morphocoelestis
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I have heard that ear molds can start to smell. What do you do to reduce/prevent this? Also, what do you do for itching?
fungus. If it really itches and normal cleaning of earmold doesnt help and if your earmold doesnt look right on the surface then it's time to to call your doctor just to taje a look and give you ear drops.
I think that you should ask your audiologist how to clean your earmolds. The way I know is to fill a cup with HOT water and a little soap, let it sit overnight, then dry out and blow through the tube to remove excess water. Earmolds need to be cleaned regularly
Make sure that you also have your earmolds changed like every 6 months. Ask your audiologist when you should have them regularly made.
You seem to have an allergic reaction to your earmolds. There's Hypo-Allergenic earmolds, and you might want to always have this type of earmolds made.
i use a dry & store and it works great. gives it a different smell but it just smells more rubbery with less foul odour. dry&store has the benefit of giving the mould a thorough clean, and you don't have to get the water out of it afterwards as opposed to soaking it. the annoying thing is that you have to replace the yellow block in the dry&store every 2 months or so.
ClearSky,
Interesting about having your earmolds changed every 6 months. Is there a reason for that? The reason I ask is because when I wore hearing aids, I've never had my earmolds changed. In fact, I wore the same earmolds that were made for me when I received my Oticon digitals from 1999 until 2004 when I received my first CI.
I'm glad you suggested hypoallergenic earmolds. I used to have skin sensitivity with regular earmolds, but after I switched to hypoallergenic (hard earmolds), I found that they were so comfortable, I couldn't even feel them in my ears.
Yes, I read before that it's supposed to be changed about every 6 months. I changed at least yearly or before. A lot of people don't know, and it's to make sure your ear molds fit snuggly and avoid whistling. It's also because earmolds turn yellow and hardens. I think once a year is enough unless you start to experience whistling before that.
For example, I have my HA, and I had an earmold made a few years ago. I will soon have to make a new earmold because the earmold has shrunk! It's also hardened and is yellow. It's weird looking. It works, but it's weird.
Yeah, I once was given another earmold, and my ear itched and got red. Once I switched to hypoallergenic, the problem went away.
I had a near death experience caused by an allergic reaction to my earmolds once. Anaphylaxis. it was very exciting. LOL.
Sorry...off topic-sorta
JennyB,
Oh my goodness! Really? If you don't mind my asking, what happened? (If you'd rather tell me via PM or not at all, that's fine.)
I have no problem telling you! We think there was some how latex, or something else I am allergic to in the molds. I was fine at first but after having them for 3 days they were feeling tighter and tighter. Then...I couldn't get them out of my ears and my ears swelled shut around the molds, and my face swelled shut around my ears. Then I went to the hospital.
Now I have new earmolds now that I am not allergic to but I can only use one material from one manufacturer. It's a little annoying.
Oh wow, JennyB. That's gotta be rough...
How did the hospital end up removing your earmolds? Did they have to give you meds to relieve the swelling and/or apply ointment to your ears?
Out of curiosity, are you using Lucite (hard shell) earmolds? Lucite hypoallergenic earmolds were the only kind I could wear. If I tried wearing soft "Patriot" earmolds (you can learn more about them by doing a Google search for "Patriot earmolds"), they slipped out of my ears and hurt terribly whenever I tried to insert or remove them. I do have very small ear canals, so perhaps that had something to do with it.
Yes I use lucite molds. I have tried silicon, and polyethelyne too.
Prednisone, to reduce swelling and then some strength to pull them out. It was not much fun!