Hearing aids for an active lifestyle
- Koorosh Nejad
- 1 day ago
- 6 min read
Updated: 1 hour ago
Some of you may be looking for hearing aids that can stay in place even with an active lifestyle, such as skiing, running, mountain biking, rock climbing, and participating in other sports. This article discusses hearing aids for an active lifestyle and the steps you can take to enhance your hearing aid experience and improve retention.
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Life is a multi-sensory experience. Part of the fun of doing any sport is to hear the sounds around us. Hearing the snow being squeezed while skiing is definitely part of the excitement. Do most hearing aid users remove their hearing aids during sports?
Not all hearing aid users remove their hearing aids while doing extreme sports or workouts. But if they do, it can be because of a. fear of the aid poping out of the ear canals and losing the aids, and/or b. excessive sweating in the ear canal, and/or the discomfort of using a helmet which pushes over the hearing aids in the case of BTE or RIC hearing aids.
In this article, I will discuss:
Why do the hearing aids slide out of the ear canal?
What happens if hearing aids don't stay in my ear canals properly?
What are the common reasons for losing hearing aids?
What type of hearing aids are more likely to get lost?
What model of hearing aids is better for an active lifestyle?
Why do the hearing aids slide out of the ear canal?
The shape of the ear canal is like a funnel. Regardless of the model of your hearing aid, it has an earpiece that holds a dome or sleeve, which is made of rubber or medical grade silico,n which holds it and makes the ear piece centre in the ear canal. The piece does not have an anchor, and it stays in the ear canal with the help of the friction of the dome or sleeve with the inner surface of your ear canal. Since the ear canal has a moist and oily (skin oil) environment,t there is a chance that the sleeve or dome starts sliding out over time. This chance is higher if your ear canal has a wide-angle funnel shape. When talking and chewing food, the upper jaw muscles flex the ear canal, which doent help with retention of the earpiece in the ear canal. More about hearing aid retention in the ear canal in this article.
Another common cause of hearing aids not staying in the ear is the accumulation of dry earwax. The presence of the earpiece of the hearing aids does stop or at least interfere with the natural process of the eawax sliding out of the ear canal. This issue is a bigger concern for people with dry skin. Earwax gets accumulated and becomes dry and hard in the ear canal, and eventually does not allow the earpiec eof the hearing aid to go deep enough and stay in the ear canal.
What happens if hearing aids don't stay in my ear canals properly?
Hearing aids have a piece that needs to be placed deep into the ear canal, and the tip of the receiver is positioned about halfway through the ear canal. The length of the ear canal in an adult user is about 3 centimeter so the tip of the earpiece or receiver needs to be placed at 1.5 centimetres. If hearing aids slide out of the ear canal, multiple problems will happen:
Higher chance of feedback because the dome or sleeve might not make a good seal anymore. More about hearing aid feedback in this article.
The sound quality will drop, because a. some of the sound will escape from the ear canal, and b. the tip of the receiver is not positioned optimally at the middle of the ear canal anymore. More in this article.
High chance of the hearing aid falling out and getting lost.
What are the common reasons for losing hearing aids?
Hearing aids get lost for a mix of several reasons:
They are not fitted with the right dome or earpiece, hence they frequently slide out of the ear,
They don't sound right, or they don't feel comfortable or feel an itch,y so the user uses them on and off, hence misplacing and eventually losing them.
What type of hearing aids are more likely to get lost?
The RIC and BTE hearing aids are designed to have the body of the hearing aid sit on top and behind the ear, and the receiver (or the thintube) goes in the ear canal. There is no positive anchoring in this arrangement, so the hearing aid is vulnerable to falling off if you run or do sports. With RIC and BTE hearing aids fitted with custom earmoulds, there is a lower chance of loss as the earpiece is well secured in the ear canal.
What model of hearing aids is better for an active lifestyle?
IIC and CIC hearing aids are less likely to fall out of your ear canal; this may happen if they are not fitted with the right dome. Ultimate retention is only possible with custom-made hearing aids. The custom-made hearing aids are made to fit the shape of your ear canal, hence have a large shell to skin contact, which keeps the hearing aid in the ear even while doing sports.
Another advantage of custom-made in-the-ear hearing aids is that they do not have a piece outside your ear, which means you can have a safety helmet on without any interference with your hearing aids (e.g. for skiing, mountain biking, rock climbing, etc.)
Please see the available invisible IIC, CIC and ITC range of hearing aids here.
What is the downside of custom-made and in-the-ear hearing aids, if any?
One concern of using in-the-ear and custom-made hearing aids is that the user might hear his/her voice more compared to RIC behind-the-ear hearing aids. The reason is that despite a vent in the shell of the custom-made hearing aids, a major part of the ear canal is still occluded by the hearing aid, hence a higher level of occlusion.
My advice is to consider custom-made ITC or invisible IIC and CIC hearing aids if your hearing loss is Moderate or Moderate to Severe and higher. The sense of occlusion in the case of a Mild hearing loss is more noticeable for the user.
What other groups can enjoy custom-made in-the-ear hearing aids?
Besides those with an active lifestyle, people with small or irregular ear shape, those who feel their ears are uncomfortable with behind-the-ear hearing aids, especially when using glasses and those who need to use face masks, e.g. medical team and those in construction or working in a polluted environment can benefit from in-the-ear and custom hearing aids.
What are the latest IIC, CIC and ITC hearing aids in the market?
Here is the list of the CIC and ITC hearing aids that I can recommend for 2026. Please visit the dedicated article by clicking on each line item to learn more about the hearing aid.
Phonak Virto Infinio - The smallest ITC, rechargeable, multi-device connectivity Bluetooth.
Oticon Zeal CIC - The smallest rechargeable CIC from Oticon with AI and ASHA Bluetooth. The Bluetooth may not impress you, but good enough for remote programming and streaming. Almost invisible for medium to large ear canals. Oticon Zeal is suitable for mild to moderate hearing loss.
Signia Silk or Rexton Reach inoX CIC - Rechargeable, click-fit CIC, suitable for mild to moderate. Signia Silk does not have Bluetooth.
Signia Insio CIC - Rechargeable CIC that uses the exact engine as Signia Silk and Rexton inoX, without Bluetooth, but it is custom-made, so it has better retention compared to Signia Silk. It could be fitted for sloping mild to severe hearing loss.
Starkey Omega AI CIC 312 - Custom-made CIC with ASHA Bluetooth, uses a 312 battery size.
Questions?
Please get in touch if you have any questions about the retention of hearing aids or the range of hearing aids suitable for your hearing loss.
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