People who use hearing aids need to have them tested on a fairly regular basis to be sure that they are working at peak efficiency. Hearing aids can be affected over time by such things as ear wax, low batteries, exposure to different weather conditions, and normal wear and tear through handling.

When you first get your hearing aid, your hearing aid specialist will make sure that it is calibrated to your needs, and he or she will have you perform a number of tests to make sure it is working properly before you take it home. It is a good idea, however, to see your hearing aid specialist again within a month or two so that you can discuss any issues that you might be concerned about. If you feel that during daily use your hearing aid (or hearing aids, if you are using one in each ear) are not producing the results that you were hoping for, your hearing aid specialist needs to hear about it. One of the best ways of testing hearing aids is through actual use.

Your hearing aid specialist also can test your hearing aid using special acoustical signals, and he or she can then determine if the settings need to be changed. Every time hearing aids are tested and recalibrated, however, they should be tested again within a month or two to be sure that the new settings are doing the job that they are supposed to be doing.

Hearing aids that are made today are usually quite durable and reliable, so once they are calibrated correctly they usually don’t need to be tested more than every six months, and usually every year is sufficient.