Newbie Questions

Reading a few posts makes me realize how little I know about hearing aids. I’m 61 with mild sensori-neuro hearing loss across all frequecies in both ears. I wanted hearing aids because I had trouble hearing my grandson, d-i-l, and other low talkers and misunderstood the occasional consonant.

I chose the Widex Passion 440 and like them very much except for the fact that my ear canals kept pushing out the little dome receivers. My audiologist attached a little extra plastic tubing that I curl up a bit upon insertion, with the expectation that the curl will help anchor the receiver. This works pretty well, but not perfectly.

Next, the audiologist did a mold of my canals for the creation of custom receiver domes or buds or something. Unfortunately, the company reports that my canals are too narrow and have too sharp a bend for a custom receiver.

Have any of you experienced users heard of situations like this? Is there a solution? Any help would be greatly appreciated.

It seems like if you are not in the “one size fits all” range they are to lazy to make or suggest an alternative custom mold receiver for you.

The receiver (the part sound comes out of) needs to go somewhere. In your particular model it is located in the part of the instrument that goes inside of your ear. In many other BTE models it is located in the body of the instrument (the part that goes behind your ear).

By locating the receiver in your canal you increase the size of the part of the instrument that goes in your ear. Your audiologist/specialist should be able to recommend a model where the receiver is located in the body of the hearing instrument, reducing the size of the part that needs to go inside of your ear for a better fit. I’m not familiar with the Widex product line, but with most manufacturers you can make this change without making the part of the hearing instrument that goes behind the ear significantly larger. There may be other tradeoffs so be sure to discuss the pros and cons with your audiologist/specialist.