A Guide On How To Choose The Best Fitting Personalized Hearing Earbuds

The external anatomy of the ear can vary slightly from person to person, in terms of size and shape. This means that one-size-fits-all generic hearing aids might not work for some people. Thus, to hear comfortably with hearing aids, it’s important that you purchase the best fitting hearing earbuds. But, with such a variety of products available, it’s hard to know which earbuds will fit perfectly.  Let’s explore the different ways in which you can customize your hearing earbuds.

Getting The Best-fitting Hearing Aids

One way is to go to your audiologist. He will get your ear impression made to make you a custom hearing aid. The audiologist gets a little pricey with appointments, tests, molding impressions but they are authentic and most suitable. There are alternative ways, to suit all kinds of budgets, listed below; so, check them out to escape the nuisance associated with poorly fitted earbuds!

Custom Molded Tips For Earbuds

Custom molded bluetooth hearing earbuds are a common choice among regular earbud users nowadays. Custom molds for your ear-buds are one of the best and easiest ways to get your hearing aids personalized. There are a number of custom molded ear tips available in the market that make your hearing aids fit as well as they were made only for you. Once you have purchased a pair of great quality earbuds, you can simply replace the tips with custom molded ones. Custom molded tips are universal in a sense. Everyone can use it and mold their hearing aids according to their size which fit them perfectly. They last a very long time, if taken care of properly, and they are simply more comfortable. Ordinary replacement tips apply pressure to your ear canal while custom molded tips fit perfectly into the canal without applying pressure to the canal walls.

DIY Earphone Tip Molding Kit

Until now, if you wanted custom fitted earphones, your choices were limited mainly to buying expensive lab-made custom molds to fit your earbuds. But with more technology now you can make yourself a set of custom earphone molds in less time and less money. How? By buying a do-it-yourself earphone molding kit. It allows you to make your own custom fitting earbuds molds at home. It's easy, quick and safe as well.  Each kit includes a two-part vinylpolysiloxane (VPS) material. You have to mix this two part material, then put the material in your ears, insert your hearing aids, then give a few minutes for the material to set. Then gently remove the mold and drill a sound hole. And you are done with your custom hearing earbud at home.

Choose A Brand That Offers Customization

There are many sound companies and hearing aid manufacturing companies that offer to make customized hearing earbuds. So, if you are willing to pitch in some extra money and let the experts personalize your hearing aids, then this is definitely the best route to go down. First choose your hearing aid vendor. Once you have placed your order, they will send you a home impression kit. Alternatively, if you have consulted an audiologist and have your ear impression from the consultation, you can send that instead. Then, using your ear impression, the earbud experts produce a custom fit earpiece for your ears. 

Easily Customize Earbuds At Home

All you need for this: a couple of bucks to purchase Sugru, and a pair of poorly fitting earbuds. It is the easiest and most economical way to personalize your earbuds, not to mention incredibly quick. Simply invert the tip of your earbud, to expose the rubber stalk. Now, attach a thin loop of sugru to the stalk of the ear bud, just below the tip. Fold the tip back over the sugru, and gently place the earbud in your ear. Make sure it’s in properly, leave it in the ear for a couple of minutes, and finally take it out with care before allowing the sugru to set for many hours. After this, you will be pleased to have a pair of customized in-ear headphones.

Benefits of custom hearing aids

• Noise cancellation

The main benefit of the custom hearing aids is that with custom earbuds you don't have to worry about the background noise. The custom hearing aids fit perfectly to your ear and therefore act as audio insulators, soundproofing your earbuds from your environment. Often, to drown out background noise, headphone users turn up the volume; but, this can cause detrimental effects to the wearer’s hearing.

• Sound quality  

Custom hearing aids create a perfect seal in your ear which improves the quality of the sound you hear. It is more enhanced with a deep base and clear highs. When there is a gap between the ear canal and the tip of the earbud, the noise can get disturbed resulting in unsatisfying background noise that you do not want to hear.

• Comfort

Another benefit of the custom hearing aids is that they are more comfortable. The custom hearing aid tips are especially designed for your ears so that they are a snug fit. This makes wearing them incredibly comfortable. Also, you don’t constantly have to adjust your hearing aids while wearing custom hearing aids. As the shape of the earbuds are tailored to the contour of your ear, they are much less likely to fall out.

Custom Molded Earbud Tips Make Hearing Easier When Exercising

So the question is are customized earbuds worth it? Investing a little more money in making your hearing aids customized for your fitting is definitely worth it. It gives you more comfort while wearing your hearing aid. During physical activities, like running, jogging, swimming or even just hectic office work, you don't have to worry about your hearing aid falling out again and again. This can be pretty time saving, and can also reduce the anxiety sometimes associated with wearing hearing aids. Not only that, they also don’t compromise on the quality of sound, rather custom fit earbuds makes hearing even better. What’s more, as explained earlier, even if you’re on a tight budget you can still wear properly fitted earbuds; so, you really have no excuses for using earbuds which are constantly falling out!

FAQs

How Much Do Custom Molded Earplugs Cost?

Custom ear molds usually cost between 150 dollars to 300 dollars a pair. They come in two varieties; hard acrylic or soft silicones. Hard acrylics ear molds are considered better in sound quality and retention whereas soft silicone ear buds are better for comfort. 

How Long Do Molded Earplugs Last?

Custom molded earplugs of silicone material usually lasts between three to five years or even longer. This depends on the amount of care given to them. If they are regularly and properly cleaned they will last for a longer period of time.