The earmold in the left ear started hurting me a lot in just two days. I highlighted the part where it hurts.
Is it fitted well or how can I reduce the pain I feel while wearing it?
P.s. It’s made of acrylic
I use a half drop so of ProEar by Miracell every day before putting them in, and it makes a huge difference on my power domes.
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Have your audiologist to trim your ear molds to fix the issue. I had the same issue and my audiologist used a small polishing tool and trimmed my ear molds, now they are very comfortable.
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since the molds are new to you , you may need some time to get used to them.
Always make shure that the molds sitting correct inside the ear.
If the bad feeling not going away , you should go to a audiologist and ask for an adjustment/trim
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Can’t I try to do it myself?
On another note, how to educate myself on what’s high and low dB?
For instance, I got this on Target but I have no idea is it bad or good? And where exactly to adjust the MPO?
your left (L) ear need more volume than your right (R) ear.
See your audiogram
So if you get this message for the Left (L) ear then it may be OK.
The MPO (maximum power out) can be adjusted by selecting the MPO frequency.
But normaly you should not touch the prescribed MPO values!
This picture from Target have no realation to the above audiogram, i did not enter the audiogram data into target - so the picture from Target is meant just as an example for showing the position/location of the MPO values
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They may need more trimming done, it took several times to get one of my right
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I checked in pharmacies and stores, they didn’t have it. They recommended to me to got antibiotic ear drops!!
Olive oil or Vaseline are good lubricant HA’s. If after applying the lubricant and still painful then you have to go to the audiologist for adjustment.
You can used very fine sandpaper to rub the area where it causes pain.
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I was told Vaseline damages soft ear moulds. I assume hard ear moulds are okay. This was my audiologist who told me.
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When I was in the Audi office to get a new mold for Phonak P70, there was a can of Vaseline on her table. It should OK if small amount is rubbed onto the silicone molds. Not everyday. Only on new mold only. Acrylic is not affected. Our ears produced a very amount of ear oil!
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Ouch. Custom earmolds are tricky. Just to be clear: are these HARD acrylic or a semi-firm acrylic?
If HARD, you may have an easier time filing it down - but BE SURE this doesn’t invalidate the warranty (if you have one - I think you bought these off eBay?).
I’m guessing you have pain from the pressure of the mold pressing TOO HARD on your ear. The result is a tenderness (like a bruise) there. It can only be fixed with a NEW mold or verrrrry carefully shaving down your existing one till it fits comfortably.
Unlike shoes, earmolds really shouldn’t be “broken in”. If they pinch, press too hard - or are too loose - from the first time you put them in, the mold doesn’t fit. PUSH BACK. Don’t accept these, cuz that pain will likely not go away till the issue is resolved.
Keep us posted on your situation.
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My aids are from the VA, my audiologist used a polishing wheel to fix my ear molds. Also my audiologist said that I could use alcohol wipes to clean my ear molds. Just do it sparingly and allow the ear molds to dry. He also said if the alcohol did damage to ear molds he would just have them remade. I have worn acrylic ear molds now for 5 years and haven’t had any issues using the wipes
I don’t use the wipes daily by any means. I also, use microcell pro before i put my aids in my ears in the morning. Since i have been using the microcell pro my iching ears have stopped.
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You can irritate or inflame your ear canal, too. I did that with a mold that had fit pretty well until then. If your ear canal swells up a bit, you can get into a vicious cycle of irritating it more, more swelling, and worse fit.
I reduced my wearing time to help the irritation go away. Since I am a psoriatic and have a range of different strength steroid creams or ointments, I used a little desonide ointment, about the mildest topical steroid there is, safe to apply to facial tissues, to lubricate the mold before insertion. The idea was that the steroid would gradually suppress the inflammation. I normally use a bit of olive oil as lubricant out of a dropper bottle, as suggested by my audi.
You may just have a bad-fitting mold, but in my case, I had irritated my ear canal, which caused it to swell, so the mold no longer fit as it should.
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They are hard acrylic and my ear hurts when I touch this part even when I’m not wearing the hearing aid now. I made those earmold in Phonak Cairo branch. I didn’t tell them that I bought the hearing aids from eBay. :DD
I used to spray alcohol on a piece of tissue to clean my old hearing aids every day. I’m going to do the same with the acrylic earmolds but probably I should follow you and don’t do it daily.
I’m afraid I already irritated it already because that outer part hurts. I had to wear the hearing aids the last few days as I was traveling back and forth from Cairo and Luxor. I will give my ear some break today.
That left Audiogram has no Air Conduction reading.
There’s symbols for BC and masked BC, but no AC value. Target doesn’t know what to do. You can’t just sling any symbols from an incomplete Audiogram in and expect to have a proper result/suggested fitting level as the software is calculating based on garbage. The left fitting is just drivel.
Assuming there’s actual hearing in the left cochlear (which there might not be if the masking was inadequate), the power would be stepped right up, and you’d probably fit with silicone moulds and thickwall tubing. As it stands any left aid on that prescription is just there for show. In the pre-selection the wrong acoustics have been selected too. The MPO advice is twaddle as well.
In terms of ‘stuff done badly’ in a hearing aid fitting you’ve basically scored about 100%.
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@Zebras
As @dankailo mentioned I once asked Pluggerz as manufacturer of some of my customized soft silicone earmolds which were hard to get in because of their size what to use as I used talcum powder and vaseline.
This is their answer “ To get them in your ears a bit easier, you can indeed use vaseline, this is also not harmful. Vaseline is preferred over baby oil because it is neutral”.
It also gave me painrelease after some days of local pain because of manipulation at my crus helix region in one ear.
These molds were more expensive than the several original Phonak’s I use and still after years I didn’t notice any damage on these soft silicone ones.
Just to inform about my experience.
Furthermore I agree with the former advices of @firenzel and @cvkemp. Do or let do by your supplier some shaping after first trying out some rest of the trigger point. On your pictures the fit seems to be a bit tight, but you neither want to lose them.
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OK. That seems to indicate that the mold needs either re-doing OR very skillful sanding down to the point where it fits COMFY. Don’t accept a painful mold, cuz it will only get worse over time.
My mom has the very same thing going on - for THREE years now. She recently admitted she never even wears those aids anymore. She puts on older ones ONLY if she’s going out. So she misses a lot of phone calls and friends coming to her door. Her hearing is like mine: cinderblock!
That poor-fitting aid gave my mom a contusion in that one hear. Her hard acrylic mold presses against the tragus. It gets red and absolutely ACHES to distraction. So please get some adjustment made to your hard acrylic mold.
Also! My audi recommended AudioWipes to clean my aids. I use them to wipe down the silicone domes fairly often. I buy them in bulk at Amazon.
Zeeza, you’re a TOUGH COOKIE! You don’t give up. You get it done. So keep us posted on your progress with these issues.
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I had the same problem for awhile, but after my audiologist worked on my ear molds and trimmed them down in the area where my ears were sore and i used antibiotic cream on the sore spot at night for close to a week my ears are fine now.
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