A hearing aid mold, often called a hearing aid ear mold or an ear mold, is the part of a hearing aid that sits inside a person’s ear. These devices can be made out of a variety of different materials and sometimes contain all the electronic components of the hearing aid. Tubes that run through the hearing aid mold allow amplified sound to travel into the ear canal and to the person’s ear drum.
There are several components that are found in a hearing aid mold. Tubing which runs through the mold allows sound to travel into the ear. Tubes that end at the edge of the mold are often used for patients with mild hearing loss, while those with more severe loss may require a tube that extends further inside the ear canal, terminating closer to the ear drum. A hearing aid mold also has a vent that allows air to circulate through the ear.
For people that have mild or moderate hearing loss, the entire hearing aid can be contained within the hearing aid mold. Individuals with more severe hearing loss, especially children that are hard of hearing often use a behind-the-ear hearing aid. In this type of device, the mold sits in the ear canal, where it transfers sound to the ear drum, while the electronic components and controls rest above and behind the ear.
Computer technology has made the science of creating a hearing aid mold quite precise. A computer is used to scan the ear and create a three dimensional model of the interior. The computer can then feed this information into a machine that crafts the hearing aid mold. In the past, hearing aid molds were made using plaster or gel molds. The process of creating hearing aids from these molds was much less precise than methods developed subsequently.
There are a number of different materials that a hearing aid mold can be made out of. The most common material is acrylic, which is a hard plastic. Many people consider this type of mold to be more comfortable than molds made out of softer materials, such as silicone, which is a soft and very flexible material. In between these two are molds made from soft acrylic materials that become more flexible when they are heated through contact with the body.
