Left HA Dome sliding out all of a sudden

Hearing Aids
#6

I find that my domes tend to slip a little if they’re not cleaned every day. I remove them every night and wipe them down with the same wipes I use on my CPAP mask, which seem very effective at removing wax and oils, and replace them before putting them in the storage case for the night. That way I have them fresh and ready-to-go the next morning.

The other thing to consider is that, at least on my Oticon aids, the receiver wires can be shaped to the contour of your ears. I have simply bent the wires slightly in so that they keep the domes more firmly in the ear, and also shaped the wires to fit more snugly against my ear. I understand that one can heat the wires on an Oticon aid (being careful not to damage them by overheating) to make them easier to shape, but I have not found it necessary for the minor adjustments I’ve needed; if I did, I might ask my audiologist for help.

#7

What do you wipe them down with? Alcohol wipes like they use for lens cleaning?

#8

I have siemens binax 7 with domes and the audiologist told me to NEVER take them and that they are one use only and if you pull it off do not try to put it back on. Is this true?

#9

I find these handy and cheap enough. I use one for both aids. If they fit tightly back on, works for me. I think she is thinking about avoiding damage to the receiver.

#10

We’ve always got lots of those in the house. I just gave it a try. Hopefully it works until my appointment on Monday. I’m definitely going to ask for spare domes if I can get them. I know I can buy them online but for what I paid I should at least get spare domes along with the Cerustops they gave me.

#11

Yeah I asked her about what if they need replacing and she said she would replace them in 6 month. That seems like a long time.

#12

I found my Phonaks online at Amazon. If my Audi doesn’t give me extras I’ll just buy 20 of them. They seem cheap enough. I just need to find out what size these are on Monday.

#13

According to Phonak’s Care and Cleaning guide:

Clean your devices with a special moist cleansing wipe, designed especially for cleaning your hearing devices. Alcohol, solvents and cleaning agents may damage the devices.[emphasis added]

I also have Audéo V90s, three days old. I ordered some wipes on Amazonto be delivered to my home, but I’m currently on the road and don’t know where to pick up a small quantity of “hearing aid cleaning wipes.” So far I’ve tried Walgreens and Walmart.

#14

If you have a Costco membership they sell supplies for cleaning aids. I would imagine almost any hearing center will have accessories for sale.

#15

Maybe I’m wrong but I’ve got to believe they’re talking about special wipes for the HA’s themselves not necessarily for the silicon tips. I’ll ask my Audi on Monday but it seems to me that a regular alcohol wipe should be fine on the silicon tip just not on the HA itself. By the way, the link posted doesn’t take you to the Phonak guide. It takes you to a website called duckduckgo.com.

#16

Ah, sorry – duckduckgo is the search engine I use. I fixed the link I posted, but here it is again for the convenience of anyone who wants it:
Phonak Care and Cleaning Guide

#17

No, I’ve been using alcohol- and solvent-free Citrus II CPAP Wipes that I had on hand for cleaning my CPAP mask. I use the same wipe first to clean my hearing aid domes and then to clean my CPAP mask. I would generally avoid alcohol wipes for such tasks as alcohol can damage some plastics and cause swelling in silicone, and I do not know what precisely the domes are made of.

#18

Yep. The link worked this time. I didn’t see anything on there about the domes themselves though…Only the HA’s.

#19

I’m assuming this will be a short time fix. Either my Audi will hopefully have replacement domes in the office or I’ll buy some myself to keep around. I’m kinda fanatical about proper fit in my ear so I’ll switch them when necessary I guess.

#20

I don’t know anything about Siemens, but mine can definitely be removed for cleaning. The audiologist had me remove them and put them back on in her office when I was fitted, and I’ve been removing them for cleaning every night for the past 17 days with no noticeable negative effect.

That seems strange. My hearing aids were delivered with two packages of 10 domes each and I was told to come back whenever I needed more.

#21

I had exactly the same problem.

My audi (Costco) fixed it by adding a small extension to the tube - I don’t know what it’s called - stabilizer? Tube extension? Tube tail?

I did a Google search and found the picture below, which calls it a “stabilizer bar”.

Whatever it’s called - it fixed my slipping problem instantly, and permanently. I only have it on one of the HAs - the other one doesn’t slip.

#22

Mine actually include the stabliizer bar on both already so I don’t THINK that’s the issue. I will talk to my Audi on Monday. I’m curious to see what she suggests. Thanks.

#23

Try smaller domes. What size did the give you?

#24

I’m using the large open domes with the holes. I saw my Audi today and she looked at it and said somehow the stabilizer bar had moved. She fixed it and it moved again while I was in the office. So…she replaced the stabilizer bar and the dome and so far everything seems to be much better. She also gave me 2 spare domes but I doubt if I’ll need them any time soon. If it stops holding then she said she may want to use ear molds but she’s hoping to avoid that since I’m now used to the open air domes. I did ask about smaller size domes and she didn’t think that would work.

#25

Without looking in your ear to see how things look, I’m sure she’s correct. I know with some patients their ear canal flexing with jaw movement can sometimes work the dome out of their ear, going smaller means their canal has less to grab and spit out.