Hearing Aid Earmolds and Tubing
One of the real "pains" about a behind the ear (BTE) hearing aid is the
earmold. That's the part that is molded specifically to fit a person's ear,
and it is intended to seal very tightly into the ear. As you might expect,
this can cause it to be uncomfortable, even painful. And that's just one of
the complaints people have about earmolds! To say nothing of tubing!
May 2003 - Are your earmolds driving you nuts? Feedback? pain? You
might want to take a look at an alternative device. Here's
Curtis
Dickerson's article on Comply Snap Tips.
July 2003 - Here's Curtis again with a great article on
changing
your hearing aid tubing. You CAN do it yourself!
May 2006 - Help for Sore,
Irritated, Infected Ears/Ear Canals
October 2009 - Earmolds: Practical Considerations to
Improve Performance in Hearing Aids
May 2010 - 3-D imaging technology could lead to hearing
aids that fit better
October 2010 - Different types of hearing aid molds
More on this and related
topics
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
October 2009
Here's a great article on earmolds! It covers pretty
much any aspect of the top which might interest you, The authors' basic
premise is that understanding and manipulating earmolds is still an
important and effective way to improve hearing aid performance; that
tweaking the various parameters of modern digital hearing aids can't do it
all!
Full Story
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
May 2010
Getting useful sound amplification from a hearing
aid depends on a tight fit between hearing aid and ear canal, but the
current method of modeling patients' ears is messy and not always accurate,
potentially leading to a device that fits poorly and offers little benefit.
"A lot of people with hearing aids are likely walking around with hearing
aids that don't fit, because they don't know what they're supposed to feel
like," says Douglas Hart, MIT professor of mechanical engineering. Hart has
patented a new way of scanning the ear canal with 3-D imaging technology - a
process that is much faster, easier and more accurate than the plaster-mold
technique. He plans to market the technology to hearing-aid manufacturers
first, but believes it could also be useful to build fitted earphones for
MP3 music players, or custom-fit earplugs for military personnel and other
people who work in noisy environments.
Full Story
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
October 2010
Here’s a great site that shows each of the types of molds and talks about
their characteristics and who might want to use each.
