What to Do if Your Hearing Aid Makes a Whistling Noise

Hearing aids are a wonderful assistive device for many people who experience hearing loss. They enable users to hear again in social settings and listen attentively to friends or family.

Even though these devices often help users hear much better, they don’t always work perfectly, which is why it’s important to have some troubleshooting tips at your disposal. If you notice that your hearing aid whistles when there is no source of background noise, you may be experiencing a problem common among users of this device.

But there are ways to resolve this problem if it occurs with your device. Here we will go over what causes that whistling sound and how you can get rid of it.

What is a Whistling Sound?

A whistling sound is a common problem among hearing aid users. This noise may come from within the ear itself or from the hearing aid, depending on the cause of the problem. A whistling sound from the ear can be caused by a number of issues, including a build-up of earwax, a change in the structure of your ear canal or even allergies or infections.

Determining Whether the Whistling Noise Is Actually Harmful

Before you try to fix the problem, you should know that every whistling noise in your hearing aid isn’t necessarily harmful. Always speak with a hearing health professional before fiddling with the settings on your hearing aid.

Harmful whistling noises can indicate that your hearing aid is too large for your ear, that it’s not turned on or that there is a problem in the external part of the device.

If your whistling noise is caused by a problem in the external part of your hearing aid, it’s best to have it checked out by your hearing health professional. If the whistling noise is harmful, you should have it looked at as soon as possible.

Check for Earwax Build-up

Earwax is a common cause of whistling noises. If you’ve been wearing hearing aids for a while, you likely have a build-up of wax in your ears. This earwax can cause whistling noises in your hearing aids simply because it blocks sound from properly passing through your ear. Before you go in for repairs, try cleaning out your ears and see if this resolves the problem.

Check Battery and Microphone Levels

Before you go change all the settings on your hearing aids, you should check to see if the whistling is coming from a problem with the external device. If you suspect a battery or microphone issue, you can try replacing the batteries in your hearing aids to see if this resolves the problem.

If you’ve recently had your hearing aids cleaned or repaired, you may want to give them a few hours to air out before using them again. Messy repairs can sometimes cause whistling noises as well. Book an appointment with a hearing health professional. They are experts in their field and can explain how to eliminate a whistling noise from occurring when you wear a hearing aid.

If you’re having issues with your hearing devices, we are happy to help repair them for you. Give Bluegrass Hearing Clinic a call at one of our offices: