- In this video I'm talking about ear mold venting
and why getting the right vent size is critical
for your hearing aid performance.
Coming up.
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Hi guys,
Cliff Olson, Doctor of Audiology
and founder of Applied Hearing Solutions
in Anthem, Arizona.
And on this channel I cover a bunch of
hearing related information to help make you
a better informed consumer.
So if you're into that,
make sure you hit the subscribe button.
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a new video.
I often explain to my patients
that every little decision that is made
between the fit and programming of their hearing aides
will have a dramatic impact on how well they perform
with those hearing aides.
And this is especially true when it comes to
ear mold vent size.
If you get the ear mold venting wrong,
then you're not able to transfer the right
amount of amplification from the hearing aide
into your ear.
Now there are a lot of vent sizes when it comes
to ear molds.
You can have anything from completely open venting
all the way down to completely closed
with literally anything in between.
And the size of this vent will have an impact
on these four things,
and number one is the occlusion effect.
The occlusion effect is simply the increased perception
of your own voice when you have something
blocking your ear canals.
And you can actually create this perception
by sticking your fingers in your ears and talking.
Whatever increase in volume you perceive
of your own voice,
that is the occlusion effect.
Now this effect can occur when you have a hearing aide
that has either a dome that closes off your ear entirely
or you have a hearing aide that uses a ear mold
that doesn't have a large enough vent size.
Here is table that illustrates how big
an ear mold vent needs to be to avoid experiencing
the occlusion effect.
If your hearing at 500 hertz is better than 20 dBHL
then you need a completely open vent.
On the other hand, if your hearing at 500 hertz
is between 50 and 60 dBHL,
then you need between a .5 millimeter
and one millimeter vent
to prevent the occlusion effect.
If you end up getting this vent size wrong
you'll experience the occlusion effect
and the occlusion effect is something that
you don't get used to.
The second thing that your vent size
will have an impact on is how much natural sound
can enter your ear.
If you're like most people, you have good
low frequency hearing but bad high frequency hearing.
And not only will a vent allow your own voice
to leave you ear canal preventing the occlusion effect
but it will also let some natural sound in
through that vent.
This lets you use any good hearing that you have left
and when your ear molds are properly vented
and your hearing aides are properly programmed
it allows you to blend your good low frequency hearing
with the proper amount of amplification
required for your mid and high frequency hearing loss.
If the vent size is too small,
not only will it prevent you from using your
better low frequency hearing,
it could actually make your low frequency hearing worse.
Which can ultimately result in poor sound quality
and reduced speech understanding.
The bigger the vent the more natural sound
that can get through your ear bowl.
But this also has an impact on number three
which is the vent can control how much risk
you have for feedback.
Feedback is that whistling sound that happens
when too much amplified sound leaks out of
your ear canal.
If your vent is too large,
too much of the sound is going to leak out of
your ear canal,
which recycles back through the microphone
and that cycling causes the whistling.
In the case of severe high frequency hearing loss,
controlling that vent size is critical to
prevent this feedback.
And the fourth thing that your ear mold vent
has an impact on is the ability to amplify low frequencies.
It is impossible to adequately amplify low frequency sound
if you have too large of a vent.
This is because low frequency sounds need to be
trapped inside of your ear canal in order to
vibrate your eardrum appropriately.
If you have too large of a vent size
these low frequency sounds leak right out
without giving you any perceptible benefit.
If you do happen to have a low frequency hearing loss
you need to be able to amplify those low frequencies.
And if you want to amplify low frequencies
you have to close down that vent size.
Now after all this talk,
if you find yourself confused about which vent size
is right for you,
you're not alone.
There are a lot of hearing care professionals out there
who still get confused by which vent size they should
be using with their patients.
And this is why the hearing aide manufacturer,
Phonak, which happens to be today's video sponsor,
developed the acoustically optimized venting
for their custom ear molds.
Phonak can determine the ideal vent size
by simply calculating the acoustic mass target value
based on a multi dimensional equation
that takes into account audio metric threshold data,
target gain requirements, the risk of occlusion
and the risk of feedback.
And if that's not complex enough for you,
they then use 3D modeling software to design the vents
and to precisely modify the shape, the diameter,
and the length of the vents all while keeping
either the ear mold or the hearing aide
as small as possible.
All of this high tech stuff results in an
ear mold or hearing aide vent that reduces
your risk of occlusion, reduces your risk of feedback,
allows you to amplify low frequency sounds
and it creates a very smooth frequency response
to help you get the best sound quality possible
out of your devices.
Phonak takes all the guesswork out of
identifying the right vent size based on
your individual needs and is exactly the reason why
the acoustically optimized venting by Phonak
is one of my favorite hearing aide features.
Now if you want to find a hearing care provider
who can get you the acoustically optimized venting
then go to Phonak's website at
phonak.com and click on the find a provider tab.
If you enter your zip code,
this will bring up a list and map of Phonak providers
in your area.
You can also enter and submit your information
to have Phonak put you in touch
with a hearing care provider near you
or you can call the Phonak consumer hotline at
833-828-1749.
Hearing aides have come a long way
and there's some amazing technology out there
but you're not going to be able to experience
the full benefit of those devices unless you get
the vent sized right.
That's it for this video.
If you have any questions,
leave them in the comments section below.
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and if you wanna see other videos just like this one,
go ahead and hit that subscribe button.
I'll see you next time.
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