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Moving from open domes to closed to molds, how do you know when to move?

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68 yr old and have been wearing Jabra Pro 10 aids for two years. Recently began struggling to hear, almost like I was prior to getting my aids. A trip back to Costco resulted in tulip domes which greatly improved my hearing( though not as good as when I first got the aids). I was fitted again for the tulip domes and rem was done. Would moving to molds make further improvements? And when do you make that move? When hearing declines again?
TIA

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It’s a judgement call. Custom molds are ok in most cases unless low frequency hearing is so good that and ear can so small that adequate venting isn’t possible. To me the must go to custom molds is when you keep running up against feedback limits. If you can’t get enough gain without generating feedback then it’s definitely time for molds. (One can try different domes first)

I only wore domes for 3 months after wearing aids for years, I absolutely hated domes. I only wear acrylic custom ear molds. My reasoning is two fold. First it is basically what I first wore and I am use to them, second it is what my audiologist recommended for my hearing loss.

First of all you should have your hearing retested if you haven’t already. I think every two years make some sense.

Secondly, my main beef with Costco is that they can’t spend enough time fine tuning your hearing aid. You can help a bit here, by downloading a frequency app for your phone and then going to an voice simulator such as this one. Do not download your voice. just use the ones on the web site.

AI Voice Generator with Emotional Text to Speech8

The online AI voice generator that can turn your text into life-like speech. Our extensive selection of hyper-realistic voices. Create your content just the way you want it!

With this information, you get your Costco fitter to adjust certain frequencies and loudness levels that you are having issues with.

My guess is that you are having more problems in the 1.0 KHz to 2.5 KHZ range, at the high loudness input.

As far as your question, it’s been my experience that the feedback issues are not much of a problem with today’s hearing aids, but it is one reason to move to a or mold.

Another reason to go with a closed dome or mold, is to prevent low frequency sounds from escaping your ear. So if streaming or phone calls through your hearing aids are important to you, then that’s a good reason to wear a closed dome or mold.

Finally, fit and venting are two good reasons for going with a mold.

In reply to @MDB

This makes sense. I was amazed that just changing to a would make such a difference in my ability to understand speech better than I was with the open domes

In reply to @user990

I’m missing something here. Those voices are clear to me. I have troubles with real-world situations, i.e. voices coming in through the microphones in the hearing aids.
I have KS10’s. A new fitting always comes out with everything but “real-world” situations being much too loud.

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