Search Our Scientific Publications & Authors

Ear Nose Throat J 2021 Apr 8:1455613211009129. Epub 2021 Apr 8.

Department of Otorhinolaryngology and Biomedical Research Institute, Pusan National University Hospital, Busan, Republic of Korea.

When fitting hearing aids, patients are required to make an earmold impression material for device fixation. It usually causes no problems, although in rare cases, the earmold passes through the middle ear through tympanic membrane perforations.- Foreign bodies may cause a delayed inflammatory reaction and deterioration of aeration, especially in the Eustachian tube. Read More

Ear Hear 2014 Jan-Feb;35(1):49-55

1Department of Experimental Psychology, University of Cambridge, Cambridge, United Kingdom; and 2ENT Department, Addenbrookes' Hospital, Cambridge, United Kingdom.

Objectives: The level of bone-conducted sound in the auditory meatus is increased at low frequencies by occlusion of the meatus, for example, by the earmold of a hearing aid (HA). Physical measures of this "occlusion effect" (OE) require vibration of the skull. In previous research, either self-voicing or audiometric bone conduction vibrators were used to produce this vibration, with the result that the OE could not be measured for frequencies below 125 Hz. Read More

J Am Acad Audiol 2010 Sep;21(8):546-57

Program in Audiology and Communication Sciences, Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis, USA.

Background: Patients with unilateral sensorineural hearing loss (USNHL) experience great difficulty listening to speech in noisy environments. A directional microphone (DM) could potentially improve speech recognition in this difficult listening environment. It is well known that DMs in behind-the-ear (BTE) and custom hearing aids can provide a greater signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) in comparison to an omnidirectional microphone (OM) to improve speech recognition in noise for persons with hearing impairment. Read More

J Biomed Opt 2004 Jul-Aug;9(4):835-43

Consiglio Nazionale delle Ricerche, Istituto di Ingegneria Biomedica, Piazza Leonardo da Vinci, 32, I-20133 Milan, Italy.

Hearing aid shells (or earmolds) must couple the hearing aid with the user's ear. Earmolds have to fit the subject's outer ear canal properly to ensure a good performance of the aid. Because of the great variability in the anatomical pattern of the ear, earmolds are custom made. Read More

J Rehabil Res Dev 1990 ;27(4):397-410

National Acoustic Laboratories, Chatswood, New South Wales, Australia.

Four experiments were carried out to investigate the effect on the static pressure seal of earmolds made from currently used impression and earmold materials; the occasional practice of making more than one earmold from an impression; the earmoldmaker buildup of impressions; and the multistage buildup of impressions by the impression taker. Experiment 1 showed that the chance of sealing the ear with earmolds made by the ordinary two-stage technique with only general buildup of the impression was approximately 10 percent and that none of the impression or earmold materials significantly improved the chance of obtaining a seal. Experiment 2 showed that the chance of obtaining a seal with multiple earmolds made from the one impression was zero, or very close to zero. Read More