I know some of the shittier audiologists want to just fit as many people as they can with hearing aids and send them out the door without proper education on their devices, and this is a shit show in and of itself, let alone these audiologists not doing Real Ear Measurements giving you the maximum benefit with those devices but they also don't tell you how to clean them.
Because I mentioned it, a super high end hearing aid, state of the art modern technology will not perform as well as an ass old analog hearing aid that has Real Ear Measurement done on it. A low end hearing aid with REM done will outdo a high end hearing aid that doesn't have REM done.
Now with that out of the way. I know a lot of people don't know to clean their hearing aids, let alone how to, and this largely depends on the type of hearing aid you have so I can't make a comprehensive tutorial on how to do this.
You should have been given these various tools tools to clean the hearing aids, or just one tool that has a brush and a scoop/wire at either end. Some have separate tools while some have multiple tools (I'm looking at you, hearing aid that uses infrared light instead of sound channeling).
I clean my listening devices with the tool, a single one. I scoop out any earwax from the ear buds and wipe it on a clean cloth, then use the brush to really get in and around the device to brush any stray wax off them. Then I use a simple alcohol pad and sanitize the whole ear bud part.
I then proceed to clean my ears. The way I do this is using hydrogen peroxide. I fill my ears individually with several drops of peroxide and let it set and boil for several minutes before turning over and doing the same with my other ear. I do this twice.
I then use an appropriate ear cleaning tool (You can get actual ear cleaning tools at most pharmacies) and scoop out any junk the peroxide didn't get, but did manage to loosen up. Then use the abrasive side in the ear canals themselves to debride dead skin and other debris.
Then I take a shower and flush my ears with a steady stream of warm water. Not a hard stream, just a steady gentle stream of finish flushing out my ears. It's fine to have ear wax still in your ears, I highly recommend leaving some, ear wax is slightly acidic to prevent ear infections from bacteria and mold.
Afterwards, my ears are squeaky clean and I hear better than before cleaning with and without my listening devices. (I have residual hearing)
Even if you're just hard of hearing using hearing aids to help you in your day to day life, this still applies to you because you wear hearing aids just like I do.
