I have been using domes since I first got HAs ten years ago. I’ve gone through open domes to double vent domes to currently wearing power domes. I tried custom molds a few years ago and I still have them. But at the time I didn’t notice much if any improvement in speech comprehension with the molds so I gave up on them.
What I did notice was that the receiver wires on the molds stuck straight out of my ears before going into the HA housing. With the domes the wires bend around the front of my ears so that if they are noticeable at all they look like a stray hair. That was a further disincentive to using the molds.
My hearing has deteriorated somewhat since I last tried the molds, and so many of the veterans and pros here say that custom molds are a big improvement over domes for those with severe losses. I’m willing to try molds again, especially since I would appreciate any improvement in speech comprehension, and I have gotten comfortable with occlusion since I’ve been wearing power domes.
I asked my audi if there was a way to bend the wires coming out of the molds to make them less noticeable, but he said pretty much no. Does anyone here have any suggestions on how to make the wires bend to make them less noticeable? Or any other way? Maybe shorter wires? Can the length of wires be customized somehow? Any ideas? Thank you.
It’s not necessarily about adjusting the length of the wire - it’s about getting the mould to sit deeper in the canal. If the original impression wasn’t deep enough, you might need your Audi to redo it. The deeper the mould sits, the more likely it is that the receiver wire will sit discretely flush against the side of your head.
It works very well, way more comfortable then domes for me. With domes I had to use the cap domes from phonak or the small vented domes from resound since. We got the largest stable walled vent size we could since I have very tiny ear canals which is also why I have the large molds to help with the retention along with dexterity. I do find that it helps block out some background noise and helps with my speech understanding.
I had a lot of retention issues with domes and just was not able to get a small enough dome for my ears to fit comfortably. @Volusiano it also improves the sound of streaming and such when watching television.
Yeah, I deleted my post because I realized that @Louie already asked you the same question and you replied as such. Definitely for streaming a mold would help a lot. If you can find a little plastic plug of some sort that can fill up your vent hole temporarily just for when streaming (and remove it when not streaming), I wonder if it may make the streaming sound even better or not.
Not particularly, it’s seems like a good balance of just enough to not be overwhelming with background noise but gives good speech focus and better close conversations, I find it cuts out some of the echoeyness. @Louie I also find the larger mold holds my ear better since they are so small it’s just a little more material in comparison to if I had gotten a canal lock except the half shell is more durable.
