New hearing aids cause my ears to itch

I use the Perfect dry lux from Costco, sometimes I’ll do 2 half hour sets.

For home use, Serene Renew. While traveling, PerfectDry Lux, as it is smaller and USB-powered. The Serene doesn’t have a fan and the cycles are longer, so I think it works a bit better, but the PerfectDry works too.

BTW, the paradoxical thing about my PA’s recommendations ("Don’t use classic 70% rubbing alcohol in your ears!") is that at the same time, the guy recommended using as I deem necessary, a prophylactic treatment of the following solution for “Swimmer’s Ear.” A one-to-one-to-one mix of something like Heinz white vinegar (~5% acetic acid) to 70% rubbing alcohol to distilled water (the guy said don’t mess with tap water and whatever might be in it). So we discussed possibly putting a drop of the above in each ear every day before going to sleep vs. treating each ear once a week with about 4 drops per ear while putting my head side-down on a table, massaging the ear after drop application, and remaining still after that for about 5 minutes before stuffing a small cotton ball just in the outermost opening of the ear canal to catch any drips after resuming normal posture-the once-a-week treatment being my choice. I didn’t want to do the everyday bit for fear that acid every day would be hard on my HA receivers if it worked its way down my mold bore holes.

To hold the olive oil and the home-brew Swimmer’s Ear treatment, I bought two brown dropper bottles on Amazon for about $4 (could only find droppers, not dropper bottles in pharmacy section of local grocery stores, Walmart, etc).

What I’m doing with the olive oil and the home-brew is very similar to what other users have described on the forum over the years. I’m just discussing the specifics of my implementation. The rationale for the prophylactic treatment is that I wear pretty tight-fitting occlusive molds that lead to high humdity inside my ear canal and potentially rub off protective wax when I insert and remove the molds and I have already had one left ear infection. An acid environment is not conducive to microbial growth (one of the principles involved in preserving food by fermentation by lactobacilli, etc.) so hopefully a once-a-week treatment with the acidic mix will help preserve the normal mildly acid environment of my ear canal.

Believe it or not, there turned out to be a simpler fix for my itchy ears: I have Oticon BTEs. I went to a new audiologist, who asked why my previous one had recommended 10mm domes. She switched me to 8mm domes and boom, problem solved! Plus I have a weirdly shaped ear canal on the left ear and with the smaller dome the aid now stays in much better.

Actually “Comfort Ear” is a very good product. I found a package with a 14 ml bottle of Comfort Ear in my local pharmacy. I use it from time to time in Winter when lack of humidity takes its toll. It seems to work as claimed.