How not to lose a hearing aid: habits that work

24 July 2026

A hearing aid almost never gets lost "just like that". It gets lost in a few ever-repeating situations — while being taken out, while changing clothes, while travelling. The good news: ever-repeating situations respond to ever-repeating habits. Here are seven that have proven themselves.

1. One place at home. One single place

A hearing aid that is not in your ear is in its charger or its case — never "for a moment" on the table, on the bathroom shelf, on the bedside table. It sounds strict, but "for a moment" is precisely how hearing aids disappear. When there is only one parking spot, you never have to remember where you put it.

2. Take it out deliberately, not in passing

Most people remove a hearing aid automatically — for a call without it, while combing, when it presses. An automatic movement means that an hour later you will not remember it happened at all. One thing helps: every removal ends with the aid landing in its case. Never in a pocket, never in a napkin — a hearing aid wrapped in a napkin ends up in the bin so often that audiologists consider it a classic.

3. Know your risky moments

• A jumper over the head, a scarf, a hat, a hood — the most common way an aid flies out of the ear unnoticed. In winter, check your ears after every undressing.
• Face masks — the loop behind the ear snags the aid on the way off.
• Glasses — putting glasses on and taking them off moves the aid behind the ear too.
• The hairdresser, lying down on the sofa, dozing off at the TV — moments when the aid comes off somewhere unusual.

4. Never travel without the case

A small case in your bag or jacket pocket means that "taking it out for a moment" has somewhere to lead even away from home. Before leaving a restaurant, a visit, or the car, run the quick check: phone, keys, wallet — and both hearing aids in your ears.

5. Mind dogs and small children

Dogs are drawn to hearing aids, and a chewed hearing aid is a destroyed hearing aid — dog-bite repairs are among the most common service cases. The parking spot therefore belongs up high, out of reach of the dog and the toddler.

6. Use a tether for sport

For running, cycling, and garden work there are cords and clips that fasten hearing aids to your clothing. They are not elegant, but an aid shaken out of the ear into grass is one of the worst search scenarios there is.

7. Let your phone keep watch

A Bluetooth hearing aid can be watched automatically: when it disconnects from your phone — because you left it somewhere — the phone alerts you. earBeacon does this, and it also records the last place where the aid and the phone were connected. If a search does happen, you start from a map, not from zero. How the search works is covered in our article on Bluetooth search.

And one extra: write down the numbers

Copy the model and serial numbers of both hearing aids from the box or the fitting card, so you have them ready for service, insurance, and in case someone finds them. It takes a minute and will one day save you hours.