Abstract
Background: Individuals fitted with hearing aids complain of the unnatural sound quality of their voice, other internally generated sounds such as chewing and swallowing sounds “hollow”, “muffled” sounds. Receiver-In-Canal hearing aids are favored due to small size, discrete appearance and ability to minimize occlusion. Aim: To compare the performance of Receiver-In-Canal (RIC) to traditional ear tip (ET), ear moulds (EM) fittings using Functional gain measures. Method: Ten subjects with flat moderately severe sensori neural hearing loss participated in the study. Subjective unaided and aided measures for digital BTE hearing aids with ear tip, ear mould or Receiver-In-Canal for pure tones of 250 Hz, 500 Hz, 1000 Hz, 2000 Hz, 4000 Hz were obtained. Results and Discussion: Higher scores were obtained with Receiver-In-Canal fitting on Functional gain measures. No significant difference between all the three conditions was obtained at low frequencies especially at 500 Hz, as Receiver-In-Canal hearing aids attenuate low frequency sounds automatically when the ear is left open (up to 30 dB less amplification at 500 Hz) especially for hearing in noisy situations. Conclusion: The results suggest that Receiver-In-Canal fittings are an effective means of overcoming the major barriers to the acceptance of amplification and further suggest the clinical importance of subjective measures in measuring aided benefit of open-fit devices in the rehabilitation of person’s with moderately severe to severe SN hearing loss.
Highlights
In the past decades, majority of the hearing aid dispensing centers prescribe hearing aids either with ear mould or with ear tips
It is noted from the results that the functional gain values increased with an increase in frequency (i.e.) highest values were obtained for 4000 Hz (31.00, 39.00, and 48.00) for all the three conditions (i.e.) ear tip, ear mould and Receiver in the Canal
Results indicate that the Receiver-In-Canal hearing aids had highest functional gain values compared to ear moulds and ear tips
Summary
Majority of the hearing aid dispensing centers prescribe hearing aids either with ear mould (soft/hard) or with ear tips. Hearing aid users complain the unnatural sound quality of their voice, other internally generated sounds such as chewing and swallowing sounds “hollow”, “muffled” [1,2,3] Such complaints sometimes result from sub optimal hearing aid settings, they may be associated with significant occlusion created by the hearing aid shell (or) ear mould [1,2,3]. For some closed vowels, occluding the external ear using a shallow insertion depth can result in levels of 100 dB SPL or greater within the canal [4] This energy is centered primarily in the low frequencies, with the peak of the occlusion effect typically occurring in the range of 200 to 500 Hz [5]. Conclusion: The results suggest that Receiver-In-Canal fittings are an effective means of overcoming the major barriers to the acceptance of amplification and further suggest the clinical importance of subjective measures in measuring aided benefit of open-fit devices in the rehabilitation of person’s with moderately severe to severe SN hearing loss
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