Hi, my name is Jennifer and I have been wearing HAs for more than half my life. I am not completely deaf but my hearing is not wonderful either. My loss is severe.
I wear behind the ear HAs and always seem to have ear molds issues. Let me explain.
When I got my recent pair of Phonak HAs my audi gave me soft molds, never had a soft mold before. First few times was painful as the fit was too tight. Then when I got a good fit, I was having tube problems. The tube could not be all the way in the mold or else it would interfere with the vent and I would get that "plugged up" feeling in my ears.
So I switched to hard ear molds and was quite happy with them as the tube problems went a way.
Audi left and I got new audi who wanted to keep the same shape of my hard mold but switch to a soft mold. Soft molds came in and no plugged up feeling of course when they came in the tubes were already put in whatever place they were in. I got my tubes changed yesterday and the plugged up feeling was back and I was like vents are clogged. My audi was like no they are open. After an hour of pondering why my ears felt up, I decided to do what I did in the past and pulled the tubes out somewhat to relieve the plugged up pressure on my ear. It works. In the past this was a not a good solution because over time the tubes would shrink and fall out. I am not sure if this will happen with these molds. I am so worried about something that is probably so dumb
Question, what do I do? Is this normal? How can a tube cause that much interference with a vent? The thing is that the tube opening and the vent opening converge into the hearing aid mold opening (the part that goes in your ear).
My soft molds are clear and after only months of using them, they look gross LOL! I am sorry but part of me just wants to go back to my hard molds but audi said soft is a better seal. Yeah, but I don't want to feel plugged up either. Either way, in the future, I plan to get a new mold. I don't know if I should stick to soft or go back to hard molds. I went a happy year having them while it wasn't the case with soft molds with all my tube problems.
I have very small ear canals so that could be part of why my ears so so sensitive to air flow.
Has anyone ever had problems with tubes interfering with vents?
I wear behind the ear HAs and always seem to have ear molds issues. Let me explain.
When I got my recent pair of Phonak HAs my audi gave me soft molds, never had a soft mold before. First few times was painful as the fit was too tight. Then when I got a good fit, I was having tube problems. The tube could not be all the way in the mold or else it would interfere with the vent and I would get that "plugged up" feeling in my ears.
So I switched to hard ear molds and was quite happy with them as the tube problems went a way.
Audi left and I got new audi who wanted to keep the same shape of my hard mold but switch to a soft mold. Soft molds came in and no plugged up feeling of course when they came in the tubes were already put in whatever place they were in. I got my tubes changed yesterday and the plugged up feeling was back and I was like vents are clogged. My audi was like no they are open. After an hour of pondering why my ears felt up, I decided to do what I did in the past and pulled the tubes out somewhat to relieve the plugged up pressure on my ear. It works. In the past this was a not a good solution because over time the tubes would shrink and fall out. I am not sure if this will happen with these molds. I am so worried about something that is probably so dumb
Question, what do I do? Is this normal? How can a tube cause that much interference with a vent? The thing is that the tube opening and the vent opening converge into the hearing aid mold opening (the part that goes in your ear).
My soft molds are clear and after only months of using them, they look gross LOL! I am sorry but part of me just wants to go back to my hard molds but audi said soft is a better seal. Yeah, but I don't want to feel plugged up either. Either way, in the future, I plan to get a new mold. I don't know if I should stick to soft or go back to hard molds. I went a happy year having them while it wasn't the case with soft molds with all my tube problems.
I have very small ear canals so that could be part of why my ears so so sensitive to air flow.
Has anyone ever had problems with tubes interfering with vents?