So I wanted to ask
Is it normal for me to feel pressure kind of like I had back when I use to be a diver or would fly …it is like my sinuses are flaring up and I can’t clear my ears
When I get this if I check most of the time I find the vent on my Earmold is clogged
Is this something I should bring up with my Audie on my next visit as I am still so new to this that we are meeting about every 10 days to fine tune my aid
I guess everyone’s different. I had earmolds custom made by ReSound. The receiver openings are centered on the inner face of the mold at least 6 mm up from the lower edge and the receiver ends are recessed at least 4 mm deep inside the molds. With various domes, I frequently had wax in the receiver openings. With the molds, because the receiver openings are higher and the mold keeps the receiver opening from scraping along the side of a canal on insertion, I almost never have any wax debris AT ALL in my receiver openings and have never had them plugged by wax in a month and a half of using them. So one thing to look at might be if there is anything about the design of your mold that encourages plugging of the receiver opening with wax. I have removed my molds with the vent openings, which are on the lower inner face, or other parts of the mold, gobbed up with wax, but never the receiver openings. So on that basis, I’m quite happy with the molds. They’re in-the-outer-canal style of mold about 1.5 cm from outside to inside, going past the first bend in the ear canal.
If it’s just a pressure phenomenon, not an occlusion effect, you might be able to teach yourself to yawn, swallow, or stretch in a way that eliminates any pressure differential between your outer ear and the outside world - think pressure equalization when in a descending airplane.
Perhaps the tendency to clog the vent hole is a combination of the shape of your earmold and the size of the vent. My vent opening hole on the smallest mold is at least 2 mm across (the size of the channel is more finely controlled by select-a-vent inserts) and in all dimensions the edge of the vent hole is at least 2 mm away from all mold surfaces other than the surface containing the inner vent hole opening. The mold itself is more like an ovoid cylinder (narrowest dimension is the horizontal width with a roughly flat face on the inner surface, so the circumferential outer edge of the mold keeps the vent at least 2 mm away from any canal surface all the time. It looks like your vent hole if very close to a surface of your mold that would be in contact with your canal surface as you insert the mold. And you don’t say what type of receiver/waxguard you have but if you RIC device uses standard Cerustop wax guards, relative to that, your vent seems to be a very small opening - making it easy to clog.
It might you need to remake it. Mould should feel as you have gently inserted. I had such problem in right ear.i remade mould and feeling comfortable now. By the way I do not have vent due to my loss.