Hi Dave,
I will come back to you soon, but now im very busy. But please if possible take a photok from some distance -1-2 m. Thanks! 
Hi Dave,
Interesting you should bring this up. I just got the Soundlens also - about a week ago.
I asked my audiologist, who says she has fitted many of these, if they went deep enough into my ear because I felt like they didn’t. The right ear tends to move around somewhat and I find myself pushing it back into my ear many times a day. She told me she could send it back to the factory and they would put some kind of “lock” on it but if the fit isn’t right I’m not sure what thats going to do. In addition, I have pretty bad occlusion in the left ear, which she says probably is due to the aid being too far into the ear. That part really confuses me because I thought the closer it was to the TM the less occlusion there was. (this was certainly true when I wore Lyrics - they had to be placed really close for me to have occlusion)
When she did the mold for the Soundlens it didn’t really seem any deeper than molds that I’ve done for other HAs. My left ear has a crook in it that made it a little difficult to remove the mold, but nothing painful.
So I’m wondering what my options are at this point.
Thanks for any help anyone who has fitted these can give me.
Robin
Robin and Dave,
The photos indicate that your hearing aids are not sitting deeply enough into your ear canals. Ideally, they should be positioned into the bony part of you ear canal with the tip only a few millimeters from the eardrum. Ideally, they should not be visible at all, with the “pull string” slightly showing.
You are experiencing occlusion because the devices are in the cartilaginous portion of the canal, not the bony portion. That is also why they don’t stay securely in your ears.
New, deeper, impressions should be taken with a “bite block” to take into account jaw motion. By the way, IIC and ITC hearing aids historically have a higher breakdown rate and require more maintenance than other styles.
Thanks for the information. This was exactly my thinking - that they weren’t deep enough and thats why I was experiencing the movement and the occlusion.
“bite block”?? Sounds like something you bite on while the impression is taken??
I don’t have an issue with more maintenance and/or a higher breakdown rate. I do have an issue paying an exorbitant amount for HAs that don’t fit correctly! Because I have been a Lyric wearer I’m used to having many visits a year to the audiologist.
But because my audiologist is telling me that that these fit me fine and sees no reason to redo the impressions, I’m wondering what my next step should be. Return these while still under warranty and try to find someone else who does deep impressions?
If anyone has had deep impressions done in the NY/NJ area and been happy with the results, I’d love a referral.
Thanks.
Robin
Ike - are you a professional that fits IICs??
The impressions need to go well past the second bend of the ear canal. As a Lyric wearer you would know how it feels when something sits that deeply in you ear. So it should feel the same way when the impressions are taken.
If you are still within the return period then you could return the hearing aids and go elsewhere. If you are past the return period then you should go to someone else to have them remade. They might charge you for the work done but if it fits and works it would be well worth the expense.
One problem is that the cost of your hearing aids may include office visits and services with your current audiologist. So if you switch to someone else then you may have to pay for office visits. However, you could go back to your audiologist after you get the hearing aids to fit better. Yes, I know that that is an uncomfortable and rude thing to do but the bottom line is that it is your money and you should be happy with your hearing aids!
BTW I do fit IICs. If you want I will check my sources for professional who do lots of IICs.
— Updated —
The impressions need to go well past the second bend of the ear canal. As a Lyric wearer you would know how it feels when something sits that deeply in you ear. So it should feel the same way when the impressions are taken.
If you are still within the return period then you could return the hearing aids and go elsewhere. If you are past the return period then you should go to someone else to have them remade. They might charge you for the work done but if it fits and works it would be well worth the expense.
One problem is that the cost of your hearing aids may include office visits and services with your current audiologist. So if you switch to someone else then you may have to pay for office visits. However, you could go back to your audiologist after you get the hearing aids to fit better. Yes, I know that that is an uncomfortable and rude thing to do but the bottom line is that it is your money and you should be happy with your hearing aids!
BTW I do fit IICs. If you want I will check my sources for professional who do lots of IICs.
Thanks again for replying and the information you provided.
Having had many impressions done in the past I know that the ones done for the Soundlens were no different than any other. And he way they are sitting in my ear now in no way resembles either the look or the feel of the Lyrics, which sat much deeper into the canal. My audiologist was great in terms of fitting the Lyrics for me - she was willing to go deeper until I didn’t have any occlusion. But with the Soundlens she is being quite stubborn. I kept telling her that I thought the occlusion was a result of the devices not being deep enough and she keeps telling me the opposite! Very frustrating.
I am 3.5 weeks into a 6 week trial period. If I return them within the 6 weeks I have to pay a fee to my current audiologist that, relative to the cost of the HAs, is nominal and I understand that she deserves to be paid for her time. But at close to $7000 for a pair of hearing aids, I need to have some reassurance that these are going to work. I don’t see how that’s even possible if the fit isn’t right. I’m more than willing to work with someone over a period of time to get the programing correct.
I would be very interested in a referral to someone in the NY/NJ metro area.
One other question: have you heard of something called the Lantos Aura digital scanner? It’s a device used to make a deep ear impression using a digital impression. I’m not sure if it’s available yet to practitioners but the more I read about it the more it seemed like it was made for people wanting to wear deep fitting HAs. There’s a professional discussion here that’s very pertinent to what I’m looking for:
Thanks again. Looking forward to hearing from you.
Robin
My experience with fitting the Sound Lense was horrible! My audi sent them back no less than 9 times over almost 8 months. He assured me that if I paid for them, a ton of $$ btw, he would work with me to get them to fit right. So I paid the money. In the past, I had had impressions made very deep before, and he never did them that deep. I would keep telling him, I think they’re supposed to be deeper…but he kept saying they were fine. He had never fit IIC’s before. Well, after the 9th time, I complained to Starkey and they “let me trade” for some behind the ear. Exactly, for many reasons, what I didn’t want to have. But, I was stuck with this audi (he had my money) and this was the best I could get. I know that in the “trade” I ended up paying much more for what I ended up with than I should have. Another audi since then, who does many Soundlense fittings, has looked at my ears and said there was no reason I shouldn’t have been able to have them work in my ears. So, long story long, having the right audi that knows what they are doing is worth paying for. Almost every day, because of “practical” reasons not vain, I dislike my hearing aids. They let me hear better, but I’m stuck with them for quite a while. It’s funny. I spend a lot of time pushing the domes back into my ears. One of the things I didn’t like about my left Soundlense was pushing back in. And it took just the slightest amount of push to get them to a place where I didn’t even know they were in there. Looking back at my trial period. I should have left my audi, and found someone that actually had experience with the Soundlense and had had success with them.
So, moral of the story, if you really want an IIC make sure you go to someone with a lot of experience with them that can give you a fair trial and who you fill good with.
Sorry, I kind of went off there. A lot of pent up frustration with my first set of hearing aids.
Good luck, I hope you can find a person that will get them in there deep where they should go. I loved the Soundlense when they sat where they were supposed to.
Scott
Hi Ike, thanks for your feedback.
I agree with you that my hearing aids are not sitting in the bony portion of my ear canal, as I had hoped they would. Even though they do sit deeply enough (just inside the canal aperture) to be discrete, I would like the acoustic benefit of deep insertion. My impressions were taken about 15mm past the second bend, and my audi remarked that the impressions looked great. Did Starkey just not try very hard? After wearing these about a week, they feel rather loose in my ear, so I imagine that the impressions could have been built up in the cartilaginous portion of the canal giving some extra room for the faceplate to sit well into the first bend, if not at the second bend.
I would appreciate your professional opinion about what my next steps should be. Do I need to look for a new audi? Can you recommend one in the NYC area who has a good track record with the Soundlens?
Thanks,
Dave
— Updated —
Hi Ike, thanks for your feedback.
I agree with you that my hearing aids are not sitting in the bony portion of my ear canal, as I had hoped they would. Even though they do sit deeply enough (just inside the canal aperture) to be discrete, I would like the acoustic benefit of deep insertion. My impressions were taken about 15mm past the second bend, and my audi remarked that the impressions looked great. Did Starkey just not try very hard? After wearing these about a week, they feel rather loose in my ear, so I imagine that the impressions could have been built up in the cartilaginous portion of the canal giving some extra room for the faceplate to sit well into the first bend, if not at the second bend.
I would appreciate your professional opinion about what my next steps should be. Do I need to look for a new audi? Can you recommend one in the NYC area who has a good track record with the Soundlens?
Thanks,
Dave
Hi Robin,
it’s nice to have a “buddy” on this Soundlens journey I agree with your skepticism about occlusion because your left HA is too far into the canal. Everything I have read suggests the opposite is true (deeper placement reduces occlusion). For me, the occlusion seems to be less of an issue, but maybe it’s because I have more loss in the low frequencies than you do.
My left ear is the one that moves around more, based on the shape of the HA, it seems to be because it has been tapered more, so there are no “bumps” on it to latch onto the canal anatomy, if that makes sense. Not sure why it was tapered more, my canals looked fairly symmetrical from the impressions.
I’m hoping to arm myself with some information from the forum and go back to my audi with specific requests.
Thanks for any helpful contributions,
Dave
— Updated —
Hi Robin,
it’s nice to have a “buddy” on this Soundlens journey I agree with your skepticism about occlusion because your left HA is too far into the canal. Everything I have read suggests the opposite is true (deeper placement reduces occlusion). For me, the occlusion seems to be less of an issue, but maybe it’s because I have more loss in the low frequencies than you do.
My left ear is the one that moves around more, based on the shape of the HA, it seems to be because it has been tapered more, so there are no “bumps” on it to latch onto the canal anatomy, if that makes sense. Not sure why it was tapered more, my canals looked fairly symmetrical from the impressions.
I’m hoping to arm myself with some information from the forum and go back to my audi with specific requests.
Thanks for any helpful contributions,
Dave
Here you go Gergeli. Hope these pics give a better sense of what they look like without a flash
Hi Dave and Scott. I am new to HAs and currently trying a Phonak Nano and considering switching to a Soundlens because the Nano, after three adjustment sessions, still does not significantly improve my moderate loss and has serious occlusion issues. The Nano seems to be sitting correctly and securely deep in the canal, so it is not a question of mechanical fitting. If anyone is interested, I can elaborate on why I am not happy so far with the Nano.
Since you both have experience with other HAs (Lyric and Phonak Audeo), I am interested in how the Soundless compares apart from the mechanical fitting difficulties. Reason I started with a CIC is that I wear eyeglasses that I need to take off and put back all the time.
Thanks in advance for your input!
Diginote
Hi
Without knowing your specific hearing loss via a posting of your audiogram as I have for example in my signature,it will be posters trying to help you difficult to fully assist you with respect to your CIC power and fitting questions. If you can benefit from more power and features of a BTE aid,I think you should try a dummy one to see if you will have problems with your glasses. Your HA fitter can help you with that. I wear glasses and have no problem with aids.
Hi Dave,
I know this to be true from wearing Lyrics. For me deeper=less occlusion. This was proven over and over again every time I had new Lyrics inserted.
I went back to my audi last week and told her that unless we could try to redo the casing on the Soundlens I was going to return them. She kind of shook her head but she listened. She told me that I had small, narrow canals, and that if any company could make IICs work for me, it would be Starkey. She agreed to make new impressions, as deep as she could, and sent them to Starkey to see if they could remake the shells. She doubted that they could but was willing to try. Yesterday Starkey called her and said yes, they had enough room to remake them and have them sit deeper! So they were sent back yesterday and we’ll see if this improves anything. The impression she took this time didn’t look a whole lot deeper than the first one, but we’ll see. I thought it was worth giving it a shot.
As an aside, as you can now see from my signature, my loss in the low frequencies is MORE severe than yours! I’m curious as to whether your Soundlens is vented, and if so, is the vent fairly large? My audi said the vent on mine is a large as it can be made. I’m wondering if that might be related to the occlusion. Anyone?
I did ask my audi how many IICs she has fit and she said “lots”. When I asked what that meant, she estimated over 50 but under 75 cases. When I asked how many were successful she said more than half. The reasons the others were not successful were mostly because of fit (either canals too small and narrow, too curved to allow the HA to get deep enough, etc) but also because there are features missing on IICs because of their size - like directional microphones, bluetooth, wireless streaming, etc.
DIGINOTE: I’ve never worn Nanos but would be curious as to why you’re not happy with them, other than occlusion issues. I discussed them with my audi before going with the Soundlens. She told me she didn’t think they would be a good fir for me because Phonak wouldn’t be able to make them small enough for my canals.
In terms of how they compare with Lyrics: For me the Lyrics were a perfect solution fit wise, comfort wise and looks wise. Unfortunately, due to my low frequency loss, they weren’t optimal for correcting my hearing loss! They were great in quiet situations and definitely helped even in slightly noisy places. But put me in a restaurant or anywhere where there was a lot of background noise and I felt lost. Totally unable to hear what anyone was saying. I loved that I didn’t have to deal with putting them in and taking them out everyday, no battery issues, and the ability to hear at night was awesome! I had zero comfort issues, no occlusion, no irritation or infections that sometimes go along with wearing them. When my subscription was up in June I decided that I was going to try something else to see if I could get some improvement in noisy situations.
I decided against BTEs because I’ve tried them before and they just didn’t work for me. I also wear glasses but not on a full time basis. I take them on and off a lot during the day and it drove me nuts with the HA behind my ear. In addition I have medium length hair that I often push behind my ears with my hand on and off throughout the day. When my hair would start to loosen from behind my ear, it would take the HA with it. It was so annoying that I gave up on them. My hearing loss is not so severe at this point that I need the power of a BTE so it made little sense to me to continue with them when I found them so bothersome.
Hope this helps some of you.
Robin
My understanding is that the Phonak Nano tries to be an IIC by taking up only a short portion of the ear canal, thus not requiring the very deep impressions recommended by Starkey for the Soundlens. So even if the faceplate of your Nano is well inside your canal opening, the deepest part will be much farther from your eardrum, leaving more empty ear canal, leading to more pronounced occlusion. What else about the Nano are you not happy with?
Apart from mechanical fit, I enjoy the freedom of only having my glasses behind my ears now. I have, on several occasions, adjusted my glasses, and then absentmindedly reached to my ear to check if my HA was still tucked in properly, only to be surprised that nothing was there Acoustically, I am aware of more bass sound from the Soundlens. That’s not surprising since they are in fact, plugging my ears. It doesn’t bother me, just different that the Phonak Audeos. One subtle but noticeable difference must have to do with the placement of the microphones. My soundscape seems less “messed with” with the Soundlens, and I’m able to more accurately localize sounds.
Hope that helps Diginote!
Dave
— Updated —
My understanding is that the Phonak Nano tries to be an IIC by taking up only a short portion of the ear canal, thus not requiring the very deep impressions recommended by Starkey for the Soundlens. So even if the faceplate of your Nano is well inside your canal opening, the deepest part will be much farther from your eardrum, leaving more empty ear canal, leading to more pronounced occlusion. What else about the Nano are you not happy with?
Apart from mechanical fit, I enjoy the freedom of only having my glasses behind my ears now. I have, on several occasions, adjusted my glasses, and then absentmindedly reached to my ear to check if my HA was still tucked in properly, only to be surprised that nothing was there Acoustically, I am aware of more bass sound from the Soundlens. That’s not surprising since they are in fact, plugging my ears. It doesn’t bother me, just different that the Phonak Audeos. One subtle but noticeable difference must have to do with the placement of the microphones. My soundscape seems less “messed with” with the Soundlens, and I’m able to more accurately localize sounds.
Hope that helps Diginote!
Dave
That’s great news, Robin! It makes me wonder whether Starkey is just trying harder this time, or a different tech looked at your impression, or what. With your narrow canals, it seems the limiting factor is whether they can fit the faceplate any deeper, and it seems they can. I am wondering if Starkey assumes any stretchiness of the outer canal when designing the HA.
As I’ve mentioned previously, mine don’t sit as deep as I’d like, but I CAN push them in deeper temporarily. The problem is that the shape of the canal bends no longer matches the HA, and it walks back out. My conclusion is that I have stretchy canals that are a little on the small side. I’d rather have snug HAs that fit deeper than what I have now, I’m hoping I can communicate that clearly to my audi, and ultimately to Starkey.
Interesting, Robin. My Soundlens are vented, but the vents are very small, about 1 mm. Are you wondering whether a large vent is causing the occlusion, or the fact that the vents are only “as large as they can be”? From what I’ve read, IICs address occlusion by filling the entire canal, leaving a very small volume of air to resonate, not so much by venting.
As a techy person, I was very excited about the bluetooth and streaming features of my Phonak Audeos at first. After the honeymoon wore off, I found myself using these features very rarely, mostly because they required that I wear a streamer around my neck. The new Halo with direct streaming addresses that issue, but still it’s not a burning issue for me. As for the directional mics, the natural shape of your unobstructed ears is doing that job with IIC HAs to some extent.
I hope your re-made Soundlens fit better!
Dave
Hi Dave,
I’ve got my new Soundlens in both ears. They definitely sit deeper and I’d say 90% of the occlusion is gone. Here’s how the new ones look:
The left ear seems to sit deeper than the right, although I can push the right one farther in if I try. But if I push it in any farther, it hurts, so have not wanted to do that. When I go back and see the audi at the end of the week, I’m going to ask if the shell might be too big and thats why it hurts when pushed all the way in.
The only issue I have is that it hurts to take the left one out. No problem putting it in, but when pulling it out, it feels really tight, I have to pull pretty hard, and it feels like its scraping the side of my ear. No blood or anything but not comfortable either! Guess I should inquire about that also.
All in all I’m happier. My hearing is better than it was with Lyrics, although still some tinkering, which I’m sure we’ll be able to do as time goes on.
Robin
I’m new to hearing aids. I tried the Halos for about a month and while I did like them, my ears would get sore, I couldn’t wear it during work very easily, and I do wear glasses or sunglasses a lot of the time and didn’t like the feeling and sound of them hitting the behind-the-ear component. So now I am trying the Soundlens. I have had them for only a couple of days and already I want to go running back to the Halos! Will I ever be satisfied with anything?!
I don’t feel like I am getting them in very far. The little grabbies have a tendency to actually stick out past my ear a little bit. I have to push a lot to get the aids in enough so that the grabbies are not sticking out. When I push on the right aid, I get a weird pinging sound - is that feedback? I never got any weird sounds from touching the Halos, just rustling from fingers or glasses touching the microphones. I still can’t wear them for work very easily - I could try headphones or clip-on phones but those might work with the Halo also.
The feeling of occlusion is weird. I didn’t think it would bother me since I’m so used to wearing earbuds for work. It doesn’t bother me in my right ear since it’s not used to hearing much of anything anyway, but my left ear feels stifled.
Hi Ringer,
perhaps you could try a RM modell - open fitting, so no occlusions, but it is in the ear model. For example resound lex. Costco offers this type of HA as well.
Hi Ringer, welcome to the world of Soundlens, sorry your first few days have been frustrating. I shared your initial experience with the removal ball sticking out past your ear, and took matters into my own hands by clipping them shorter with nail clippers. They’re a little more work to pull out now, but they don’t stick out any more Maybe talk to your audi about shortening the removal line if you’re not sure about doing it yourself. As for the pinging sound, I get that with my left aid (worse ear). It’s feedback caused by your finger being very close to the mic (not an issue with your Halos because the mic is behind your ear). I noticed more occlusion switching from Phonak Audeos, but I got used to it over the course of the first few weeks. If it continues to bother you, your audi might be able to adjust the gain settings to reduce it.
Let me know if you have any more questions,
Dave
— Updated —
Hi Ringer, welcome to the world of Soundlens, sorry your first few days have been frustrating. I shared your initial experience with the removal ball sticking out past your ear, and took matters into my own hands by clipping them shorter with nail clippers. They’re a little more work to pull out now, but they don’t stick out any more Maybe talk to your audi about shortening the removal line if you’re not sure about doing it yourself. As for the pinging sound, I get that with my left aid (worse ear). It’s feedback caused by your finger being very close to the mic (not an issue with your Halos because the mic is behind your ear). I noticed more occlusion switching from Phonak Audeos, but I got used to it over the course of the first few weeks. If it continues to bother you, your audi might be able to adjust the gain settings to reduce it.
Let me know if you have any more questions,
Dave
Thanks for the replies. I will check with the audi about the removal line. Maybe it is too long or maybe I am just not getting the aids in far enough. I am definitely getting the right aid in further than the left one. Maybe I just need some more time to get used to all this. I am scared to mess with the length of the line myself!