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Pain caused by custom ear pieces

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My custom moulded ear pieces are very tight and difficult to insert. Six days ago I experienced severe pain in one ear after wearing my aids for about 5 hours. The pain was so bad that I could not lay that ear on a pillow to sleep.
I put the aids back in the next day without undue pain and wore them for another 3 hours.
The pain that night was worse. I don’t feel a lot of pain except when I lie on that side or touch my ear.
I have not worn the aids since but the pain has not gotten better and doesn’t seem to be lessening at all.
Have others had the same experience and if so, what did you do about it and how long did your pain last.

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Lubricate your ear canal with some drops of oil and also the custom war mold then you will be fine. But be cautious if your are using hearings aids because the above advice works well for aids as the receiver is already in the aids body .

Try painkillers to break the cycle of pain and tension caused by this. If this then improves things, try reintroducing the aids for a couple of hours initially, then increase each day as appropriate. If it’s still uncomfortable you should discuss it with the fitter. Pain can really kick in with ear moulds as ears are very sensitive. I have had a scab rubbed in my ear but through rest and reintroducing it slowly, it turned into a great fitting custom mould. The ear needs to try and get used to something different, a bit like new shoes but it certainly shouldn’t be painful once this process has passed.

Do you know the shape of your ear canals? I had read that ear canals run forward in the head. When I first got my ’s and had used them a couple months, my audi asked to watch me insert my molds. When I struggled to get the left one in, she remarked that my left ear canal was unusual in that it went straight in for a little, then ran backwards instead of forward. So knowing the shape of my earl canal certainly helped me insert my molds more gently in each ear. The other thing that I do when inserting and removing molds is, with the opposite side hand, is to reach around, grab the top rear portion of my ear lobe, and as I am gently pushing in on the mold or pulling out on the plastic “stick” attached to the mold, I gently pull up and out a little bit repeatedly on my ear lobe to expand/deform the canal opening to help ease insertion or removal.

The shape of your ear canal or insertion and removal of molds may not be related to your discomfort but just mentioning the idea because scraping your ear canals too much on insertion or removal can lead to pain in wearing.

I had a lot of pain with my first set of moulds. Fortunately, my fitter was very good at what he did, and was able to grind them down to where they were comfortable. When I broke one and had to have it replaced, he was on vacation and a different guy worked on the new ones. After two days I called back and demanded an appointment with the first guy as soon as he returned from vacation. He was able to make it perfect again. So my point is, some fitters are better at this than others.
A couple of years ago I trialed a Starkey hearing aid. Remembering the trouble I had with my first moulds, and advice I had received from this forum, I tried the technique of holding my mouth open slightly, and even exercising my jaw a few times, while the goop set. I got a much better fit that time around.
You might want to try having a new set made using that technique, or you could also go with soft moulds.

If your molds aren’t just a few months old, but a few years, I’d highly recommend going to your fitter and redo the molds.

Ears and canals grow and change a bit, and what was comfortable a year ago, might not be today. And our body can adjust adjust adjust until it comes to the ‘breaking point’.
I wouldn’t insist on my ear to ‘toughen up’, I’d first do check ups with to ensure everything is fine in the canal, and then do the new molds, or maybe even from different material.
Also, to check wire/tube length, in case your ear outgrew it and now it pulls on a bit different angle.

But give your ears rest and don’t push them to endure several hours if you can avoid it.

I tried hard acrylic molds and they were painful (like if I touch that small part of ear towards the face) or useless after too much grinding by fitter.
I have hard silicone custom made plugs made a few years ago, which never hurt and I can sleep with them if I want.
I didn’t try such materials for my mold, because I decided I really like domes and how they fit in the ear, as opposed to magic by twisting molds to enter my curvy ear canals.
Point - material and form definitely matters, and also, our bodies can get irritated with some motion/material over time.

Go to your fitter while the ear is sore and they should be able to see the sore spot. It used to be an easy fix with grinding, buffing and polishing. Unfortunately, a large percentage of today’s hearing aid practitioners have not been taught the old grind, buff and polish skills, most just opt for a new impression.

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