Augh, the size large Widex power dome on my left aid has left a round, raw sore inside my ear. I wondered how in heck that could happen? Then I took a close look at the dome, and see that idiotic loop of silicone on the tip (like a nipple-thingy). I can see why it’s there - it’s to prevent stuff from plugging up the tip of the receiver. I suppose it has to have an open hole to allow the sound to enter into my ear canal.
But what a turkey. I guess I’ll have to be super careful about not trying to seat that dome TOO tight in the left ear, or I’ll have another sore on top of this one. I’ve abstained from wearing the aid for a week now, so the sore is gone, but it kind of irks me to have spent good money on these aids when the 2-cent dome has a potentially fatal flaw.
Anyone else out there have the same issue? I wear a medium dome on the right ear, cuz that size fits more comfy, but does not form an optimal seal for hearing (on phone, in normal circumstances, music especially!, etc.,).
Hope that image I attached can be viewed … but anyone here with a similar dome will know what I’m talking about.
Have you seen this post by user Jamin (the second post of this thread http://www.hearingaidforums.com/showthread.php?20722-Oticon-Opn-Feedback)? He talks about using the Comply premium foam tip Comfort TS-100 size large for his 85 receiver (I think he wears size 10 or 12mm domes originally). On Amazon it’s $17 for 3 pairs, and it’s supposed to last you about 3 months but eventually it does wear out.
I think you should be able to get a tight fit with it like your power dome but the foam material should be much more comfortable than the silicone material used for the domes. If you develop sore spots with the silicone power dome, maybe it’s worth a try with these foam tips instead. I think if you buy size TS-100, the inside core is big enough to fit your size 85 receiver. Since there’s already a wax guard at the tip of the OPN receiver, you don’t need to buy the TSX-100 version which is the kind that comes with their own wax guard for more money.
You can probably also remove the plastic wire hold from the receiver tip before fitting the receiver into the foam tip because the plastic wire is no longer needed.
I’ve been very curious about these Comply foam tips myself but I haven’t developed any problem with my Oticon closed domes so I don’t have any reason to justify trying out the Comply foam tips. But in your situation with your issue with the Widex power dome, that should be good enough reason to make it worth a try out the Comply foam tips.
Beside the size large, they also sell a mixed set of 3 different sizes in case you’re not sure which size is best for you. I think if you wear a large on the left ear and a medium on the right ear, a mixed set would be a good start and you can order your preferred size the next round.
If you do try out the Comply foam tips, do report back to share your experience with it. I think you can buy the TS-100 size large from Amazon and have same day delivery or next delivery with Prime depending on where you live.
^^^^ WOW!!! This is great news! I hadn’t seen the thread you refer to above - so I will surf over there momentarily. But being impulsive … I’ve already ordered these mixed-size tips at Amazon.com. I will definitely be the guinea pig here and try them out as soon as they arrive.
From their shape, it looks like my size 85 receiver would sort of slide into a memory foam donut hole and just rest snug that way. I didn’t know my receivers had a wax guard on the very end. Geez, I need to get my reading glasses ON and take a closer look here. Cuz I’d actually snipped that irksome silicone nippy OFF my power dome the other day … and then worried I’d just gum up the receiver over time. So I put a new dome on, and for the past couple days have tried not to insert it quite so deeply in my canal. Even so, by day’s end: another red spot has appeared just waiting to erupt!
I do find that the double-dome Widex Power Dome size L is just not enough padding to keep my ear canals from feeling like a small 2x4 has been RAMMED in. By day’s end, I am actually fatigued with the nagging, low-level ache in my ear canals. How I wish receivers could be made of softer, more flexible material. The small round sore from that power dome is not a good sign for long-term use.
I can’t wait to get these Comply foam tips and try them out. Thanks SO much for letting me know about them.
AUGH! So last night, I’m logging in to the forum, and my spastic fingers get my username all a$$-backwards with capitalization. I was LOCKED OUT (and pounding on the windows!) for hours, till I gave up and came back today. Now where was I …?
I am late to my own game here! And thanks for all the suggestions. YES, in fact, a hard plastic mold of the flesh-colored type could indeed work out for me! I seem to only be allergic to the pink-tinted or clear hypo-allergenic plastic molds.
However, having a hard mold would kind of negate why I’m trying wire + dome instead of the ITE style I’ve worn for 30 years. I’m finding that at age 61, I wake up with swollen ear canals (like swollen joints, or stiff, creaky other parts). So I’ll typically wait like 30-40 min before inserting my aids in the morning. Definitely not optimal!
It’s this condition that prompted me to check out the Oticon RIE with dome + wire. But YES, with my loss profile, seal is the real deal! I have still not found my 100% solution. So I also hope the Comply foam tips will provide flexibility for insertion right when I wake up AND comfort throughout the day.
Mon night I snipped the irritating loop off the tip of my Widex power domes and voila! By the end of Tuesday, the red mark where that ding-a-ling would poke into my ear cup was completely GONE, so I know that loop was an irritant - and not the best design.
I have to be honest and note that my old Agil Pro ITEs offer a better seal over the current flexible Widex power domes I’ve got on my receivers for now.
I hope to report back by week’s end with the success of Compy vs Widex power dome vs Agil Pro hard case ITE! Stay tuned… And if you don’t hear from me, i’ve undoubtedly WONKED up my log-in again. <:-(0)
If the domes are tight, take something like a cuticle scissors and make a cut in the dome. That will allow it to compress more without pressure while giving the dome it occlusiveness. It is a single cut from edge to center. Some use an added cut.
So you effectively turn it into a tulip-like dome then, right? So why not just go for a tulip dome instead in the first place?
I’m assuming that the OP needs a tight fit (hence the power dome), yet something soft enough to conform equally to the shape of the ear canal. I’m guessing that the OP’s ear canal is not round like the dome so the sore spot is where the dome gets flattened out with more pressure against the canal.
Yeah, I agree it’s not 100% like the tulip dome because the power dome has 2 dome layers while the tulip dome is just one layer. I’m just saying that if you cut 2 lines on a dome then it looks like having the same effect of the tulip dome. Not exactly 100% because with tulip dome one side overlaps and folds over the other side. But with a straight cut (or 2) on the power dome, there’d still be no overlap unless when squeezed into the ear canal it creates the overlap. But yeah, if you cut just one layer of the power dome (whichever layer that’s causing the sore spot, if you know which one), then the other layer can still give you a tight seal like before.
HO HO HO!!! I am beyond thrilled to report that the Comply memory foam tip is PERFECT! I’ve got the (M) one on my aids right now. It was super easy to just peel off the Widex power dome and gently push my receiver through the donut hole of the Comply foam tips. They are snug as a bug in a rug! No feedback, good quality sound and SUCH a comfortable fit.
It was the small, silicon LOOP on those old power domes that did the damage in my ear canal. That loop is like something a fishhook could attach to and pull on? But WHY put it on the inner tip of a power dome? It literally jammed like a twig into my ear cup and caused an open wound. Compare that design to the Comply memory foam tip: SMOOTH, foam that gives to the natural shape of the ear (each of us having a unique shape). No loop thingy on the end to dig into the ear even more. (Again, refer to the photo link, first post on this thread, which shows the Widex power dome.)
The Oticon Opn receiver is like a wooden matchstick in size and shape, only a bit thicker. So I found the Widex silicone dome never gave enough padding for the square edges on the receiver. This memory foam Comply tip is a GOD-SEND!!! Second only to this amazing board that has given me so many good tips, advice and answers. I even told my mother-in-law to check it out, as she has lots of questions about her aids (Costco) but no one to turn to in her senior facility for answers. God bless y’all here.
I’m guessing that little loop at the tip of the dome (my OPN closed dome has it, too, looks like all domes have it) is to give some structural integrity/rigidity to keep the opening at the tip of the dome from being squeezed closed if the ear canal is small enough to squeeze it in. I’m guessing a secondary benefit is to help keep some of the ear wax from creeping into the opening, but that’s probably not the primary reason they have it there.
I thought that if you had the dome centered in your ear canal then that tip is not supposed to come into contact and rub against anything. I still can’t seem to visualize how it could have rubbed your ear canal raw, unless the dome somehow gets twisted to a side, or maybe there’s a sharp bend in your ear canal shape right at where the tip is.
^^^^AH! You are no doubt right in the structural reason behind that loop! And maybe I do have a weird bend in my ear? It’s hard for me to tell except that when I hold a mirror & flashlight to see into that ear, I can see a “wall” before the canal that had the raw wound on it. Makes me also wonder if the power dome just wasn’t being inserted into the doorway of the canal properly. Feh.
Well, it’s been a few hours with my new Comply tips on, and they are wondrously comfortable - so perhaps I’ll never go back to the Widex domes. Again, it does make me wonder why more domes aren’t made from memory foam? These do not cause occlusion, there’s zero feedback, and the comfort is like no other aid from any other material I’ve ever worn. Fingers crossed I won’t sprout an allergic reaction to the foam!
Well, I am bummed! I had my SO COMFY Comply memory foam domes on today - and it was SO great to wake up and just put them right into my ear canal with no problems… But later today, I had to call for a PT app’t, and I simply could not understand what the receptionist was saying. So much so that I told her I’d call her right back! And I did. With my Agil Pro ITE aids in. I’ll be danged if the sound wasn’t about 25% louder and ALL speech crystal clear. So.
I may be at an impasse here. The comfort of the memory foam domes is great, but I can’t call these my “go-to” aids if I’m not able to hear very well on the phone. I think the problem could be that my aids are set up (frequency, gain, etc.,) for the Widex power domes. Maybe if I get in to see my aud-guy and show him the memory foam domes he can do something? But if not … or if he says that the wrong kind of dome could actually ruin the receiver (how, I dunno!), then it’s back to the painful Widex domes OR … Agil Pros. That would really be sour grapes for me.
I would love to know if anyone else has swapped in these SUPER comfy Comply memory foam domes for whatever they had on their receivers? If so, did you have the aids re-programmed, or are you lucky enough to have phone streaming and/or be able to discern speech A-OK with these foam domes?
Sigh. At least they work pretty good with the TV streamer. But again, the total volume is about 15-20% lower than streaming with the Widex domes for whatever reason. I wonder if the foam is somehow getting in the way of the receiver tip? Like maybe squishing over it to plug it up somehow? Oh to have a teensy little person sit inside my ear canal with a flashlight and report back to me.