Many patients often ask at their hearing aid consultation appointment “How long do they last?”. While there isn’t a straightforward answer, here are some guidelines.
Hearing aids are complex devices requiring proper care and maintenance. Technology is general is rapidly changing every few years and along with this is new advancements in hearing aid technology. Hearing aids that benefited you a few years ago may now seem to be less beneficial as compared to when you first started wearing them.
Typically, hearing aids will last five to seven years, or longer, depending on how they are taken care of. Hearing aids may require replacement due to several factors, including regular wear and tear, significant changes in hearing, and system upgrades.
Here are some signs that your hearing aids might need replacement soon.’
- Degraded sound quality
- Voices and sounds that used to be apparent are now becoming more muffled
- Background noise is more difficult than it used to be
- You have difficulty making them loud enough
- Physical requirements for custom hearing aids such as comfort and fit of custom style hearing aids.
- If the devices are continually slipping out of the ears
- Feedback is present that will not go away with programming adjustments
- you cannot achieve enough volume
- Decline in reliability and performance of the devices
- Changing batteries more frequently or if a full charge only lasts a few hours
- Cracks or breaks in the device
- Streaming/Bluetooth difficulties.