It’s difficult to accept, for many, coming to grips with and admitting the truth of hearing loss. Because you recognized that it was best for your health, you made the choice to go and get fitted for a hearing aid by a hearing specialist. More than likely, you quickly recognized the advantages one gets from using a hearing aid, including the ability to hear speech (even among the buzz of background noise), the possibility of recognizing from cognitive decline and the ability to treat tinnitus.
But occasionally, among all those life-changing benefits, you get one loud, piercing and shrieking negative. Your hearing aids whistle. The whistling you’re hearing is more commonly known as feedback. It’s like what happens when a microphone gets too close to the sound system, the only difference is this time it’s directly in your ear. Fortunately, this is a problem you can correct relatively easily. Stopping your hearing aid from whistling can be accomplished using the following guidelines:
1. Adjust The Fit of Your Hearing Aid
The positioning of the hearing aid in your ear or the earmold it’s connected to is likely the most common reason for feedback. If the hearing aid does not fit correctly within your ear, sound can escape and reverberate through the hearing aid’s microphone. Depending on how poorly the fit is and how much sound has escaped, the result of the leakage can be either a continuous or a sporadic whistling. A plastic tube connects some hearing aid designs with an earmold. As time passes, this piece can harden, shrink or crack, which unseats the earmold from its best position. This movement can cause whistling, but you can correct the problem by switching the plastic piece.
2. Excessive Earwax Should be Removed
Earwax is really beneficial for our bodies, even though, ironically, we tend to think of it as unwelcome or even foul. Dirt and other substances are stopped from entering the ears by this gooey substance which acts as a defense. While your ears will self-regulate the quantity of earwax you hold, through actions like Talking and chewing, there are times when an accumulation of too much earwax can have negative repercussions. When you place a hearing aid on top of an extreme amount of earwax, you’re bound to get feedback. The reason for this is that the amplified sound has nowhere to go due to the blockage from the wax. The sound circles back into the microphone because it has no clear exit. There are a few ways to eliminate an abundance of wax from your ears such as letting a warm shower run into your ears. In order to prevent undue accumulation, however, the best strategy is to have your ears correctly cleaned by a hearing care specialist.
3. Make Sure The Microphone is Uncovered
Often times the most apparent answer is the most practical. Have you ever seen someone trying to take a picture which didn’t come out, only to discover that the lens cap was still on? With hearing aids the same thing can occur. Whistling can occur when something is covering the device. You might even get the same result by covering the microphone with your hand or another object, like if you hug someone and bury your ear into their shoulder. Uncovering the hearing aid should suffice in fixing the issue.
Here’s a bonus tip: Think about getting a new hearing aid. Some causes for concern are being alleviated by modern hearing aid models and manufacturers are integrating new technology all of the time. If you’re having issues with whistling from your hearing aids, or you’re interested in finding out more about new hearing technology, give us a call.