Full shell soft silicon ear molds for RIC

[graydrever]

Wearing Signia Styletto RIC for 3 months

Have been going through all the conversations regarding earmolds and have gleaned so much fantastic information. Thank you all.

I’m a tradesman and have lost and found (thankfully) my HA’s many times when removing hat (cord behind ears) dust mask (cord behind ears) goggles (cord behind ears) and ear muffs! These come off and on all day long and I do take a lot of care

Been through so many types and sizes of open domes and sleeves but nothing keeps them in place. They loosen during talking, eating, smiling etc too. RIC is often hard against canal wall so limited sound coming through or domes leaving huge gaps and getting embarrassing feedback. Very bony ear canals and suffer a lot of bruising and scratching with associated infections because they don’t stay in place. Feedback was driving me nuts.

Audiologist took canal impressions and subsequently ordered me very short hard molds which were painful and fell out. Occlusion and feedback was ridiculous and they were unclicked after a few days. Next appointment 10 January with no suggested path to follow.

SO………………today I braved the pain, by wiggling and jamming some 10mm closed domes (seems my canals aren’t as small as first thought) into both ears and somehow managed to get a perfect seal with the RICs VERY close to my eardrums!!! With HA’s turned off I was now seriously deaf!

But with them turned on I had:

1 NO occlusion what-so-ever even with volume and treble at maximum

2 NO feedback at all even with volume and treble at maximum

3 NO background noise at all

4 Far better sound even though they haven’t been “tuned” for no vents.

Most of you will say that with my hearing loss (just a flesh wound!!!) I do not need molds, but retention is paramount in my line of work. I am going to ask the audiologist to do new impressions with longer canals so RIC’s can be closer to eardrums and fill outer ear so concha is completely full for ordering full shell clear soft silicon molds.

Current impressions which almost fill concha and a lot of canal are amazing for swimming and also sleeping with NO DISCOMFORT. Very easy to put in and lock in place firmly.

In addition to 1 to 4 above, I can foresee:

5 No more fingers in ears and never losing them accidentally

6 RIC’s perfectly lined up every time I put the molds in so far better hearing.

7 Painless quick insertion and no more infections

8 Comfort

9 Wires will be better held against head and far less likely to get damaged

10 Turned off and under earmuffs will be unparalleled noise protection for work

11 A flat, clear uninterrupted silicon surface filling entire concha with no gaps & holding wire neatly against my head will not be that bad considering the advantages. Personal choice I know

I have only been able to achieve this perfect positioning of RIC’s once today with the closed domes but expect a custom full shell soft silicon mold will do infinitely better.

QUESTIONS

A Has anyone else with RIC’s got full shell soft silicon earmolds?

B Are there any issues as a novice I haven’t considered?

C Will I have problems getting these made? (I do have an idea to fall back on possibly)

D With no venting, can the necessary increased amplification of all frequencies damage my hearing further or make me more dependent on HA’s?

Thank you from Sydney, Australia

Gray Drever

[Raudrive]

I use soft silicone earmolds with RIC receivers, 1mm vents.
The style is called canal lock earmolds.
They have been very comfortable and do stay in place.
The lock is very handy to use for removal of molds.

[Sierra]

I have used open sleeves, closed sleeves, and a couple of types of molds. Your loss and a NAL-NL2 prescription would indicate you could get away with closed sleeves from a feedback point of view. Have you tried them? They come in 4 sizes. Here is what the fit looks like. The red and blue shaded areas are feedback trouble and you have to keep gain away from those.

With molds you would not have to go to a totally closed mold. The fitting software recommends a 2.5 mm vent. Feedback with that vent size should be no problem. I think a vented mold would be more comfortable than a non vented. Here is what gains and feedback look like with a mold.

I tried two types of silicone molds. One was a simple canal mold, and I liked them the best, but one of them would not stay in place. They next gave me a half shell mold. They really stayed in place. You almost needed a tow truck to get them out of my ear. However they were not comfortable. One irritated my outer ear, and both moved around and made noises when I ate. This may have been just me, as many people use molds and seem to really like them. I gave up on them and went back to closed sleeves. Here is some information on mold types that may be available. I would think a canal lock would be all you need, but there is no reason not to go to a full shell if that is what you want. It may be more uncomfortable though. The illustrations are for BTE type aids, but RIC should be quite similar.I had the #12 type at first, and then the #10. One thing to keep in mind is that the part in the canal is the part that deals with the feedback.

Ear Mold Types

[graydrever]

Thanks for that Rick. A 1mm vent I am thinking should not cause a lot of feedback but the feedback on the little hard molds I tried with 1.5mm vents was intolerable. Maybe because of bad fit. I’m guessing loose fit will be less of a problem with silicon. Your input is most appreciated.
The main goal is perfect hearing and the other goals we all know in varying orders of merit but geez there’s so much hit and miss for the uninformed together with an uncaring audiologist.

[Raudrive]

Hopefully with your loss 1mm vents will not be a problem with your aids. Anything smaller is basically no vent.

Pulling my shirt off over my head sometimes catches my aids. With these molds the aids will flop around but the molds stay put.

I set my aids up to mute with the push of a button. Very handy while running loud equipment.

[graydrever]

Hi Sierra and thanks for your detailed and researched input. Yes I have tried closed sleeves but they are harder than domes as the tips seem to be more solid somehow. The second bend in right and left canals are at 45% so that doesn’t help either and whichever way, pushing on the wire and tip of speaker is not going to do anything any good. I generally end up with the speaker still not facing the eardrum, or feedback driving me nuts. Just hoping the big soft moulds address most of my issues and I’ll be stoked.
To suck a little more info out of a well informed HOH cell mate, can you tell me if my low word recognition score at 40db would be any higher with more decibels as I’m not sure if I was even tested at a louder level.
Gray

[graydrever]

Hey Rick. Thanks for the photo. It appears from that, full shell could be quite messy having a 45 degree angle in my canals in getting access to install/remove speakers. My dad has canal locks and the lock part catches my eye very easily but that might just be his configuration.
How to you upload a photo here if it is not a hyperlink? Or do you somehow make it a hyperlink?
Gray

[Raudrive]

The little arrow up at the top of the reply box let’s you put photos in or take a picture.

One thing about molds, they hold the receiver in the proper place in reference to the ear drum.

[graydrever]

Thanks Rick, receiver in right place is a major reason why domes/sleeves just don’t work for me.
That little arrow at top of reply box is not there on my smart phone. Resorted to PC and took this photo of my impression in full shell style. I want to lengthen canal as much as possible and thinking maybe they can make hole for speaker where I’ve drawn the little rectangle so it can go close to eardrum, wire running between canal and mold to exit point at uninterrupted full shell surface. The canal is on the left hand side. I’m probably dreaming