- Hi guys, Cliff Olson, Doctor of Audiology,
and founder of Applied Hearing Solutions
in Phoenix, Arizona.
And in this video, I'm gonna share three ways
that custom hearing aids are better
than even the most popular receiver-in-canal hearing aids,
coming up. (uptempo music)
Today it seems as though everywhere you look,
individuals with hearing loss are being predominantly
fit with one style of hearing aid.
And that style that I'm referring to is called
a receiver-in-canal or receiver-in-the-ear hearing aid.
This is what a receiver-in-canal
and receiver-in-the-ear hearing aid looks like.
You have the body of the hearing aid
that goes behind the ear,
and a receiver and dome that's on the end of a wire
that goes inside of your ear.
And in Audiology, we commonly refer
to these styles of hearing aids as RICs or RITEs.
According to a recent article written by Karl Strom,
published in The Hearing Review
that I will link down in the description,
receiver-in-canal and receiver-in-the-ear hearing aids
account for approximately 79% of all hearing aids dispensed.
And this is for good reason,
because the vast majority of hearing losses can be
effectively treated with this style of hearing aid,
and they can be fit very quickly
with the use of a rubber dome in most cases.
Up until 2003, nearly 100% of hearing aids dispensed
were custom in-the-ear hearing aids,
or behind-the-ear hearing aids that use a custom earmold.
And while receiver-in-canal hearing aids
have taken often popularity in the recent years,
it is not because they're always better
than a custom hearing aid.
But before I get into the reasons why,
I'd like to give a huge shout out
to today's video sponsor Phonak,
but more on them here in a little bit.
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Now, let's talk about the first reason
why custom hearing aids are better
than receiver-in-canal hearing aids which is,
you can remove the device from behind your ear.
Not only have receiver-in-canal
and behind-the-ear hearing aids
but a huge pain in the butt during the pandemic
when trying to remove your mask
without getting them snagged on your hearing aids.
There are other benefits
to being able to take all of the device
from behind your ear and putting it in your ear.
Take wind noise for instance,
if you're outside and the wind is blowing,
and you have hearing aids that are behind your ears,
the microphones that are behind your ears
are gonna be picking up all of that wind noise.
As opposed to taking those microphones
and sticking them back inside of your ear,
where your ear can actually help protect
those microphones from the wind.
Or how about the sound of your own hair
brushing up against your microphones?
Again, if you have hearing aids
that have microphones behind your ears,
and you end up putting your hands through your hair,
you're gonna hear all the scratching
of your hair up against those microphones.
That is not an issue that you have to worry about
when you have a custom hearing aid
inside of your ear as well.
Not to mention, if you like to wear hats,
headbands, face masks, or glasses,
all of those things could potentially compete with the space
behind your ears with your receiver-in-canal hearing aid.
The second way that custom hearing aids can be better
than receiver-in-canal hearing aids is the physical fit.
Once your hearing care professional determines
that a custom hearing aid is appropriate
for your level of hearing loss
and your specific wants and needs,
the very next thing that they will do
is take a physical impression of your ear.
To complete a physical impression,
your hearing care professional will insert
an Otoblock into your ear canal,
and then fill up your ear canal with a putty
that will take a few minutes to solidify.
Once these impressions are completed,
they are sent to a hearing aid manufacturer
where they are digitally scanned
which allows them to create a custom hearing aid
that perfectly fits inside of your ear.
Since these custom hearing aids are specifically
made for your exact ear anatomy,
they are extremely comfortable and easy to insert.
And the third way that custom hearing aids are even better
than receiver-in-canal hearing aids is the ability
to custom program them to your hearing loss prescription.
One of the main reasons
why hearing care professionals recommend
receiver-in-canal hearing aids
is because they can be fit very quickly using a rubber dome.
But using a rubber dome is not always the best way
to maximize your performance with your hearing aids.
If you have a steeply, sloping, high-frequency hearing loss,
a hearing loss in the lower frequency ranges,
or a hearing loss that is moderately severe to profound,
then a custom hearing aid is likely
the better option for you.
This is due to the fact that you can control
the amplification levels inside of your ear canal better
with a custom-molded hearing aid
that has the proper amount of venting,
compared to a receiver-in-canal hearing aid
that just uses a rubber dome.
And one of the best custom hearing aids
to be able to do this is the Virto Paradise hearing aid
from Phonak, today's video sponsor.
The Phonak Virto Paradise hearing aid
is the custom version of the Phonak Audeo Paradise
that is the receiver-in-canal version,
and it has virtually all of the same great features.
And when it comes to the customization of your programming,
the Phonak Virto Paradise line of devices
are some of the best devices out there
because of their acoustically optimized venting.
Now, if you are unfamiliar
with the extreme importance of hearing-aid venting,
then I highly recommend that you check out my video
where I explain acoustically optimized venting
that I will link down on the description.
But basically, Phonak will create a custom vent
inside of their custom hearing aids
that will allow you to do things
like reduce the occlusion effect,
improve your high frequency amplification
without getting feedback,
allow for a low frequency amplification,
and it will even smooth out the frequency response
to allow you to have a better listening experience.
Now, this is where things get a little bit technical
because they do this by calculating
an acoustic mass target value
based on your audiometric thresholds,
your target gain requirements, the potential for occlusion,
and the potential for feedback.
This is basically just a fancy way of saying
that Phonak not only creates custom hearing aids,
but they also create custom vents
inside of those hearing aids
that are specifically designed for you.
But that is not all that Phonak customizes
on their custom hearing aids.
They also do something called biometric calibration.
Biometric calibration is how Phonak determines
the perfect microphone placement
on your Virto Paradise hearing aids
to optimize directional effects.
The directional effect is the ability
of a hearing aid to prioritize
which direction it wants to pick up sound from
to help you better separate speech from background noise.
To do this, Phonak analyzes 1,600 individual data points
of your ear impression to determine precisely
where to place these microphones.
Once you have a perfectly fit custom hearing aid
with the exact right amount of venting
and perfect microphone placement,
you can use real ear measurement to match
your hearing loss prescriptive targets better
than you can with a receiver-in-canal hearing aid
that uses a rubber dome.
Now, when I said the Phonak Virto Paradise hearing aid
was very similar to the Phonak Audeo Paradise hearing aid,
I meant it because it was built
with the exact same prism chip that gives you virtually
all of the same great features.
This means that you can pair
up to eight different Bluetooth devices
and have two active pairings at the exact same time,
meaning you don't have to constantly
be switching Bluetooth on and off
between multiple Bluetooth devices.
Because the Virto Paradise hearing aids
also use Bluetooth classic,
you can connect up to virtually any Bluetooth device.
I don't care if it's an Android device or an Apple device,
so you can stream audio directly
into both of your hearing aids.
These wireless capabilities also allow you to go
completely hands-free when talking on the phone,
and you can stream audio directly from your TV
into your hearing aids while using the Phonak TV connector.
Now, if you do not care about wireless connectivity,
or you just want a hearing aid that is as small as possible,
you can always go with a Phonak Virto Paradise Titanium
invisible in the canal hearing aid.
Now on its third generation, Phonak has made it possible
to get this technology into a hearing aid
that is so small it's virtually invisible.
Thanks to the use of titanium,
Phonak is able to make their Virto P Titanium hearing aids
extremely small because the shell
of the hearing aid can be made much thinner than acrylic,
and more durable as well.
Just in case you can't tell,
I love custom hearing aids, but here's the deal.
If I have been ineffective at convincing you
that a custom hearing aid might be better for you
than a receiver-in-canal hearing aid,
at a bare minimum, if you're going to be getting
a receiver-in-canal hearing aid,
at least consider a custom earmold on the end of it.
The reason I fit way more custom hearing aids
than most clinics out there is because they often result
in better hearing performance.
And while there is nothing wrong
with going with a great receiver-in-canal hearing aid
with a rubber dome,
you could be selling your hearing short by not going custom.
So the next time you consider getting
a new set of hearing aids, do yourself a favor,
and ask your hearing care professional
if going custom would be better for you.
That's it for this video, if you have any questions
leave them in the comment section below.
If you like the video, please share it.
And if you wanna see other videos, just like this one,
go ahead and hit that Subscribe button.
Also, feel free to check out my website, drcliffaud.com.
(uptempo music)