.

Before we consider more serious problems with the hearing aid we also want to make sure the microphones are clean and sensitive.  

Again, our little vacuum at the office can work wonders.  If that doesn't work, then we will explore repair options.Finally, after all of the above has been checked, any remaining problems could be the amplifier, the circuit board inside, or defective buttons and controls.  

So, while there's a number of things that can cause problems, the biggest key to keeping hearing aids working well is to keep them clean, dry, and powered with strong batteries.

At Nanaimo Hearing Clinic our job is to help you make your hearing aids last as long as they can for you through regular servicing and teaching you how to maintain them yourself.