It may be a surprise to many people that roughly 20% of all ear infections happen to adults. Most people think of ear infections as a childhood sickness, something that impacts primarily young kids. And it’s true that ear infections are more prevalent in kids, but they also happen frequently in adults.
Ear infections can be especially unpleasant for individuals who have hearing loss because they can interfere with their hearing aids. Also, when hearing aids aren’t correctly maintained, they can become a vehicle for ear infection-causing diseases.
So is it a bad plan to use hearing aids with an ear infection? In general, the answer is yes, but you might not want to. Hearing aids could aggravate the discomfort and inflammation caused by an ear infection. However, there are some steps that those who use hearing aids can take to help avoid and treat ear infection symptoms.
Do hearing aids cause ear infections?
You may be questioning if your hearing aid is the cause of your ear infection if you’re an adult with hearing loss. Technically, the answer is no. But in order to get the full picture we need to look at it in greater detail.
Almost all ear infections are caused by bacteria or a virus that gets into the ear. There are a number of paths that bacteria and viruses can take on their way to becoming an infection. In some cases, the inner ear becomes infected after a previous illness (for example, a sinus infection or a cold). An infection may be caused by fluid accumulation in other situations. And it’s also certainly possible for viruses and bacteria to infect the inner ear via direct transmission.
For individuals who use hearing aids, this can be a regular occurrence. Your hearing aid accumulates this bacteria or virus and then gets inserted directly into your ear. Correct hearing aid cleaning and maintenance is essential for this reason. Essentially, the hearing aid itself doesn’t cause the ear infection, the virus or bacteria does. But your hearing aid is involved in this transmission.
Interactions between hearing aids and ear infections
So, how do ear infections and hearing aids interact? The best way to anticipate what to expect is to examine the most common ear infection symptoms. In general, ear infections will have the following symptoms:
- A feeling of fullness or pressure in the ears
- Drainage of fluid from the ear
- Temporary loss of hearing in some situations
- Tinnitus (a ringing in the ears)
- Dizziness or vertigo
- Ear pain
- Swelling and inflammation
Not everybody will experience every symptom, of course. Typically, you will have noticeable inflammation of the inner ear and ear pain in the infected ear. For those with hearing loss, these symptoms can interact unfavorably with your hearing aids. That’s because the hearing aid goes inside the infected ear (at least some of it). Your hearing aids may cause added discomfort as they aggravate the tender inflamed infected ear.
Also, with a hearing aid that sits primarily inside the ear canal, fluid drainage can be obstructed. When fluids cannot drain, your discomfort may become prolonged. This will also increase the pressure (and pain) you feel in your ears. This pressure can be even more pronounced when you’re wearing your hearing aid.
The performance of your hearing aid can also be impacted by the excess moisture. So your ears are in more pain and your hearing aid doesn’t really work as well as it should. Which means that wearing hearing aids when you have an ear infection can be a downright miserable time.
Ear infection & hearing aid strategies
So what can you do if your hearing aids are annoying you while you have an ear infection? You can reduce your risk of getting an ear infection and address any discomfort that an ear infection might cause by taking a few steps. Those steps include the following:
- Regularly clean your hearing aids: Making sure your devices are clean can help to ensure they aren’t transferring bacteria and viruses to your ears (or, at least, that it occurs less often.) Ask us for help if you’re not certain how to correctly clean and disinfect your hearing aids.
- Talk to your hearing specialist: Consider coming in to have your hearing aid re-fit if your ear infection clears but your hearing aid is still not comfortable.
- Take breaks from wearing your hearing aids: If the pain is persistent or severe, it’s all right to take a break from wearing your hearing aid until your ears feel better. During this time off, you can pursue other means of communicating with your loved ones (such as texting or writing messages on a piece of paper, and so on).
- Talk to your healthcare provider: If you suspect that you have an ear infection, talk to your doctor as soon as you can. Treating a hearing aid as soon as possible will decrease the risk of it becoming severe or prolonged.
- Practice good ear hygiene: This means regularly cleaning your outer ear and, generally, keeping your ears clean and dry. However, you should never stick any object in your ear and that includes cotton swabs. With a cotton swabs, your chance of developing an ear infection increases because you could push earwax and debris further up into your ear canal. You’re attempting to accomplish the exact opposite.
You most likely depend heavily on your hearing aid every day. They help you get around your world more easily and have better communication with your family and friends. That makes it very difficult to give up your hearing aid even for short periods. However, you will have a quicker recovery from your ear infection if you take a break from wearing them until you heal up. That means you can get back to enjoying what you hear faster.
Ear infections are relatively common. But that doesn’t mean you shouldn’t seek out treatment or try to prevent them. Contact us if you’re wondering how your hearing aid use will be impacted by an ear infection.