I'm hoping that someone has some advice on how to reduce the occlusion that I'm experiencing with my Phonak Lyric hearing aids. I'm also curious if those of you with Lyric hearing aids experience zero occlusion.
The first week of the trial I had the medium size Lyrics, and they were inserted to the recommended depth. I experienced a "booming" sound with my footsteps, and in most situations my own voice sounded hollow and distant. (If I whisper or talk quietly, there was no problem.) The second week I took a break due to irritation in my right ear canal. I'm currently in the third week of the trial and now have the small size Lyrics inserted as deep as possible (up to the "red" zone). The occlusion is maybe slightly better, but I still experience issues with walking and my talking with any sort of background sound. In addition I can still hear the foam hearing aid squish when I move my jaw while talking or chewing.
If I were to guess, it seems that the hearing aids aren't inserted to the bony region and are still in the cartilage part of the canal that changes shape with jaw movement.
Any ideas?
More details:
I read the whole audiologist guide for Phonak Lyric. The occlusion section is on page 26
Behind-the-ear receiver-in-canal (RIC) hearing aids won't work for me due to migration. I trialled a pair of Jabra Enhance Pro 20 from Costco for 6 months. Major issue was retention, keeping the hearing aid receiver in my ear canal to prevent it from migrating out. Any jaw movements (talking, eating) would cause the receiver and dome to migrate within just a few minutes. While lecturing I had to push them back in every 5 minutes. Not fun. The audiologist tried many solutions but none worked: sports lock, various lengths of wires, re-bending the wires, different types and sizes of domes, a different brand.
I also bought the Sony CRE-C20 and have the same issue with migration. I use them only for watching TV when I'm not eating popcorn.
Hearing loss: moderate high frequency loss starting at 2k ramping to 50 dB at 4k. Probably due to one too many punk rock concerts, tinnitus at ~6k Hz, male, age 49
The first week of the trial I had the medium size Lyrics, and they were inserted to the recommended depth. I experienced a "booming" sound with my footsteps, and in most situations my own voice sounded hollow and distant. (If I whisper or talk quietly, there was no problem.) The second week I took a break due to irritation in my right ear canal. I'm currently in the third week of the trial and now have the small size Lyrics inserted as deep as possible (up to the "red" zone). The occlusion is maybe slightly better, but I still experience issues with walking and my talking with any sort of background sound. In addition I can still hear the foam hearing aid squish when I move my jaw while talking or chewing.
If I were to guess, it seems that the hearing aids aren't inserted to the bony region and are still in the cartilage part of the canal that changes shape with jaw movement.
Any ideas?
More details:
I read the whole audiologist guide for Phonak Lyric. The occlusion section is on page 26
Behind-the-ear receiver-in-canal (RIC) hearing aids won't work for me due to migration. I trialled a pair of Jabra Enhance Pro 20 from Costco for 6 months. Major issue was retention, keeping the hearing aid receiver in my ear canal to prevent it from migrating out. Any jaw movements (talking, eating) would cause the receiver and dome to migrate within just a few minutes. While lecturing I had to push them back in every 5 minutes. Not fun. The audiologist tried many solutions but none worked: sports lock, various lengths of wires, re-bending the wires, different types and sizes of domes, a different brand.
I also bought the Sony CRE-C20 and have the same issue with migration. I use them only for watching TV when I'm not eating popcorn.
Hearing loss: moderate high frequency loss starting at 2k ramping to 50 dB at 4k. Probably due to one too many punk rock concerts, tinnitus at ~6k Hz, male, age 49