Good afternoon! Our daughter is 7 and is being fitted for hearing aids next week. We are conflicted on open domes vs. skeleton molds with a large vent. Does anyone have any insight on this? Her audiogram is in my profile. Her loss is confined to low frequencies.
Thank you!
Welcome to the forum, well I always recommend to leave this discussion with your Audiologist, the thing here is your daughter is growing all the time and molds will be frequently made to fit, good luck.
Thank you! Our audiologist is open to both options. An older child with her loss would likely benefit from domes and a younger child from molds. She is in a middle ground where no one can seem to give is an opinion one way or another. Just looking for others’ personal experiences with high frequency loss.
Welcome.
I would let her see both options and ask her for her opinion on which she likes better.
Is she an active kid? Sports? Maybe a mold would be better if so.
Is she self conscious of her looks with aids? Most kids would be. Heck i was as an adult. But we must do whats necessary to hear. She may prefer the looks of the domes being almost hidden. Domes will leave much of the low frequencies to her natural hearing. Molds will block more natural low freqs and rely more on the aid to provide them.
Even at my loss, i still use a double power dome on my better ear because low freqs just sound better to me.
Molds will be more secure if losing them might be a concern
Good luck and maybe let her see some of these posts because she isnt alone with her treatment.
Sure I understand, yeah it’s a hard one to decide, the problem I guess is we just don’t do the paediatric side here on the forum, a bit of a specialty in the audiology field.
Cheers
Welcome to the forum.
As your daughter is still growing I’d be inclined to try her in closed domes first. Then see how she goes with them. If you put her straight into moulds you will be replacing them frequently as she grows. Looking at her audiogram closed domes might just work.
Check what sounds she’s missing on the speech banana.
And if any other kids ask whats in her ears, she can reply that they are the best blue tooth ear buds around…
The audiogram you posted shows high frequency loss.
Molds would be easier for her to put on and get right every time.
I’m in favor of letting her decide. Either could work. She probably feels like she doesn’t have much control. Letting her choose could give her some.
Yes, it is definitely high frequency loss. I noticed that I miss typed the last sentence right after I hit post, and I tried to edit, but I couldn’t figure out how to do it.
Wow, wish that were true. But my skeleton mold is very difficult to insert correctly. Once in it isnt coming out easily though, but most times i need a mirror to get my skeleton mold correctly inserted
Have you tried a lubricant like Oto-Ease?
No. But its not so much that they hang up because of no lube but because the shape of my ear canal is odd on that side, at least thats what the audi’s say.
I will have to get some of that lube to try though. Tnx
How long have you had them? For me it was definitely something that got easier over time. When I first got them I definitely needed the mirror. Now I don’t even think about it.
Welcome to the forum.
Her hearing loss does not need molds, open domes would be easiest. Earmolds are usually very secure but noticable. Domes can be hidden.
I also like the idea of giving her the choice. Then she will take ownership.
Good luck with this.
