Itchy Ears and Earpieces

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pgrant

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I got hearing aid recently - and the more I wear it, the itchier my ears get.

I realise this is most likely to be caused by fungus - and its growth will inevitably be promoted by making your ear canal a nice warm, damp place with minimal air circulation. This is of course what happens when you wear a hearing aid.

Past experience suggests that lotions and potions do not work particularly well - or if they do for a limited time period only.

One obvious solution would be an ear piece that allows maximum air circulation. If I wanted one for an Oticon hearing Aid where can you get one from?
 
pgrant said:
I got hearing aid recently - and the more I wear it, the itchier my ears get.

I realise this is most likely to be caused by fungus - and its growth will inevitably be promoted by making your ear canal a nice warm, damp place with minimal air circulation. This is of course what happens when you wear a hearing aid.

Past experience suggests that lotions and potions do not work particularly well - or if they do for a limited time period only.

One obvious solution would be an ear piece that allows maximum air circulation. If I wanted one for an Oticon hearing Aid where can you get one from?
Click to expand...

Your audiologist?
 
Bottesini said:
Your audiologist?
Click to expand...

that would be my answer as well... but know that the more airflow for a ha... the more feedback you get... which is why most of them have small vents.
 
It depends upon your hearing loss what type of ear piece you will be best off with. If you have a mild loss you can probably use a dome insert that has a lot of ventilation. If you have a more severe loss you will probably need an ear mold that has a tight seal. The shape of the ear mold and whether or not it has vents and how large the vents are if you do have vents ... this all has a large effect on how much actual additional gain in amplification you get for the various pitches inside your ear canal. People with more severe losses also need a tighter seal to make it easier to prevent feedback.

So ... that's why even though it would feel more comfortable, not everyone ends up getting a dome insert instead of a ear mold that seals tightly.

To help make your ear feel more comfortable find out from your audiologist how to sterilize your ear molds (or domes) every night. I have a Dry n Store that uses a UV light. BTW, not all ear molds can be cleaned with rubbing alcohol because depending upon what material its made out of it will shrink.

I dip a q-tip in rubbing alcohol and swab out my ears (gently and not too deep! for obvious reasons. I don't go beyond what you can see in the mirror. ) to help prevent bacteria infection also. It dries out a damp ear canal also.

I suspect it would probably be better to do that with a 50/50 mix of rubbing alcohol and white vinegar. The vinegar is suppose to change the pH balance of your skin and make it a hostile environment for fungus.

FWIW, I suppose you could ask your audi why you don't have a dome insert. Sometimes audi's assume that people that have worn hearing aids for a while are not interested in any changes and will continue to fit them with similar type hearing aids without discussing the options. So I suppose its possible that there are some people being fitted with ear molds when they could use ear domes instead.
 
I had the dome ones on my other set of aids before my hearing dropped and they were awful for feedback! they squealed all of the time! ALLLLLL of the time, Id rather put up with my molds than that.. Id say just make sure you clean them correctly.
 
I find that my itchy ears come from too much moisture.

After every shower, I q-tip my ears (carefully!) to dry them out.

I also occasionally use peroxide and/or rubbing alcohol to clean/dry my ears.

I also occasionally take my earmolds off the HAs and put them in a glass with peroxide to clean them out.

Hope some of these help. :)
 
Jazzberry's idea of the dry and store is a very good one. I have had fewer problems since I got it.
The suggestions for the vinegar is great and the thourough cleaning of your molds too.
Good luck!
 
Everything doesn't work that makes my ear itchy, except I don't have plm with hard shell mold. Lucite: Hard Clear Acrylic is the best one w/o vent.
 
Bottesini said:
Your audiologist?
Click to expand...

Uuuuummm! May be not, its very restricted here. I am in the UK where we have health service paid for an National Insurance which in some ways is a good thing and better than you have in the US. However, it is a bit of a restricted system because it is all on approved contracts and the audiologist can only offer one type iof hearing and one type of ear piece. So there is a choice of one - and I don't think it's the right one for me....

So I thought I would look a bit further afield ...
 
ash345 said:
that would be my answer as well... but know that the more airflow for a ha... the more feedback you get... which is why most of them have small vents.
Click to expand...

That's news to me, but it explains why such a device is not readily available.
 
Thanks all

There are some great suggestions which I am going to try. I might even try lemon juice as well - that is another dandruff cure like vinegar and peroxide.
 
If you have a mild or moderate loss though...feedback shouldn't be that much of an issue
 
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