- Hi, guys, Cliff Olson, doctor of audiology
and founder of Applied Hearing Solutions
in Phoenix, Arizona.
And in this video,
I'm gonna show you everything you need to know
about cleaning your hearing aids
so you can keep them in tip-top shape for years to come.
Coming up.
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One of the most searched hearing aid video topics
on YouTube is how to clean your hearing aids.
Because let's face it,
hearing aids can get extremely dirty.
I mean, think about it.
You require your hearing aids to function
anywhere between 10 and 16 hours a day,
365 days a year for several years,
which means that you accumulate tens of thousands of hours
of usage time with those hearing aids,
and they have to function even while living
in a very harsh environment inside and behind your ears.
Not even your smartphone gets abused that bad,
and you even replace your smartphone more often
than you replace your hearing aids.
So it only makes sense to ensure
that you understand exactly which parts of your hearing aids
that you need to clean,
and how often,
to make sure that they continue to function
for years to come.
But before I show you everything that you need to know
about cleaning your hearing aids,
if you could do me a huge favor
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one of my newly released videos,
and I release multiple new videos every single week.
And a huge shout out to today's sponsor, Oticon,
but more on them in a little bit.
When it comes to cleaning your hearing aids,
I am a much bigger fan of being preventative
rather than reactive.
So you should be cleaning your hearing aids
every one to two weeks,
whether you think they need to be cleaned or not.
Since most hearing aids worn today
are a receiver in canal style device,
in this video, I'm gonna spend my time
working with the Oticon More miniRite T
non-rechargeable hearing aid.
Just keep in mind that no matter what brand
of hearing aids you use,
the steps that I will give you in this video
will still apply.
There are three main areas that you're gonna wanna focus on
when cleaning a receiver in canal hearing aid.
The first area is the dome or custom earmold
that goes inside of your ear.
And this includes the earmold vent if you use an earmold.
The second thing you're gonna wanna focus on
is the receiver,
otherwise known as the speaker of the hearing aid.
This is what actually puts sound into your ear.
And number three are the microphone ports
where sound enters the hearing aid.
Let's get started by cleaning a rubber dome
and custom earmold.
Since the dome is the portion of a hearing aid
that makes the most contact with your ear canal,
it is likely to build up a significant amount of earwax.
You can easily clean the dome
by wiping it with a clean tissue
or cloth for larger pieces of earwax,
or you can just replace the dome altogether.
If you have a custom earmold
like the Oticon MicroShell or Power Mold,
you can also safely use a clean cloth
to wipe off any earwax buildup.
You will also wanna make sure
that the earmold vent remains free and clear
of debris by running either a cleaning brush
or nano cleaner from the back side of the vent
through the front of the vent.
Next, I need to show you how to change the wax traps
on the tips of the receivers.
Now, just like the name suggests,
the wax trap will prevent earwax
from getting into the receiver
and causing permanent damage.
And just so you know, earwax clogging up the wax trap
is the number one reason
why your hearing aids will stop working.
Wax traps are not cleaned.
They are removed and replaced with a brand new one,
which means that you have to have the compatible wax trap
that you can get from your hearing care professional,
because there are a variety of different brands
of hearing aids that all use different sizes and shapes.
If your hearing aids ever stop working,
the first thing that you should do is actually change
these wax traps.
So let me go ahead and show you how to do it.
To change your wax trap,
you will need to remove the rubber dome
from the tip of your receiver first.
Next, you will want to remove a new wax trap tool
from the sleeve that contains a new wax trap.
Use the removal side to take out the old dirty wax trap,
and replace it with the new wax trap
on the opposite side of the tool.
Then you can just throw away the used tool
and the dirty wax trap that is attached to it.
If you have a custom earmold,
the wax trap will be exposed already
at the tip of the receiver port.
The next thing that we need to clean
are the microphone ports on the body of the hearing aid.
Now, most receiver in canal hearing aids
have multiple microphone ports.
In the case of the Oticon More miniRITE T,
there are three microphone ports.
Microphone ports are where sound
actually enters into the hearing aid.
So if you have these microphone ports plugged up
with dead skin cells, dander,
or just dust that's floating around in the air,
it's going to prevent the sound from entering
the hearing aid,
which means there'll be nothing to amplify.
A dead giveaway that your microphone ports are clogged
is if you can actually hear the startup jingle
of your hearing aids or hear stream sound
coming from your phone,
but you actually brush your fingers on top of your ears
and you don't hear anything.
You should clean these microphones
with a soft bristle brush every one to two weeks,
typically in the morning
because the debris will be drier,
and it will flake off much easier.
And just take your brush and brush this debris
away from the microphones, being pretty gentle.
Like I mentioned before,
the Oticon More hearing aids
have three of these microphone ports
that all need to be cleaned.
You have two towards the front
where the receiver wire exits the hearing aid,
and one towards the back of the hearing aid
just above the push buttons.
If you see a bunch of debris fly out
of your hearing aid microphones when you brush them,
you need to brush them more often.
When you see your hearing care professional
for a detailed cleaning,
they will suction out any remaining debris
with a pin suction vacuum.
Of course, if you use a disposable battery hearing aid
like the Oticon More miniRITE T,
you can also brush out the battery compartment very gently
to ensure that no debris
blocks the hearing aid battery contacts.
If you're consistent with cleaning these three parts
of your hearing aids,
then your devices should be able to function properly
in between your regularly scheduled
professional cleaning visits.
Now, Oticon, today's video sponsor,
also has a variety of different cleaning videos
on their website
that I will go ahead and link in the description.
As for their hearing aid's ability
to withstand the rigors of daily use,
Oticon has some of the most durable hearing aids
currently available on the market
due to the amount of testing that is done on their devices.
Not only are all of the Oticon More
and Zircon hearing aid models IP68 rated,
which is the highest rating
that can be attained for debris and moisture resistance
in a hearing aid,
but they are also durability tested repeatedly
to ensure that they can withstand the test of time.
If by some chance your Oticon hearing aids
ever stop working,
you can easily take them back
to your hearing care professional
to have them fix it in their office.
And if they can't fix it in the office,
they can always send it into Oticon for you
to get your devices repaired.
Not to mention, all new Oticon hearing aids
come with a manufacturer warranty,
as well as loss and damage insurance.
So you're covered if anything ever happens
to your Oticon hearing aids,
or if you happen to lose them entirely.
At the end of the day,
regularly cleaning your hearing aids
will not only improve how good your hearing aids sound
in the short-term,
but it can also extend the life of your devices
because you're not having to constantly replace
damaged components caused by buildup of debris.
So do yourself a favor.
Make sure that you're cleaning your hearing aids
every one to two weeks,
and go and (indistinct) professional cleaning
at least a few times a year
so you can get the maximum amount of benefit
from your devices.
That's it for this video.
If you have any questions,
leave them in the comment section below.
If you like the video, please share it.
If you wanna see other videos just like this one,
go ahead and hit that Subscribe button.
Also, feel free to check out my new website, HearingUp.com.
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