The effect of double vent on patient satisfaction of ear mold

The hearing aid is the most suitable amplification method especially for the hearing loss affected by the inner ear. A suitable hearing aid should be able to deliver quality sound to the ear by providing the benefit needed by the individual at the frequencies at which hearing loss occurs. It is the most ideal hearing aid in terms of the type, grade and configuration of hearing loss and is an important step for choosing the right pattern. Ventilation opening to the ear mold is determined according to hearing loss as well as selection according to patient comfort. Our study aimed to demonstrate the effect of hearing aids on audiologic evaluations of single and double opening ventilation tubes suitable for ear molds and patient satisfaction. For this purpose, audiological measurements and REM evaluations of 30 patients (50 ears) using bilateral hearing aid with sensorineural hearing loss were performed bilaterally, APHAB questionnaire and VAS scale were applied and the results were compared between single ventilation and double ventilation. As a result of the study, there was no statistically significant difference between free field thresholds and speech discrimination scores (p> 0.05). There was no statistically significant difference between the REAR measurements (p> 0.05). There was a statistically significant difference (p <0.01) between the unaided and the single vent, double-vented aid in the APHAB satisfaction questionnaire (p <0.01), but no significant difference was observed between single vent and double vent applications (p> 0.01). APHAB subscales showed a strong correlation between positive ventilation and ventilation (p <0.01). Moreover, the results were statistically significant in the VAS scale, which is a subjective evaluation (p <0.05). Our findings show that the double ventilated earmolds did not affect the satisfaction with the aided free field hearing thresholds, speech scores, REM values and APHAB satisfaction questionnaire, however, satisfaction with the patients seems to increase with the VAS assessment scale. Keywords: Hearing Aid, Earmold, Double Vent, APHAB, VAS