Your hearing aids are valuable medical devices that help you communicate with others and stay alert to your surroundings. Because they have such an important job, it’s important to do everything you can to keep them in good working order. It’s especially important to stay aware of how to keep them safe during summertime activities.
Take Out Your Hearing Aids During Water Activities
While most types of hearing aids offer some degree of water
protection, like nano-coating, none are fully waterproof. It’s important to remember to take your hearing aids out when enjoying water activities like swimming at Blaisdell Family Aquatic Center, sitting in a sauna or enjoying a hot tub. You should also take care to wear a hood or use an umbrella during a summer rainstorm.
Don’t Handle Hearing Aids with Dusty or Sandy Hands
These small particles can impair hearing aid’s performance and cause permanent damage. Because of this, you should never handle your hearing aids if your hands are dusty, sandy or dirty. You should also remove your hearing aids and store them somewhere safe if you’re visiting somewhere with a lot of dust in the air.
Keep Your Hearing Aids Away from Heat
You should never store your hearing aids where they are exposed to heat, like in a car or windowsill. Instead, keep them somewhere shaded and away from moisture, like a drawer in a bedside table.
In addition, with heat comes sweat, and sweat can damage hearing aids too. While there’s nothing you can do about how much you sweat, you can mitigate any potential damage by storing your hearing aids with the battery doors open in a dehumidifier at night.
Be Careful When Applying Sprays
Whether it’s sunblock when going swimming, bug spray when going camping or hairspray when attending a summer wedding, there are lots of aerosol sprays that can build up on your hearing devices or infiltrate them and cause damage. Be sure to remove your hearing aids when applying any type of spray, and wipe them down after wearing them to ensure the substances don’t clog the microphone or receiver.
For more information about protecting your hearing aids this summer or to schedule an appointment for hearing aid maintenance, call the experts at Topeka ENT today.