Start by working out which problem you have. If your hearing aid has stopped working or gone suddenly quiet, it is usually a flat battery, a blocked wax filter or moisture, and you can often fix it at home in a few minutes. If the hearing aid is working normally but speech is still unclear, that is a different problem and usually needs an adjustment rather than a repair.
Those two problems get mixed up constantly, and the fix for one does nothing for the other. Work out which you have first.
This guide covers both. Part one is the device. Part two is what to do when the device is fine but conversation still is not.
Before either, one thing to rule out. If the change happened suddenly, affects one ear, and your other hearing aid is working normally, the problem may be your hearing rather than the hearing aid. A sudden drop in hearing in one ear could require urgent medical attention.
Do not spend a week troubleshooting a device. Call us on 03 9800 5697 today.
Part one: my hearing aid has stopped working
No sound at all
Work through these in order. Most cases are solved by the first three.
- Check the battery. Replace a disposable battery even if you think it is fine, or put a rechargeable back on the charger and confirm the charging light comes on. Batteries fail without warning, and a charger knocked out of the wall is a common culprit. If the hearing aid has been wet, from rain, sweat or worse, dry it fully before charging. Never put a wet rechargeable on the charger.
- Check the wax filter. This is the single most common cause. A tiny white or coloured filter sits at the tip of the hearing aid where sound comes out, and it blocks with wax and skin. Replace it with one of the spares you were given at your fitting.
- Check the dome or earmould. If it is blocked with wax, clean it. If the dome is split or has come loose, replace it.
- Check the tubing, if you have a behind-the-ear aid. Look for moisture, kinks or cracks.
- Check it is switched on and turned up. Confirm the volume has not been turned right down and you have not been left in a quiet program.
- Check it is not still connected to your phone. If your hearing aid is paired and streaming, it may be playing silence from your phone rather than picking up the room. Turn Bluetooth off on your phone and listen again.
- Dry it out. If the aid has been exposed to sweat, rain or humidity, leave it overnight in a drying kit or with the battery door open somewhere dry and warm, though not in direct heat.
If none of that restores sound, it needs to come in.
It sounds quieter than it used to
Gradual is the key word here. If it dropped suddenly, see the note at the top of this page. A gradual drop in volume is usually one of two things. Either the aid is partially blocked, in which case the wax filter and dome are the first checks, or your hearing has changed and the aid needs reprogramming to match it.
If cleaning does not restore it, book a review. A hearing aid programmed to an audiogram from three years ago is not doing the job it was set up to do.
It is whistling or squealing
Whistling is feedback, which means amplified sound is escaping from your ear and being picked up again by the microphone. Common causes:
- The dome or earmould is not seated properly. Take it out and put it back in firmly.
- The dome is the wrong size, or has stretched with age. This needs replacing at the clinic.
- There is wax in your ear canal, which reflects sound back out. Very common, and it needs professional removal rather than a cotton bud.
- You have your hand, a hat or a phone pressed against your ear, which is harmless and stops when you move it.
- The aid needs its feedback settings adjusted, particularly if the whistling is new and constant.
Persistent whistling with nothing obviously wrong usually means the fit has changed. Ears do change shape over the years.
It is crackling, cutting out or sounds distorted
Check the battery contacts for corrosion, and try a new battery. Moisture is the other usual suspect, so try a drying kit overnight.
Intermittent faults are the hardest to diagnose remotely, so if it keeps happening, bring it in and tell us when it happens rather than trying to reproduce it in the clinic.
When to bring it in rather than keep trying
- You have replaced the battery and the wax filter and there is still no sound
- The fault keeps returning after you fix it
- There is visible damage, or it has been dropped or been through the wash
- It is causing pain, itching or irritation, which is never a fault to push through
Bring both hearing aids and your accessories, even if only one is playing up. It helps to compare.
Part two: my hearing aids work, but I still cannot follow conversation
This is a completely different problem, and it is the more common of the two.
Your hearing aids sounded great in the clinic. At home, in the car, at the pub, you are still missing things. It is reasonable at this point to wonder whether hearing aids actually work.
They do. But understanding speech involves far more than making sound louder.
Why louder is not the same as clearer
We associate hearing with our ears, but the brain does most of the work. It takes the signal the ears send and turns it into meaning, filling gaps, predicting words and filtering out what does not matter.
That process depends on the quality of the signal reaching it. Hearing loss does not just make sound quieter, it distorts the detail, and hearing aids cannot fully rebuild detail that the ear can no longer transmit. They make speech audible, which is a large part of the problem, but not all of it.
This is why difficulty concentrates in specific places: busy restaurants, group conversations, rooms with hard surfaces and echo, someone softly spoken, someone talking from another room.
What you can do
Position yourself deliberately. Sit with your back to the noise so your hearing aids’ directional microphones work for you rather than against you. Get closer to whoever you most want to hear. In a restaurant, ask for a booth or a corner table.
Watch faces. We all lipread more than we realise. Sitting where you can see faces, in decent light, adds information your ears are not getting.
Reduce the noise you control. Turn the television down before starting a conversation. At home, rugs, curtains and soft furnishings cut the echo that makes rooms hard.
Ask about accessories. A remote microphone clipped to the person you are talking to, or placed in the middle of a table, sends their voice straight to your hearing aids and skips the room entirely. For anyone who struggles in meetings or restaurants, this is often the single biggest improvement available, and many people have never been told it exists.
What the people around you can do
Hand this section to your family. Small changes at their end make a disproportionate difference.
Get their attention first. Say their name before starting. Half a sentence lost at the beginning means the rest has to be reconstructed.
Face them, and stay in the room. Talking from the kitchen while the tap runs will not work no matter how good the hearing aids are.
Speak clearly, not loudly. Shouting distorts speech and changes the shape of your mouth. A natural pace and clear articulation work better.
Rephrase rather than repeat. If a sentence did not land twice, different words will usually work better than the same ones a third time.
Be patient with each other. Communication goes both ways. Hearing aids do a great deal, and so does a household that has adjusted how it talks.
When to come back to us
Do not assume your hearing aids are as good as they get. If you are consistently struggling, there is usually something to change.
Bring us specifics rather than a general sense that they are not working. “I cannot hear my grandson at Sunday lunch” gives us something to program for. “They are not great in noise” does not.
Depending on what you describe we might adjust your settings, refit your domes, recommend an accessory, retest your hearing, or suggest auditory training exercises. We will ensure our recommendations are tailored to your specific situation.
Book a hearing aid review
Whether your hearing aid has stopped working or it is working but not doing enough, bring it in. Most problems are fixable, and most are quicker to fix than people expect.
Call 03 9800 5697 or book a hearing aid review online.
