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Custom moulds or domes?

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Edited

This is an old topic but I thought I’d revive the conversation.

I would be interested to hear new comments on this subject. I have had UK NHS custom (vented) moulds for about 15 years (new ones after about 10 years) and had no trouble getting them to stay in, unlike most earbuds for listening to music etc. which constantly fall out. I’ve been told that I have very small ear canals, one sllghtly smaller than the other which is probably why I was given custom earmoulds. Although they are vented, I do get moisture in the tubes and my ears always feel ‘sweaty’. I do get the “Head in a bucket” feeling and sometimes even have to loosen my earmoulds a little to reduce this. I can hear my own voice a little too much and another issue is I get all the road noise amplified when in the car.

I wondered if domes would be any better ?

Also,my son bought me some ‘Bone Conduction’ earphones but they don’t really work as the sound is really muffled which puzzles me.. I can only use them if I place the speaker over (not in) my ear canal.

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I can’t see your , but from my experience of being stuck with domes (I do ) I can hardly imagine that domes could be better than custom moulds under any circumstances.If you get occlusion (hear your own voice) then the vent might be a bit too small? Making custom moulds properly seems to be an art.

In the end, you might just have to try, but nota bene that your aids have to be programmed for the kind of coupling you use. So you’d have to go to your NHS audiologist and ask to get domes fitted. And if that does not work, you’d have to go back to get your custom moulds back. Sounds like quite a runaround for likely not much benefit.

Thanks for the comments. Sounds (pun not intended ) like I’m best staying with moulds which does make sense. I’ve probably got the best I can get at present. The only thing I can improve is the optimum positioning of the tubes as the way the audiologist has fitted them, they’re more prominent than they need to be. I can do that myself as I have several times and have some spare pre-formed tubes

I’ve added my and as you can see, my high frequencies are quite poor.

Looking at your my thoughts are molds. You are at or beyond the point of needing molds.

Good luck

@Alan_C_J said:

I have very small ear canals, one sllghtly smaller than the other which is probably why I was given custom earmoulds

The reason you were given moulds is because your low frequency hearing allow/needs them to work. Also the amount of gain you need in higher frequencies needs to be kept in your ear, not leaked out as feedback.

If you have a lot of occlusion and narrow canals, slot/slit venting might be a possibility or even making the mould go to the second bend.

For me always custom earmold i can hear 100% with no loss or decrease of sounds that i have experienced with domes. I think you should have your audiologist or the person that made your earmolds make the vents a little bit more wider as this will allow the hearing aids to have a better performance in terms of reducing the sensation of “head in a bucket". As someone else said in the comments making custom earmolds is also an art cuz I’ve been wearing custom earmolds for more than 17 years and sometimes they made a terrible job so i had to redo the earmolds a lot of times hahaha.

Interesting debate. For those not living in those countries (and as I only now realize), note that the UK (mould) and US (mold) use different spellings for today’s topic. So no worries about mouldy molds here.

I wear Phonak Audeo Sphere, Unitron Blu and Phonak Audeo Paradise. I used Phonak domes but stopped because they were very soft, there was often feedback. I bought these domes because they are harder and fit much better in the ear.

Screenshot_20260227-094945

Edited

They are good actually - especially the 6 + 8mm for smaller canals requiring a bit more occlusion. If you’re struggling with insertion, a smear of aqueous skin cream on the edges of the dome can help.

The new Sonova EasyGuard domes are handy if you tend to have wetter or waxy ears.

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