How To Troubleshoot Hearing Aid Feedback

While hearing aids are some pretty fantastic pieces of advanced technology, available with all kinds of features that can improve your quality of life, even the best quality hearing aids can be susceptible to some issues. The good news is that your audiologist has experience in diagnosing and repairing all manner of problems that might occur with your hearing aid. However, learning to troubleshoot some issues yourself could help save you the trouble of asking for help.

Feedback is one of the most common issues that can affect your hearing aids. Sometimes, a repair may be necessary, but there are some steps you can take to see if you can alleviate the problem yourself.

Hearing Aid Feedback

Feedback is a common issue that can happen with all kinds of sound recording and playback devices. The most typical cause is that the microphone is picking up the sound output by the device’s amplifier, which leads to a feedback loop. The noise is amplified multiple times, which can lead to a screech, squeal, hiss, whistle or a loud buzzing noise.

While feedback is becoming less frequent in more advanced hearing aids, there are still issues that can cause it, so what should you do when you experience feedback from your device?

Try Repositioning It First

If the device isn’t positioned properly, then the first thing that you should try to do is to reinsert it. Sometimes, simply taking out the hearing aid and then putting it back can solve the problem. This is usually the case if the feedback you experience is very sudden. If you lean against a pillow or wear a hat, scarf or other kinds of head garments that are a little too tight, then it can nudge the hearing aid out of position.

Simply take the hearing aid out of your ear, put it back in and try adjusting the volume a little. If these work, then it’s likely not a problem with the device itself.

Make Sure to Keep it Clean

One of the most prevalent issues with hearing aids can be the fact that it comes in contact with earwax on a regular basis. People who wear hearing aids are likely to produce more earwax than otherwise, too. It’s a natural part of life, but you should be mindful of the fact that it can build up in your ear canal. Aside from making your hearing aid sit differently in your ear, it can also block up the parts of the hearing aid that help with amplification

As such, you want to make sure that you are both cleaning your hearing aid every night, when you can, using a hearing aid cleaning kit and clearing your ear of earwax from time to time. There are irrigation kits you can buy that help with this, but a professional cleaning from your audiologist can be much more thorough.

Find a Different Fit

If the other troubleshoots don’t fit, then your hearing aid might be a little loose fitting. When your hearing aid is loose fitting, then sound gets through the gap between the device and your ear canal, which causes feedback when the microphone picks up on the amplified noise.

The best way to test the fit of your hearing aid is to take a little petroleum jelly and rub it on the device so that it forms a more complete seal when placed in your ear. If this stops the feedback, then you may need to have it refitted. Your audiologist can help you get your hearing aids re-cased or re-shaped to better fit your ear.

Ask Your Audiologist for Help

If nothing else helps, then there is a chance that there might be something that needs to be fixed inside the hearing aid. Feedback is a very common symptom of a mechanical fault with the hearing aid, and you might even see some signs of damage, such as bent or misshaped elements.

Rather than trying to fix these yourself, it’s best to take it to your audiologist, who can give it the professional repair job that can ensure that the problem is solved. Attempting it on your own may do more harm than good.

Get in Touch Today

If you’re looking for an audiologist to help you get to the bottom of your problems with hearing aid feedback, then you should get in touch with Arkansas Professional Hearing Care at your soonest convenience. Give us a call at (501) 588-0177 and we can help you get the kind of quality experience with your hearing aid that you should expect.