Cookie Bite Hearing Loss: What is the best hearing aid?

Let me clear up what molds are trying to achieve. I have them and opted for them because domes never stayed in place. I found that I was constantly pushing them back in even with the small plastic extension on them. Because the ear canal has an oily surface, the domes would tend to slide back a little and this changes the distance between the speaker and your eardrum, reducing the volume. Very annoying.

Molds hold the wires in place better because they conform to the shape of your ear. There are 2 types - rigid acrylic and soft flexible silicone. I found the latter to be excellent and consistent in delivering sound that doesn't change as I move or talk. The hard ones are IMO no better than domes. Microsonics makes the soft ones and you can get them in all crazy colors and patterns. They can also be clear. Be aware however that with time they will stain and become more opaque (see attached pic)

To order them you need your audi to make a casting of your ear and canal which is used to make the mold. It is important to get the same depth for each mold so the distance to the ear drum is the same. This might need to be tried more than once.

Hope this helps.

The add on products vary. I have found that the Mini Mic 2+ that is available with the Cochlear Americas CI and ReSound hearing aids is excellent. The other manufacturers of CIs also have unique products that require a specific brand of hearing aid for compatibility.

If the Phonak HA and microphone are the products that are compatible with your choice of CI, so you can hear bilaterally, that should be helpful in noisy settings.

Let us know if that helps.

I finally have my appointment with an audiologist in a few days and in search for better solutions for my cookie bite hearing loss. At Julie’s suggestion I’m going to request real ear measurement. If Kaiser can’t provide this I’m going to insist on an outside referral. I have the Phonak Audeo M 50 R hearing aids and I’m wondering if anyone with cookie bite has the new Phonak Lumity I really hate mine because in order to amplify speech everything else is over amplified which is very annoying and distracting. Thanks!

@jcech344 Thank you for sharing information about ear molds vs domes. The advent of domes allowed hearing aids to be fit more easily and with less skill from the provider. That is not all bad, but it changed the game a bit.

Casting an earmold is similar to casting a dental inlay. It takes skill, and when it is fit on the person's ear it likely will require some adjustment by filing it down a bit, so it fits perfectly. Some people seem to have allergic reactions to the material from which a mold is cast. Same for the material that domes are made from. If that happens, it's important to ask the provider to recast it in a different material.

This is a place where there's a major difference between prescriptive hearing aids and those purchased over the counter. Every ear canal is unique to the individual.

I have a 'cookie bite' hearing loss which is described by my audiologist as moderate. I've been wearing hearing aids since 2011, and am on my third pair. Each time I get new hearing aids, the technology gets better, and I am very happy with the Unitron Vivante Moxi V-RT hearing aids I have now. My audiologist is a Doctor of Audiology, and she has told me that it's important to get hearing aids which can be adjusted for your particular hearing loss. If someone told me I should just be glad I could hear voices and be happy with that, I would NEVER go back to that person. When I got my hearing aids adjusted, the audiologist took control via her computer and made a lot of adjustments using the software provided, which gave her a lot of options, using graphics, to make many fine tuned adjustments. If they don't do that at Costco, then I'd wonder at their ability to adjust for a cookie bite hearing loss. I was told that the best brands for our hearing loss are Phonak and Unitron. It seems to me that your hearing aids were not adjusted well for your particular loss, perhaps because the one doing the adjusting didn't have the experience and/or the sensitivity to do it right for you.

I tried out a Roger On In I think the model was but it was the latest of this kind. I found it fine one on one but on a small table in a restaurant between my husband and I facing each other it picked up the conversation of the table behind me as well as my husband. I also tried it in the middle of the table with a few guests and it didn't seem to work. I returned it to the audiologist who had no experience with these accessories but maybe with some support it could have worked - when hanging around my husband's neck it was great but if he only turned his head to me when talking it wouldn't be necessary so for the $1500 or whatever it cost not worth it for me.

My current trial with molds has not been a success. I was OK with domes for 12 years (now in mid 80s with moderate to severe loss and word recognition scores of 48 and 60.) but a son who also has hearing loss (from loud noises I think rather than age) encouraged me to try molds. I have hard plastic ones that are perfectly comfortable and certainly make everything louder but voices are strident and my understanding is worse than with domes. I got some free backup aids yesterday which have domes and coming home wearing them rather than the molded aids meant that I could understand the car radio which I couldn't with the mold set up. The assistant doing the REM for the Oticon domed aids said she had set them up at the highest volume with no further adjustment possible. The hearing aids are fine as a backup and I love the way voices are back to normal sounding for me so I asked if there were more powerful hearing aids that I could buy. She said yes but I would like more information on how you know the "power" of hearing aids if anyone could educate me. Is the the receiver that is different? Thanks

I agree with your assessment totally. Mine was included in the orginal package of supplies. I would not spend the money for one.

I have Oticon hearing aids and they are so amazing. This is my third set of hearing aids (they have a blue tooth). Best investment I ever made. I hear much better than my other two sets.