I press on the ear canal from behind my ear to hear better with or without hearing aids. My small curved canals seem to be the issue. No, better ends or hearing aids didn’t eliminate this. I believe some of us have an outer ear irregularity. I’ve read about some small canal issues yet professionals don’t spot a real problem, only saying I have small ear canals for a man. I’ve read about other hearing loss patients asking similar questions. Is it possible the entire market is geared toward sales of products rather than seeking to understand some of the simplicity of our outer eat? Even when I had no detectable hearing loss, I was able to add layers of hearing by pressing this same place. I’ve hunted since I was 10 years old. I quickly learned pressing this specific spot was superior to cupping my ears. When doing both, even now, I hear tiny noises normally reserved for ears superior to human ears. Any similar experiences or factual medical explanations not geared toward equipment sales?
Amen, Gerald, yes. Though I’m not drilling down on hearing-aid industry conspiracy theories 
, in many other ways, my experience mirrors yours.
By age 40, I knew I had hearing loss, and by age 50, I began wearing aids.
I first found out I had “small ear canals for a man” when I trialed my first pair of aids, Lyrics. These are not removed routinely by wearers (rather removed by audiologists when the non-rechargeable battery wears out) and caused me considerable pain and ear-canal bleeding due to a tight fit, even in their smallest size, so I “flunked out” of my 30-day trial. In fairness, my understanding is that Lyric has improved its small-size fit. But it was clear at that time to both my audi and me that Lyrics weren’t for me, and I moved on.
With my first pair of RIE ReSounds, my audiologist recommended earmolds, which we tried, for a year or two, but the problem for me was that my ear canals are small enough that it was very difficult to achieve proper venting without occlusion as well as the earmolds breaking easily if there was an attempt to improve the venting to reduce occlusion. The molds also caused intermittent moderate pain. I was certain my ear canals were changing shape, sometimes larger, sometimes smaller, almost daily, maybe due to environmental conditions such as temperature?, and when my canals felt smaller, the molds were quite uncomfortable.
So more recently I’ve instead used power domes with ReSound aids, and I’d say these are pretty good. Certainly they are much more comfortable for me than earmolds! But I’m on my third audiologist and still deal with occlusion and struggle to understand speech in certain situations. Getting the aid properly situated in my ear canal is a challenge for me but essential to good hearing; just the slightest change in position can make a big difference, but the dome may not stay where I insert it.
And like you, when I press That Spot, or cup my ears, my speech comprehension improves markedly. But who can walk around that way? Your arms get tired! Remember the old hearing trumpets? That would probably work for me too.
You need to go to an ENT doctor, not an audiologist to find out what is going on.
I’m not sure what this is but pressing on the back of my ear seemed to increase my hearing volume. I suspect it was nothing much more than the action creating a more occluded fit.
In recent times, I used a bite block for the mould impressions (deep canal vented mould & Slimtips) and I don’t get that anymore.
I am not surprised:
- Decreasing ear canal volume increases the real-ear unaided response (REUR). The effect may be stronger if the initial ear canal volume is already small.
There exists Boyle’s law, which means (as a rule of thumb): decreasing volume by half means a +6 dB SPL louder sound near (1–3 mm) the eardrum…
That effect is zeroed when you put the occluded fitting, as in the case below.:
It’s because earmold somewhat “liquidate” the REUR.
- Another cause of better hearing - pushing auricle more forward, making better directivity, especially at higher (5kHz IIRC) frequencies.
I would be more careful when stating conspiracy theory. There is many relatively simple scientific explanation for many phenomenons.
Thank you, that makes sense
This is why I insist on using a deep-placed earmold - because there is possible “free” gain independent of receiver limitations and less occlusion effect.
Why Place a Microphone in the Ear Canal?
Here is a few interesting lines abous pinna and ear canal role in hearing. @Xonic83 you may find it compelling, because it is about M&RIE technology and its role in e.g. localisation.