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Getting new Phonak infinio Sphere 90's w c-shells. How important is digital 3D ear scanning (Otoscan)?

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Once again, according to Phonak, there are less remakes with the scan. But, expecting perfection on the first try is a gamble no matter what and you really should plan for the need for adjustments. It may seem to be a perfect fit but become uncomfortable over time. Good luck.

I have worn acrylic full skeleton ear molds, made by the old fashioned impressions for 20 years now. I have never had to ask for a remake. I have had the scan impressions done on me mostly for a presentation for a audiology class. I have always followed my audiologist comments about moving my jaws like I am eating and or talking. But yes there can be bad impressions done by in experienced individuals.

How much do you open your jaw? I was reading that opening the jaw too much can also make molds not fit as well, at least on some patients. On the spectrum of close, open a little (1-2 fingers), open a little and moving some, open and moving with larger motion, open and stable with a bite block (usually about an inch), and who knows what other methods exist how do folks figure out what works best?

You can read a lot of different things and everyone has their own opinions. I don’t open my mouth much.just enough to move the jaws without scraping the teeth together. And I move my jaws side to side a small amount.

In reply to @Neville

@Neville said:

The sonova receivers are pretty quite, so you would probably not have chip noise problems with the UP.

I agree, UP is very quiet even now, when it is 2 AM in my region.

@Neville said:

The venting required for your loss might limit the potential benefit of the highs on the UP anyway. So: trial and error, which isn’t great when you’re traveling for it. I might lean towards the P.

My thresholds are better in the low frequencies and I have 0.9 mm venting; I would prefer smaller. However, I do have the opportunity to experiment, as the Audi dealership is only a 15-minute walk away.

If you’re willing to take a risk, I would recommend the cShell with no vent and the UP receiver. But cShell must be from deep scan or deep placed impression, at least 5mm past 2nd bend of ear canal.

I had P previously, but it lacks a capability in over 2500 Hz region compared to UP. The UP for Infinios has better frequency response range than P.
However I could place P receiver considerably deeper in the ear canal which has given additional “free” gain and nice earplug effect which isolates from outside noise without occlusion effect.

@Neville said:

(Where I am you’d be a possible CI candidate because of your missing highs.)

I dearly recommend to get the evaluation. I have CI on the left side.

Where is the receiver placed within a cShell, toward the outer side where that square appears or is it internally placed at the and that square just covering the opening used to insert the receiver? Is this process consistent or does it depend upon ear canal shape?

@user490 said:

Where is the receiver placed within a cShell, toward the outer side where that square appears or is it internally placed at the wax guard

Mostly at this end(), but I’ve seen half way with a tube to the wax guard, it was a long mould because of this.

Edited

In reply to @user490

@user490 said:

Where is the receiver placed within a cShell, toward the outer side where that square appears or is it internally placed at the wax guard and that square just covering the opening used to insert the receiver?

In my case (depends of ear canal shape):

20250330_231816(1)
(red M Infinio SDS 6.0 receiver vs. P Paradise SDS 5.0 receiver for cShells)

20240522_163833(1)(1)

Thanks to all of you for your very useful comments. I am now much better prepared. I have my appointment tomorrow and I’ll share how it all works out.

Edited

I now have my set of I90 sphere (ultra). Just been a few day but here are some quick results so far:

  1. Improved Speech understanding in a restaurant greatly improved. More on this subsequently since it was a quite well-controled comparison with Lumity’s. Improvement score 7 out of 10 where 0 =about the same as Lumity’s, and 10 = feel like I can hear like a person without hearing loss.
  2. Improved Speech understanding under quiet and normal situations. 4/10
  3. Improved Speech in a car: only 1 or 2 points of improvement on the above defined 10 point scale. Still hear a lot of road noise. Going to see my audi tomorrow so would love to have advice from you all: Do I need to have my audi set up a specific program for this challenging situation? Any suggestions on what controls to set where?

Honestly I can’t say for sure, I’d try 2 seperate programs, 1 with and one without and see which works better, sphere works best forward facing speech although they claim 360°. Actually I think you have a “speech in 360°” program you could try as well, definitely helps to have a quiet car, low tyre noise no exhaust.. EV :wink:

Hearing status with new Infinio Sphere 90s with flexible power domes (still while c-shells are delivered): I can now do much better in restaurants. I tried it today and could have good conversations. So much improved. At quiet times at home with women’s voices, I have improved but still like to use Google transcribe so I get live caption help. For road noise in cars, I can really tell the difference in that I can now understand somewhat whereas before it was almost impossible. I ended up getting a separate program for this situation with he “ Sphere” Program (Spheric Speech Clarity 2.0) in its construction. Again I still like to use Google transcribe so I get live caption help. I hope that with the c-shells when I can get them, all these situations will improve somewhat more. I will go more in depth with Target to see what exactly my settings are over the next week and report back. Thanks to all for your advice and help.

the audi said she was ordering with UP receivers (I was right on the borderline, but she thought it was best) and a very small vent. I will get more details when I can finally get them in about 3 weeks when I am in US. And I will report how they work. what do you think (looking at my )?

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