Open Fit V Ear Moulds

F

flyingscott58

New Member
Joined
Feb 20, 2016
Messages
9
Reaction score
4
I wear 2 Siemens BTE with open-ear fittings. I have a background noise reduction programme on the aids but often find that when using my aids on this setting even low or mild background noise causes me a problem when trying to follow a conversation.

I can lip read a bit but I'm not that good.

Has anyone else encountered this (regardless of the aid's manufacturer)? Has anyone swapped from having an open fit to having ear moulds on the same hearing aid model? If so what was the experience?

Did using the background noise reduction programme on your aids help you to hear better when listening in background noise when you had ear moulds compared to when you had an open ear fitting?
 
I switched from open fit to ear moulds because my hearing aids emitted horrible feedback when in open fit. Open fit works best for those with mild losses and some moderate losses (evidently not mine). Before switching back, I tried different tip sizes to no effect beyond some of them scratching my ear.

Moulds to occlude a little more - which may be a problem if you have good low frequency hearing. I have mine with a shorter than usual extension into the ear canal which seems to let more background noise in, for comfort of wearing. When I had a longer one, I found more sound was blocked out so that there was little sound coming through which isn't processed by the hearing aid. These sounds could definitely be controlled by a more occluding ear mould but if you're only able to ear through the hearing aid, generally in low frequencies, then it won't make much difference.

In that case you need to ask your audiologist to make changes to the compression on your hearing aids and to reduce the volume of frequencies not commonly occurring in speech. The side effect being that it will make music sound worse, so if you're an audiophile you may want to have a separate music program. If you have an iPhone you can partially get around this by playing with the music EQ settings - I often run mine on 'reduce bass' or 'small speakers' but different settings work best for different types of music. (I also have a 'quiet' program on mine for even more background noise reduction.)
 
appleeater said:
I switched from open fit to ear moulds because my hearing aids emitted horrible feedback when in open fit. Open fit works best for those with mild losses and some moderate losses (evidently not mine). Before switching back, I tried different tip sizes to no effect beyond some of them scratching my ear.

Moulds to occlude a little more - which may be a problem if you have good low frequency hearing. I have mine with a shorter than usual extension into the ear canal which seems to let more background noise in, for comfort of wearing. When I had a longer one, I found more sound was blocked out so that there was little sound coming through which isn't processed by the hearing aid. These sounds could definitely be controlled by a more occluding ear mould but if you're only able to ear through the hearing aid, generally in low frequencies, then it won't make much difference.

In that case you need to ask your audiologist to make changes to the compression on your hearing aids and to reduce the volume of frequencies not commonly occurring in speech. The side effect being that it will make music sound worse, so if you're an audiophile you may want to have a separate music program. If you have an iPhone you can partially get around this by playing with the music EQ settings - I often run mine on 'reduce bass' or 'small speakers' but different settings work best for different types of music. (I also have a 'quiet' program on mine for even more background noise reduction.)
Click to expand...
Hi

I had an appointment with an audiologist this afternoon to have impressions made for ear moulds. Weird experience! But I'm going to give moulds a shot. I decided it's the only way to work out what works best for me.

Thanks
Scotty
 
I got a new hearing aid and ear mold this year and I was trouble with my hearing aid stop working. My audi said the hole in my ear mold for the tubing is smaller than my old ear mold and wax keep getting trapped in the tubing and blocking the sound . I was told by my audi and 3 difference ENT that I have NO wax build up in my ears so my audi not sure
why this keep happening . I am using my old ear mold instead b/c the hole for the tubing is a little bigger and doesn't squeeze the tubing as much and I found out I could hear better using my old ear mold. You would think the company making the ear molds would realize by making the holes in their ear molds would do this . So you should make sure the hole in your ear molds aren't so damn small that it is squeezing the tubing and block some sound out.
 
I've had a friend switch from open fit domes to earmolds with small vents. She says she wouldn't go back to having domes. She's hearing loads better with earmolds.
 
I went from domes to molds and would never go with domes again. The molds will feel a little weird for the first couple weeks and then after that you really don't know they are there.
 
NaidaUP said:
I've had a friend switch from open fit domes to earmolds with small vents. She says she wouldn't go back to having domes. She's hearing loads better with earmolds.
Click to expand...
I am not talking the vents in my ear molds , I am talking about the hole the tube goes into and hooked to the hearing aid . The hole is so small in my new molds that blocked the sounds , I notice right away when I used my old ear mold that the sounds are louder.
 
whatdidyousay! said:
I am not talking the vents in my ear molds , I am talking about the hole the tube goes into and hooked to the hearing aid . The hole is so small in my new molds that blocked the sounds , I notice right away when I used my old ear mold that the sounds are louder.
Click to expand...
She wasn't replying to you. It's not all about YOU. :rolleyes:
 
Last Wednesday I got fitted with moulds. Also got new aids. Now wear 2 Oticon Spirit Synergy. Technology is better. Background noise reduction is automatic. Gets supressed without having to switch programs. Sound quality is a lot better with moulds and moulds feel more comfortable in my ears than the domes ever did.

My audio explained that this was because moulds are made to fit ears perfectly whilst domes a re chosen as a "best fit" from different sizes according to how big or wide an ear canal is.
 
Not quite relevant, but Oticon Spirit Synergy aids have a music setting that you can ask your audiology clinic to enable (just a button click). It's considerably better than the mess the normal channel makes of it.
 
Back
Top