Ear mould Venting and its Effects on Different Subjective and Objective Measures

Abstract

This study aimed to investigate the effect of venting on the different subjective and objective measures in individuals with sloping sensorineural hearing loss. The subjective measures considered for the study included aided warble tone thresholds, uncomfortable loudness levels, speech identification in quiet, speech identification in noise and quality of speech. The objective measure considered was the real ear aided response. The measures were carried out with the digital hearing aid coupled to unvented and vented ear moulds. The data were collected from 19 ears of 12 participants with sensorineural hearing loss in two aided conditions i.e., with unvented and vented earmoulds. The results revealed that the sound field thresholds obtained in the vented conditions were better compared to that obtained in the unvented condition except at 500 Hz .The UCL values in the vented conditions were slight ly higher compared to that obtained in the unvented condition. The speech identification score was slightly higher in the vented condition compared to the unvented condition. The SNR­50% required in the vented condition was lower compared to that required in the unvented condition for 50% identification scores. The quality rating obtained in the vented condition was better than the quality rating obtained in the unvented condition. The REAR was found to be higher for certain frequencies and lower for certain others in the vented condition when compared to the unvented condition. From the present study it can be inferred that the vent when incorporated with the hearing aid-earrnold system in the regular clinical hearing, aid fitting has many advantages.