[Hearing aid ear molds] Advantages and disadvantages of common hearing aid ear molds Material and style selection of ear molds
Everyone knows that there are two types of hearing aid ear mold materials: one It is a hard ear mold, and the other is a soft ear mold. In terms of appearance, it can be divided into in-ear type and ear canal type. Generally speaking, in-ear soft ear molds are often used by children, because from the traditional thinking, it is necessary to amplify the sound and seal to prevent the whistling of the hearing aids, thereby enhancing the listening effect and avoiding the impact on others in public places. In addition, many parents think that it is better for children to choose soft ear molds, because many people think that soft ear molds are more comfortable than hard ones. This understanding may be related to the recommendation of the hearing aid service center. Whether it is a soft ear mold or a hard ear mold, I think it is very important to fit the child’s hearing aid in the process of choosing a hearing aid for the child, but the certain influence of the ear mold and the amplification characteristics of the hearing aid cannot be ignored. The material and style of the ear mold The selection of the ear mold is also a part of professional matching, and the cooperation between the ear mold and the hearing aid can be fully considered, so that the hearing aid can be used more effectively.
Advantages and disadvantages of hearing aid earmold materials and styles
Personally think that earmolds can be selected according to different hearing conditions and the characteristics of earmold materials and styles , The following is my understanding of the advantages and disadvantages of common ear molds for many years, and I hope to discuss with you.
1. In-ear soft ear mold
Advantages: good sealing, suitable for severe hearing loss, strong anti-whistling ability, good stability , not easy to fall out.
Disadvantages: The wearing comfort is average. When the new ear mold is brought in, it is difficult to bring it in due to the high friction. Sometimes it is necessary to apply eye ointment to lubricate it before bringing it in.
The plasticity is poor, and the sound outlet end cannot be further processed. The sound conduit running through the ear mold is easy to age after a certain period of use, and is easy to be scratched out after hardening. At the same time, the tube at the connection between the sound guide tube and the ear mold is easy to crack (this is related to the child pulling the ear mold with the hearing aid). Soft ear molds are relatively expensive to make.
Explanation: Poor plasticity is because the tube generates tension under the natural shrinkage tension of the soft ear mold, which causes the tube to shrink to a certain extent. must be weakened.
2. Ear canal soft ear mold
The ear canal soft ear mold is relatively less used for children and relatively more for adults. Except for the relative comfort, the other conditions are basically the same as the in-ear soft earmold.
3. In-ear hard ear mold
Advantages: due to the smooth surface, it is relatively easy to insert when wearing, suitable for severe and extremely severe hearing patients, Good plasticity, can carry out targeted processing on the sound outlet end, such as opening the bell mouth, which is conducive to the natural amplification of high frequencies; increasing the length of the sound outlet and reducing the diameter of the sound outlet can increase the amount of low frequency amplification. There is an elbow between the ear mold and the tube (the imported elbow is of good quality), which reduces the breakage of the sound tube of the soft ear mold, and the sound tube of the hard ear mold is easy to replace after aging. Except for children with heavier hearing, which need to be replaced for a certain period of time due to body growth, hard ear molds for young and middle-aged and elderly people have a very long service life and relatively low production prices.
Disadvantages: The wearing comfort is average, and it is easy to feel the pressure on the helix, concha, and tragus due to the inappropriate production, and because there is no subcutaneous tissue in the auricle for a long time to wear these parts, it will affect the cartilage. A compressive pain sensation occurs in the body.
4. Ear canal hard ear mold
Compared with the in-ear ear mold, the wearing comfort is better, and the pressure on the ear cartilage is improved. , suitable for patients with moderate and moderate to severe hearing loss. For example, if the hearing conditions are possible, the vent can be opened, which can effectively improve the patient’s ear blocking effect and enhance the naturalness and comfort of listening. Of course, the type of vent hole is also important. Generally, the vent hole parallel to the sound transmission hole is more commonly used, because such a vent hole has less influence on the high-frequency amplified signal.
Disadvantages: For patients with hearing within 60 decibels or especially those with low frequencies close to normal and poor high frequencies, quite a few people still feel that the sound is blocked or stuffy.
How to choose a hearing aid earmold
The above is the general situation of common earmolds. Since each has its advantages and disadvantages, how to improve it? The following are some of my personal experiences, you can learn from or make better suggestions.
1. Children with hard hearing can wear hard ear molds in their ears.
Maybe when I say this, many parents will first wonder whether the hard ear mold is easy to whistle and whether it will hurt the child to wear it. In fact, the reason why the hard ear mold is easy to whistle is that when taking the ear sample for the child, it is relatively shallow, which will inevitably cause the ear mold to be not deep enough during production, which will greatly reduce the sealing performance of the ear mold, even if it is made Soft ear molds are also prone to whistling. In addition, even if the sampling is very standardized, if the production staff does not make it in place, it will also cause whistling. Therefore, it is more suitable to take the ear sample for the child through the second bend of the ear canal and then inward by about 2-3 mm. In addition, the second bend of the ear mold is the first sealing barrier during production. As long as this part is well sealed, The wide part of the ear, especially the antihelix, concha, and antitragus, can be appropriately made smaller, so as not to cause a sense of pressure. In addition, the surface friction of the hard ear mold is small, and it is easier to insert into the ear canal. For more than a year in the past year, I have chosen the hard ear mold of my hearing studio for many children with severe hearing loss (even some hearing loss of 115 decibels), and the results have achieved very good results, because the hard ear mold is in While effectively solving the problem of sealing, it can also better fill in the production requirements at the sound transmission port according to the different high and low frequency losses of the child, so that the production staff can carry out special processing, and the sound tube of the soft ear mold is broken. And the extracted problem has been solved very well.
2. Patients with hearing loss within 60 decibels or with good low frequency and high frequency difference can use hollow open hard ear mold
As mentioned above After the ventilation holes, there are still a considerable number of hearing patients who still can’t improve the problems of blocked ears and dull speech. Adjusting the hearing aids still can’t change. Later I found that these users felt that when I tried hearing aids when I used small plastic earplugs for them. All are very good, but there was a problem when taking the hearing aid and wearing the earmold, and had to use small plastic earplugs again, but the safety of using such earplugs is poor (the hearing aid is easy to fall), and the ear canal is prone to allergies and itching , this problem has troubled me for a long time.
Later, through my own ideas, I drew the sketch of the hollowed-out open ear model and showed it to the ear model maker in my hearing studio, and made the ear model according to my requirements. The user of the mold is in his 60s, his hearing is 50 decibels, and he uses a digital hearing aid of more than 1,000 yuan. He uses a hearing aid with a small amount of amplification, and the machine is not easy to whistle. When he wears this ear mold, he immediately feels listening. more natural, clearer, and greatly improved comfort. In addition, patients with good low frequency and poor high frequency have also achieved very good results using this type of ear mold. If such patients use hearing aids with feedback suppression function (ie, anti-whistling), the effect will be more obvious.
Another advantage is that for those patients with long-term otitis media, the use of this type of earmold is not easy to aggravate the problem of pus and water.
Of course, the customized earmold not only depends on the hearing loss, but also needs to be comprehensively considered according to the patient’s history of using hearing aids, listening habits and sound quality requirements.
