Hearing Aids Case Study

Clem grew up in Kyneton, a small town in the bush far removed from the larger and busier Kyneton we know today. He never noticed any problems with his hearing and doesn’t recall it ever causing him any grief. When Clem was 6 or 7 the local school he attended had a hearing screening he was subsequently identified as being ‘deaf or deficient in hearing’. Despite Clem being able to speak and communicate well enough that no one noticed any problems this scenario did not pan out like it would these days.
This diagnosis the beginning of a battle for his family to stay together. The Commonwealth deemed Clem as requiring institutionalisation, his Mum fought to keep him and eventually agreed to send him to a school for the deaf and dumb, a name which he …show more content…
Clem had less reliability issues with these new hearing aids but had some ongoing issues with comfort. He had to visit the clinic on four occasions in two years to have these addressed. On the first occasion the right hearing aid was uncomfortable, Clem could resolve this by pulling it out slightly but this lead to feedback. AHA retubed the hearing aid and altered the bend of the tube so it did not press on the back of Clem’s ear. Ten months later he returned as the right hearing aid was uncomfortable again, this time feeling the tubing was too short. The hearing aid was retubed and this again resolved the issue. Nine months later the tubing and moulds had degraded, new impressions were taken and the replacement moulds fitted with new tubing. Less than three months later Clem found the tubing was leaving red marks on the back of both his ears which were painful. The hearing aids were again retubed which resolved the pain.

Interestingly his older hearing aids while proving unreliable physically and acoustically were comfortable while his new hearing aids while more reliable, required more regular maintenance to maintain