Month: August 2002

The term “ampclusion” denotes the occlusion effect experienced during hearing aid use and that during audiometric testing when the physical occlusion of the ear canal and the hearing aid amplifier gain are included in the wearer’s perception. Complaints about ampclusion may originate from shell blockage of the ear canal, to sub-optimal amplification settings for amplifying the wearer’s voice, to an over-expectation for hearing aid performance. This article provides a summary of the factors that can contribute to the wearer’s complaint of the ampclusion problem, and a follow-up article details remedies for the various causes of ampclusion.    

It is well accepted that the hearing aid prescription procedure for infants and young children should be based on real-ear aided gain (REAG) rather than insertion gain (REIG). A procedure based on REAG prescribes the same gain from the free field to the eardrum for the same degree of hearing loss, irrespective of the gain provided by the unaided ear canal. This paper focuses on the implementation of NAL-NL1 in fitting hearing instruments to children using a REAG approach that incorporates the measurement of individual real-ear-to-coupler difference (RECD).