Phonak Dome lodged in ear canal

Thanks Neville!

“Devil’s in the details.”

I almost bought power domes from amazon.ca. However, they are labelled “for Marvel 4.0”

I don’t know if they are the right size for my Paradise P90R’s.

The practitioner who helps is in Burlington/almost Hamilton and that’s a long drive.

DaveL
Toronto

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I had a receiver break off as I removed one of my Phonak Audeo V 90 aids once. The wire broke. Luckily the dome and reciever were almost out of my ear canal and I could pull it out easily. Ever since that episode I have been very careful to keep an eye on the wire where it meets the reciever.

Recently the wire became fragile at the same point on one of my aids. I knew there was a problem because the receiver suddenly started to wiggle on the end of the wire. It was about to break off. I stopped using it and went to my local clinic to have both recievers replaced. They were about 2.5 years old so I’d been concerned this could happen. I have free consumables (except batteries) for the life of my aids so there was no cost to me. They didn’t quibble over replacing both fortunately.

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Glad you got the dome out before it migrated farther in. We wouldn’t want it to go to your head. :laughing: Just kidding!

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Hapened to me and I didnt even know it.ENT was telling me He had a Patient with 3 Three Domes in Her Ear,good thing she wasnt a street worker,LOL!It happens!

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Your comments help.
It’s been a long long problem.

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I’m glad to be of help, cuz I’ve sure walked the walk and talk the talk! :wink:

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That is a very good piece of advice, cuz with my Lumity Life rechargeables, they actually have to be tugged a bit out of their induction base. I always wonder if I’m pulling too hard, but it takes a bit of force to pull them out of the cradle, and the “bean” connected by wire to the receiver is really SLIPPERY to get a grip on.

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Wish I could hear the talk! 3 sets of Phonaks so far…first two years with these Paradise P90R’s was absolutely terrible.

Right now I have an audiogram that needs to be replaced; and I need to know if the Quick Fit from Target is as good as it gets. All my previous setups included REM.

DaveL

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The one time I told my audiologist about a stuck (Oticon) dome, he took it out with ease. And then found another.
And another!
I had to laugh, immediately asking him – what the heck is this, a clown car?

He made it sound commonplace, even finding more than one at a go.

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@jonfrankle

Oh my!
I knew right away. After a couple of hours slapping myself upside the head I got the darn thing out. No problem. :grinning:

edit:

@jonfrankle

You really helped me with your clown car comment. I had freaked out having something in there that shouldn’t be in there…Before this I had audi’s take one out, twice years apart. I had my family doc look about a month ago and she said there was no dome in there. False alarm.

Help from you and others here really helps me. I’m just trying to get my hearing aids working as well as they can.

I change my wax guards once or twice a week, so my domes get stretched a lot. Every time I change the minuscule wax guards I hear better. (Never had problems with the old wax guards on my previous 2 sets of Phonaks.)

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@Neville

Your suggestions always help!

(I thought I was scheduled for a hearing test/setup. I showed up on the wrong day, early, and the fitter helped me. Suggested I try the restoration of the first setup for a while then give him a call. )

I’ve been better off but get comments from time to time. I change my wax guards and seems to help.

I’m really grateful that he gives me the Target User Report and Target Pro Report when I ask. That’s how I found out he has power domes selected…

Robert tells me that I’m lucky to have the Paradise P90’s. Says that workman’s comp allows one below top. And I got the P90’s. I’m grateful that the audi achieved that…now I just need to make them work. I had no say with the selection of these hearing aids. CVA really did help me; I wonder if Workman’s Comp wanted rechargeable batteries to reduce cost, considering I wasn’t due for new hearing aids for about 3 years.

DaveL

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I had a dome stick in my ear at 6:30 pm on a Friday night. There are no audi’s open in Ottawa on the weekend, and I was concerned that I needed to be able to hear. I called all the walk-in clinics, they were all closed. I called 3 of my neighbours, no one was home. I finally jumped in my car and went to my pharmacy. Thankfully, the pharmacist that I know was on duty; she was dubious at first, but and I was able to convince her, and it was a matter of seconds for her to remove it with a tweezers and a strong flashlight. Pharmacists in Ontario are getting expanded authorities, but I bet she never expected to do this!

I am curious about those people who’ve talked about several domes being pulled out of their ears that they didn’t know were there - before you put your hearing aids back on, didn’t you notice that the dome was missing?

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Jody I’ve had 3 real cases, and a suspected one. In each case the Audiologist took 1 out; I got one out.

The suspected one bothered me because when I opened my recharging case one HA didn’t have a dome on the receiver. It was a work day and my family doc helped me out.

My dispensing audiologist-who-quit would send me home with spare domes when I asked. He would save old empty containers in his office, and use that to keep the domes clean. So the box had the wrong label on it. My current Phonaks are size 4.0 S M or L. My 2 old Phonak HA’s domes are just labelled S, M or L. I intend to use the old Phonaks as back ups.

I appreciated the posts by the others. I know that others have had these issues. And sometimes their problems have been worse than mine. I’ll work on prevention! I didn’t like having to get one out myself.

I wouldn’t have thought of going to a pharmacist! Thanks for the suggestion.

DaveL

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Many years ago I was fit with Oticon Epoq RIC’s with tight fitting domes. They would regularly detach and stay in my ear canal. I had better dexterity then and carried tweezers to carefully reach in there and remove the dome. Shortly after Oticon power molds became available.

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With my old Oticons, I had the wires replaced every few years. They weren’t rechargeable, just normal wear and tear.

My Phonaks are rechargeable, and sometimes when they are in the charger, they are difficult to remove. The magnetic force used for charging also attracts the aids.

Remembering my Oticons, I do my best to never-ever remove my hearing aids from the charger by pulling them out by the wires. There isn’t much hearing aid body exposed, and it’s not always easy to pull them out. However, if a wire breaks, I won’t be able to hear out of that ear until it gets repaired, so I don’t want to hurry up the wear and tear processs.

Bob

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As a clinician, usually by the point when you are pulling three double domes out of an ear you are also suspecting some cognitive decline and making a recommendation for custom tips. That third-in dome gets tricky. But in the first-time one-dome cases, often the person assumes it fell on the floor and it just doesn’t cross their mind that it could be in their ear.

My favourite dome I pulled out of an ear started with me saying, “Mrs. Smith, have you been wearing someone else’s hearing aids??” and her saying “No?” until, like a magician, I pulled a dome out of her ear that was from some other device. She then sheepishly admitted to trying on someone else’s 7 months ago. It was an open dome. All she’d noticed was slightly more feedback.

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I did go to my family doc when I couldn’t find a dome. Discovered one HA had a dome, the other didn’t when I checked my charger.
No big deal. She fit me in; checked me thoroughly; said there was nothing there. Ontario Canada. No charge for me.
And last time I got it out myself.
It was easy; it was a power dome with two sealing rings.

My hearing aids are set up for a power dome, not a closed dome (with 2 tiny holes) I have closed domes on them. the programmer did the setup wrong. It’ll get fixed when I get an appointment.

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True confession time huh? Well I had a dome left in once but today topped that. The cotton part of a Q-Tip stayed behind deep in my left ear! I used my trusty BeBird to pry it out. (https://www.bebirdmall.com) Without the BeBird it would have been a trip to Urgent Care.
Big John

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I’ve pulled those out too.

Don’t use qtips. But if you do, use qtip brand qtips.

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@BobbyBoomer

Bob that was quite the experience.

I was lucky when I needed my family doc’s help. I had a missing Phonak dome. She looked; my ear was clear, no dome inside. She made time for me at her practice office on a weekday. I freaked out when I saw my hearings aids in my charger with one missing dome.

The most recent episode I definitely had a dome inside my ear. I certainly didn’t want to go to Emergency at the local hospital. I would have been there a full day.