Q:My father is visiting for the holidays, and it doesn’t seem like his hearing aid is doing anything. How quickly can you repair a hearing aid?

A: When someone in the family has a hearing problem, EVERYONE in the family has a hearing problem. And this is especially true during the holidays. We’ve gotten pretty good at resuscitating dead hearing aids though, and chances are, we can get him hearing again. Often, the electronics of the hearing aid are fine; they just need to be cleaned. Those microphones and speakers are pretty small, and it doesn’t take a whole lot of debris (earwax/gunk) to plug them up. We’ll use some chemicals, vacuums, and a thing called a “Spin Doctor” to clean out the hearing aid and see if we can get it working again for him – and you.

Answered by Dr. Matt Perry, Au.D. – audiologist and owner of Harmony Hearing & Audiology, located in Festival at Bel Air, 5 Bel Air S Pkwy, Ste. 1411, Bel Air, MD 21015 – (410)569-5999