By taking careful and regular care of your hearing aid you should reduce the number of times you need to visit our aftercare services.
This page advises on steps that could save you time, any travelling and possible car parking expense, as well as giving you a better hearing experience.
However, at some point you may have a problem that you cannot solve and you will need to access your most convenient aftercare service.
Please remember that when you obtained the hearing devices from our service, this was as an ‘on-loan’ NHS arrangement and therefore the device(s) do not belong to you and instead are property of the NHS.
Please maintain and take care of these devices to the best of your ability.
Maintaining and cleaning BTE hearing aids
There are two types of BTE hearing aids, you will have the style most appropriate for your hearing loss. Please keep the hearing aids clean, this can be done by wiping them with a damp cloth or a wipe.
BTE hearing aids need regular maintenance and you should change the tubes every four to six months, this can be done at our aftercare services, or if you would like to retube your BTE hearing aid yourself please see below.
Maintaining and cleaning in the ear (ITE) hearing aids
Please keep the hearing aids clean, this can be done by wiping them with a damp cloth or a wipe. You should check the hearing aid for wax regularly to ensure it is working to full capacity.
Please see the picture showing how to check an ITE for wax with a cleaning stick. If you do not have one of these cleaning sticks please ask for one at our aftercare service.
If this style of hearing aid breaks and you have checked that wax is not blocking the output then the hearing aid will need to be fixed in the lab. This will take a few days and the hearing aid can be posted to you or you can collect it from The James Cook University Hospital.