[ScottFree]

  
I had complete confidence in her without any referrals from someone getting them done for CIEM's. I told her what they were for, she has heard of them and with the instructions I like to think most of them will do a fine job. Is it a perfect world, of course not, but its not like they are doing heart surgery, they are squirting stuff into your ear. Follow the instructions take your time understand what they are for is about all we can hope for. Call some of them in your area, talk with them, let them insure you they understand and then go for it. I have watched people do them at CanJam, I couldn't tell you if they were audiologists or not, but even I could learn how to do impressions.

 
After getting mine done I really feel that, with the proper quality material, I could have done my own

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[AndoH]

   
I did tell her what they were for and also had the instructions for her also. As for open mouth, mine has never used a bite block or had me do strictly open mouth. She has however never just done one and done for me, always felt unhappy with some of them and made another. I did find it funny when I saw the package of the material with Westone on it.

Haha, exactly the same happened to me. I did not use a bite block, just did it with my mouth open and drooling all over. She had to do one of my ears twice as she was unhappy with how it came out. And she also used a Westone package.... Coincidence??

 

[mscott58]

Had to have mine done three times. First one by Brannan didn't go deep enough. Second by local audiologist was deep enough but didn't get all of my outer ear. Third try was just right! JHA has a good list of audiologists who are used to doing CIEM molds. Believe Westone does as well. And I used a bite block - just a piece of foam, no big deal. Would recommend taking the printout from the Noble site. And while doing it yourself might sound good, putting in the "plug" before the silicone has to be done very carefully. Too shallow and the impression isn't usable. Too deep and you risk hitting your ear drum, which hurts like hell. Best left to the professionals IMHO. Cheers

 

[pureangus62]

I'll rephrase my post...
 
I never would actually consider doing it myself, it just doesnt seem overly difficult. I'm sure theres much more to it than shoving a piece of foam into an ear and squirting in some goop

 

[Watagump]

  I'll rephrase my post...
 
I never would actually consider doing it myself, it just doesnt seem overly difficult. I'm sure theres much more to it than shoving a piece of foam into an ear and squirting in some goop

 
You can buy kits to DIY, plus youtube shows the world how to do everything.

 

[Sorensiim]

Guys. You're committing to just shy of $2000 worth of bespoke audio engineering and you want to skimp the measly $50 that decides if your new, 2-months-in-the-making ciems are a perfect fit or a do-over, including a new wait?

 

[Watagump]

Guys. You're committing to just shy of $2000 worth of bespoke audio engineering and you want to skimp the measly $50 that decides if your new, 2-months-in-the-making ciems are a perfect fit or a do-over, including a new wait?

 
First off, maybe people cant get them done for $50, that's just what I have mine done for. Then, impressions are approved before being sent to start the process, so even if they are done by a qualified person, perfect fit isn't a given. So IMHO, there is nothing wrong with trying to save some money, or even the challenge of doing them yourself and that feeling of accomplishment. Heck maybe even going some for friends and save them money, even with me saying this, I still get mine done by someone. Even Micheal had to get his done again and he didn't do it himself.

 

[WCDchee]

I really wouldn't recommend doing it by yourself. It's not that easy, you wont know the adequate insertion depth and you might risk having to have it done again and again, and it does start to hurt after a while, I know because I've had mine repeated multiple times before.
 
Go too deep now and you might hit the eardrum, pain is one thing, you don't want to tear it. yes it heals back (not completely) but why risk it? This is definitely not a procedure I would recommend to be done blind, it should be done with direct view.
 
Also, another issue with doing it yourself is this, you have no idea how the heck your external canal looks, you don't know if perhaps there might be some discharge, if there might be an infection going on, if it clogged up and you have impacted earwax, you don't know that. the audiologist might not be qualified to do an aural toilet, or treat any ongoing infection or what not, but at the very least, they will recognise the problem if there is one. You don't want to end up getting a ball of impacted earwax stuck deep in your ear. It can give a lot of problems.

 

[Bad Username]

I started doing impressions myself after my 3rd CIEM purchase/reshell. I've been doing them a while now and I definitely get the best fit when done myself. Silicon singles from westone arent expensive and I bought a pack of 100. If you dont feel like it is perfect or you have any mixed feeling on it you can easily redo them, and again, and again until you think its perfect. 
 
I find that my ears are not equal on both sides in terms of movement with the jaw. My left ear moves/changes a lot when i open and close my mouth. My right ear barely moves. So when i use a bite block for open mouth, my right ear fits perfectly tight but my left earpiece gets pushed out and breaks seal when i close my mouth. I end up having to do the left impression with a much smaller bite block than the right to get perfectly even fit and tightness on both sides. So i must do both sides separately with different bite blocks, and spent time figuring out roughly how much difference the blocks need to be to get even fit left to right. It is just much easier and cheaper to experiment like this at home than with your audiologist.
 
The deeper sections of your ear canal are very sensitive and will hurt when the foam block gets there, impressions dont need to go further than that. I really doubt you would need to worry about reaching the eardrum, as it is quite a bit deeper than that. Then again, everyone's ear canal is different, experiment at your own risk.

 

[jbr1971]

I was not able to find an audiologist anywhere near me that would do impressions for less than $150. I learned as much as I could about the process (blogs, youtube) and bought a kit online ($15 plus shipping). It took a few tries (you get enough material for a few sets), but my final impressions came out as good as any audiologist.
 
Mind you, if you are in the very least bit leery, do not attempt it. You must be very sure about your abilities, and the risk involved.

 

[Watagump]

  I was not able to find an audiologist anywhere near me that would do impressions for less than $150. I learned as much as I could about the process (blogs, youtube) and bought a kit online ($15 plus shipping). It took a few tries (you get enough material for a few sets), but my final impressions came out as good as any audiologist.
 
Mind you, if you are in the very least bit leery, do not attempt it. You must be very sure about your abilities, and the risk involved.

 
 
My only concern would be the proper insertion depth for the cotton, doing the rest, wouldnt worry me. But the fact I can get them done for $50, I am fine with that price, other places I called wanted $175 per ear.

 

[HiFiChris]

I suspect that many audiologists mistake ear impressions with ear moulds (not that surprising as CIEMs are usually not their business). That was also the case with my local audiologist. I didn't even bother describing them what the ear impressions are for but drove straight to Fischer Amps, Ultimate Ears' German/European distributor, to get the impressions for my UERM done.
 
A German CIEM maker who is a former audiologist also said the same in a German audio community some years ago and also that many audiologists would also take the impressions for CIEMs incorrectly without proper instructions (full ear impression past the 2nd bend, flat bite block loosely clamped between the teeth without chewing).

 

[jbr1971]

   
 
My only concern would be the proper insertion depth for the cotton, doing the rest, wouldnt worry me. But the fact I can get them done for $50, I am fine with that price, other places I called wanted $175 per ear.

 
The documentation I read, etc provided the information necessary for determining the proper insertion depth for the blocks. I tend to go overboard when researching stuff like that. Better to be over prepared than under.
 
I was fully prepared (and willing) to pay $50 for impressions, but $150 was not going to happen.

 

[Mooflotic]

I just paid 20€ here in Italy, printed the Noble sheet and talked to the guy. He insisted on having both an open a a closed mouth. For 20€ both...

 

[FullCircle]

Guys. You're committing to just shy of $2000 worth of bespoke audio engineering and you want to skimp the measly $50 that decides if your new, 2-months-in-the-making ciems are a perfect fit or a do-over, including a new wait?

Preach it