I always tell my patients that hearing aid whistles don't make them or me look good! If you left your audiology office and the aids were not whistling but now they are, I would check the following at home:
1) Make sure they are in the correct ears. Seems silly but it happens to the best of us!
2) Make sure your aids are properly inserted. Whistling occurs when sound leaks out of ear so you may not have a good seal.
Custom Aids: If you are wearing a custom hearing aid, make sure it is flush with your skin and the pull string is on the bottom. If your aid is not inserted properly, take the aid out and re-insert.
Behind the Ear Aids: If you are wearing a behind the ear hearing aid, look in the mirror and make sure the kickstand is tucked into the bowl of your ear and the wire or tube is flush against the side of your face. If your aid is not inserted properly, do the following to re-insert:
- Hook body of aid over front of ear where glasses would sit
- Insert dome into ear canal
- Tuck in kickstand
- Gently massage dome into ear canal so wire sits snuggly next to face
3) If the device is still whistling, open and close the battery door to reset the volume. Sometimes the volume gets turned up on accident and leads to whistling.
4) If you are still experiencing whistling after all of this, schedule an appointment with your audiologist. Whistling is very often caused by earwax buildup! The audiologist can also determine if it is caused by poor physical fit of the devices (need different wires, domes, earmolds, etc) and re-run your hearing aid feedback test if needed.
One common reason for whistling from a hearing aid is a wax build up in the ear meaning the wax prevents the sound getting to the eardrum & it leaks out from around the aid, hits the mics, gets re-amplified & sends the aid into saturation causing it to whistle.
Getting the ear cleared of wax will normally resolve the issue.
Another reason can be an earmold which isn't properly inserted ie the helix part hanging out of the ear meaning sound leaks back to the mics causing feedback. Re-advising on how to insert the mold or a reduction in the helix part of the mold will usually resolve this.
Your hearing aids should not whistle. Some common causes for whistling include wax buildup in the ear canals or a poor fitting earpiece. If your hearing aids haven't always whistled, then I would have your ears checked for ear wax. If your hearing aids have always whistled, I would go back to the place you got them and have them re-fit the devices. It is not normal for hearing aids to constantly whistle.
There could be a number of reasons why the hearing aids are constantly whistling.
1) If they are not properly inserted - make sure they are in the correct ears and/or in all the way
2) If they are not a good fit - the audiologist would need to modify domes/shell
3) If they are not programmed correctly - audiologist would need to make adjustments, run a new feedback test
4) If there is wax in the ear - audiologist would do otoscopy to verify
5) Internal feedback - they would need to go back to the manufacturer
So basically if they are in your ears all the way and still whistling go see your audiologist.
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