REMs

[lol26]

Hi

How are others treating this life mould (a meatal plug with a slim tube) with regards to REMs. Do we treat them as moulds or life tubes/cordas/slim tubes and why?

I was thinking - to treat as a mould as you can vent them and the vent size can be added to the fitting software, however the tube diameter is significantly reduced compared to standard tubes.

Thanks.

[snoo-pie]

I think they need to be treated like a normal open mould.

From what I understand the reason for performing an 'Open REM' on Corda/Life tube etc is because they are significantly more likely to leak sound that is then picked up by the reference mic causing the stimuli to be altered inappropriately. With a custom tip thin tube the chance of leakage is (assuming it is a good fit) reduced back to minimum levels.

With regards to the thin tube being taken into account; you should be able to adjust this in the fitting software just as you would adjust for a Libby Horn as opposed to standard tube.

[audio99]

In our department, we treat them as an earmould. In the fitting software we select life tube for tubing as the diameter is reduced as you mentioned compared to normal tubing. Also we would then choose earmould with the corresponding vent (if any). This would just take into account the occlusion caused by the mould as well as the size of the tubing. The life mould produces a greater acoustic seal compared to the life tips which is similar to the seal with an earmould as it is custom made for the patients ear, whereas with the life tips you can still get leakage of sound. This is why our department treats the life moulds as earmoulds and why we select life tube in the fitting software.