Troubleshooting In-The-Ear Hearing Aids

hi I'm Shelly Cristobal doctor of Audiology with hearing healthcare services in Durham North Carolina today I'm going to review how to do basic troubleshooting and management of an in the ear hearing aid as I'm holding here this type of hearing aid fills the ear completely and puts the battery door and microphones on the outside of the ear the sound is delivered through an opening that faces the eardrum deep down in the ear canal now before we get into the specifics of this hearing aid generally speaking hearing aids need three things for them to work their best possible function the first is a good power source the second is that the sound has to be able to get in the third is that the sound has to be able to get out when those three criteria are met hearing aids generally work quite well anything more than that and you'll need to seek support from your hearing care provider so we'll start with that power source devices of this style tend to run off of a traditional zinc-air cell battery zinc-air cell batteries can be purchased at a store most anywhere with a pharmacy or an audiologists office or hearing care providers office the zinc-air cell batteries work best if you allow them to breathe for two minutes after removing the sticker before you turn the hearing aid on for the first time if a hearing aid is sounding dull underwater like it's not working the way you'd like it to checking the battery should always be your first step you also can try swapping batteries from right to left or between the two devices if you wear two hearing aids and you can see if the problem follows the battery or the device that's power source for you the next step is that sound has to be able to get into the device hearing aids have small microphones tiny microphones the openings are less than a millimeter across as a result they get clogged up with I skin cells dust from the world all sorts of things can clog their openings picking a tiny brush light comes with many hearing aids or even a soft toothbrush that hasn't been on your teeth or other cleaning tool you can brush across openings of the outside of the face of the hearing aid in doing so you will dislodge any debris that may have built up and caused the microphones to not be able to pick up sound as clearly as possible think about all those old big speakers if something was leaning against a speaker you would get a duller ratalie sound to the sound being produced the same thing will happen if there's debris sitting on your hearing aid microphone now the third thing is sound has to be able to get out and this is certainly our most frequent culprit of issues with hearing devices the end piece that goes down into the ear canal and faces the eardrum is where sound comes out where the sound is delivered to the eardrum that little circle there and this device is a filter that's there to catch earwax and keep it from getting into the electronics of the device most of our devices have some variety of filter you want to make sure that you have the correct filter for the hearing aid that you're using so please only use the filters provided by your your hearing care provider with your hearing aid we will have sent you home with a pack of some sort of wax guards they have a set of sticks on the inside and those stick hold a hook on one side to help you remove a clogged filter and a replacement filter on the other so you'll line up that hook with the clogged filter and put it straight in and straight out to remove the filter and open up the hearing aid then you'll just flip that around line it up with the same spot and go straight in straight out to replace the filter with a fresh one that's ready to go if you're having trouble with your in the ear hearing aid check your battery your microphones and your receiver port to make sure that all of those are open and functioning the way they should if that doesn't do the trick please give us a call we have telehealth appointments available to coach you through any additional troubleshooting or help you with this process at home we also have some processes for dropping off devices if something's not working so that we can troubleshoot them here at the office safely without exposing anyone to risk a virus spread thank you so much and have a great day

Channel: Hearing Health Care NC

Views: 493

Rating: 5 out of 5

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Id: 0hwnOnvRsnc

Length: 5min 2sec (302 seconds)

Published: Wed Mar 25 2020