Ear infections are incredibly uncomfortable, but if you’re a hearing aid user, they come with some extra complications. The relationship between hearing aids and ear infections is worth exploring, so let’s break it down.
Leave Them In or Take Them Out?
To be honest, this is a conversation to have with your audiologist or an ENT, because it can vary depending on what style of hearing aid you wear, where the infection is (outer ear, middle ear or inner ear), what caused it and a host of other factors. If you’ve got an ear infection, contact your audiologist right away for advice.
They may recommend you take the hearing aid out. It could impede the healing process for the infection (again, depending on where it is and what caused it) or affect your hearing aids’ performance (more on this in a moment), but more importantly, hearing aids are going to make the pain and discomfort of the ear infection even worse. It can be very difficult to position your hearing aid comfortably in your ear canal when it’s inflamed and filled with fluid.
Can Hearing Aids Cause Ear Infections?
We get this question a lot! The short answer is no, hearing aids do not cause ear infections. However, improper care of hearing aids can increase your chances of an ear infection. This is for a few reasons:
- The body of the hearing aid can collect dirt, dust, grime and other debris and transport it into the ear canal. This risk is especially high if you frequently don’t wash your hands before handling your hearing aids. That debris can block the ear canal and lead to an outer ear infection.
- Similarly, germs can collect on the surface of the hearing aid (again, especially if you’re not washing your hands). Middle ear infections occur when bacteria enter the middle ear and infect the fluid there.
- If you don’t dry your ears or your hearing aids properly after getting wet, your hearing aids may trap excess moisture in the ear canal, leading to an outer ear infection.
Can an Ear Infection Affect My Hearing Aids’ Performance?
An ear infection will affect the hearing abilities of someone with healthy hearing, so it follows that it would do the same with hearing aids. The excess infected fluid in the middle ear is going to mangle the sounds that enter the ear, making them seem muffled and distorted.
On top of that, ear infections often cause inflammation in the tissues of the ear canal. As a result, your hearing aids may not fit properly. On top of being super uncomfortable, this could prevent them from adequately amplifying sound into your ear.
Preventing Future Infections
We’re your partners in ear and hearing health. We want you to take good care of your ear health and your hearing aids. As such, we cannot stress enough that taking proper care of your hearing aids will go a long way in preventing ear infections, as that keeps germs, debris and moisture from getting trapped in the ear canal and leading to an infection. Clean them every day and take them out at night while you sleep.
You should also stay on top of moisture control within your ears. Dry your ears after showering and swimming, and consider using products such as swimmer’s ear drops if you’ve been swimming in unclean water, such as a lake or river.
For professional hearing aid cleaning or earwax removal, call San Diego ENT. Both of these services will go the extra mile in reducing the chance of an ear infection. Schedule an appointment today.