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One more thing - if you have a choice between blue or green ear impression material, I recommend going for green - I've found it to be much more resilient than the blue stuff.
I went to get mine done, and they used a pinkish goo from Westone. They did use the bite block method. At one point, I felt the left one loosen up a bit. I hope they turn out ok.
I appreciate I'm resurrecting a dormant thread, here, but I consider this thread to be permanently relevant (at least until such time as the Lantos 3D digital ear scanner, or variations thereof, become widespread, but it will take quite some time for such devices to achieve widespread market penetration).
Therefore, I'm just adding a few thoughts...
Generally-speaking, the rule of thumb is that if you're ordering silicone CIEMs (like Kozee, Spiral Ear etc.) then those manufacturers generally ask that you have impressions done with NO bite block.
On the other hand, most makers of acrylic CIEMs ask customers to have impressions done WITH a bite block.
A big piece of advice to get a good fit is absolutely 100% do *NOT* speak while your impressions are curing in your ears - don't even smile, or even tense your facial muscles. I'm serious, this makes a big difference. Sit there with your facial muscles as relaxed as you can manage (even with a bite block, it is actually possible to relax the facial muscles - I highly recommend that you practice this before you go for your appointment). I recommend that you deliberately 'zone-out' while your impressions are curing in your ears - if you turn your head to look around, you risk tensing facial muscles, and if you keep your eyes open, you may smile out of embarrassment, at the audiologist (I speak from experience!!). Just relax, both muscularly and mentally, zone-out, and ignore everything for the 5 minutes it takes the silicone to cure.
On a personal note, I have often seen people saying that silicone CIEMs are more comfortable than acrylic CIEMs, but I disagree - I've had both types and I've experienced discomfort with both types - and when I had refits done for each type, they both were very comfortable. So don't choose silicone or acrylic on the basis of thinking that one or the other will be more comfortable - the thing that decides if a CIEM will be comfortable is not what it is made from but how accurate your impressions were, and, of course, how skilled the technician is at the manufacturer's workshop, when creating the moulds from your sent impressions.
Please chime in, anyone, if you have details additional to what has so far been discussed in this thread; it's a useful reference, IMHO.
Minerva (also uk based, silicone) ask for impressions to be taken without bite block. In my experience (which has been a pita quite honestly!) I could tell no difference closed or open.
Now this is said not so much for a vent (though there will be an element of that),I just want to try and pinpoint why customs for me has been such a git to get done.
Basically my story is that I originally got interested in customs as I can wear iems all day if I want at work. Isolation is important to me as I work in a noisy environment. However my right ear never got as good a fit as my left. My left for some reason would take almost any tip and get a good seal from it, my right not so much.
So I got in touch with fisher in the states and get some impressions done as per instructions. Let's just say that things didn't go well. Right ear would always be too short. For some reason it would always be cut too short. Went back for refit, same issue. 3-4 (I lose count but it would be about that)refits (at least two sets of new impressions)as well and still didn't get anywhere. So gave up in frustration.
After awhile I decided to give customs another shot. This time I figured it would be better if I went with Minerva in the uk. Got the impressions done (by this time I'm pretty much on first name terms with my audiologist ) Wait the 15 days and get them back. To my dismay I now had fit issues on my LEFT ear (and the right whilst better wasn't great). So got in touch and had them back for a refit. Got a little better but still not great. Left ear could really tell that they were in there and was tired after about 20 minutes or so of wearing them. Had another refit but that didn't solve it. Was almost a relief when the left monitor died as it meant I could get a refund. So there we go. I am now on my third and last Custom manufacturer. Will see how Cosmic Ears (and I'm only going with them as they have really good prices) get on but one way or another this is my last attempt.
Now to the point of that long winded post (I just wanted to establish whats happened). I have had my ears cleaned out of wax before each time if it's needed it, I've followed the instructions of each company (open for fisher and Cosmic, closed for minerva) and not had any real luck with any of them (cosmic excepted who I'm in the process of atm). Any ideas? Any one else had this amount of hassle (I understand that at least one refit is likely but what I've posted doesn't seem normal). Audiologist even said that my ears didn't look "that" different to any others she'd seen.
Oh and to add insult to injury my westone 3s that I'd got to tide me over till customs are ready have just gone through the wash!
Cheers
Do you mean it loosened after 3 or 4 minutes, as it was curing? If you do mean that, then there's absolutely nothing to worry about, because the silicone does naturally shrink/contract as it cures. That's entirely 'par-for-the-course' and won't be problematic at all. I've experienced it myself.
...or do you mean something else?
Thanks Mython. It happened towards the end. I think I swallowed and as I did I felt the left side loosen a bit. You are probably right that it was already dry. Maybe it just came out of the ear a bit. Anyways, I sent them to JH, so I will know in a month or two!
Different audiologist has different thoughts on how to do things, but you probably want to take the manufacturers recommendations. Most manufacturers of acrylic shells say to use a bite block while the silicone shelled CIEMs use a closed mouth, and that works very well for me.
And ouch on the student impressions, do you know what went wrong? Did the impression go too deep (block wasn't in place properly), or was it something else?
Moving your mouth while taking the impression obviously works fine as well, the key IMO is making sure the impression is deep enough.
I think they just shoved it in too deep and the student waited too long to pull it back out. The block was in place properly, they just needed a ton of force to pull it back out. I remember them telling me to move my mouth while they were doing it.