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Custom Tips Advice

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I have recently found out that I have some mild hearing loss, alongside following a brain injury. I have finally found hearing aids that work for me and although from the audiologist the settings were a real struggle, after help and reading things on here I managed to and now am finally feeling like I have my life back, however I am finding the domes itchy and uncomfortable (Phonak vented domes). It has been a long way and time to get to this point but despite such a mild loss it really has been life changing to be more aware of my surroundings again.

Someone recommended custom tips to me however I am a bit lost. As I said - I struggled to find an audiologist that could get my hearing aids programmed well so don’t feel like I can go back now I have effectively moved away from them and done it myself and many places in the UK do them but I am unsure on some things and wonder if anyone could advise to help me:

Materials - what is the difference between hard and soft? With mild hearing loss will the difference matter? Although the silicone domes itch I don’t think it is an allergy rather than just they move around/don’t fit that well.

Venting - the vents on my phonak domes are small but I know that they don’t fit my ears as well as custom ones will so should I just start with the biggest vent size I can to start with?

Thank you in advance for anyone who helps.

I recently had custom shells. My audiologist explained the differences between shell types. He said that Phonak would be able to use 3d modelling based on the impressions of my ears to select the most appropriate shells for my hearing loss. So that’s what we did and I am very happy with the result thus far both in terms of the comfort and the performance. Good luck!

There are two reasons to switch from domes to molds:
(1) The domes available do not fit your ear canal well (uncomfortable, itching due to the material and/or shape, they slip, etc).
(2) The domes cannot achieve the level of venting/sealing required for your prescription.

You may want to try Miracell for the itch (It has worked very well for me). Some people in this forum recommend mineral oil or olive oil (I haven’t tried these).

The choice of vents depends on the type of hearing loss, its severity, and the desired performance for streaming and speech in noise (among other things). It’s not something that’s chosen the way you described - the choice depends on what is needed to achieve the prescription goals without feedback issues.

For mild hearing loss, open domes are typically used because they allow natural sound to enter, preventing the occlusion effect and ensuring the sound is as natural as possible. Individuals with severe hearing loss require better sealing to prevent sound leakage from the ear canal and avoid feedback issues.

The question is: Why do you want to switch to molds? There are simpler solutions for the itch. Since you’re doing , you can test multiple domes, even ones from other manufacturers, until you find one that works best for you.

I’m not against molds (I’m not), but I believe it’s better to have a rational explanation rather than blindly following someone’s advice.

Thank you for this.

Definitely why I posted on the forum to get more advice etc, it’s been so helpful before.

I too found my domes were itchy in my ears when I first started using hearing aids (Widex). My audiologist accidentally switched one of the domes to an equivalent Starkey dome and the itching from that ear went away!

So I switched to 2 Starkey domes and have had no itching since then. So this is one alternative to look at.

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