Protection and solvent washing of in-canal hearing aids

Abstract

An otherwise conventional in-canal hearing aid, including a receiver providing a sound output port typically facing directly towards the ear drum of a user, is provided with a hood disposed between the sound port and the ear drum completely shielding the sound port from foreign substances moving towards the hearing aid from all directions except upwardly from the bottom floor of the user's ear canal. The hood can comprise solid vertical walls completely surrounding the sound port and forming a downwardly extending sound conduit terminating in a downwardly facing sound exit, or the vertical walls can comprise a mesh preferably also forming a downwardly facing sound conduit and sound exit. The hoods provide a gravity assisted path, particularly for mobile fluid components of the foreign substances, downwardly past and away from the receiver sound port. The hoods can be integral with the hearing aid envelope or provided in a kit of differently dimensioned hoods for being selectively attachable to existing hearing aids. The combination of avoiding entry of foreign substances into the sound conduit and the presence of fluid paths past the sound port greatly facilitates cleaning of the hearing aid, particularly by use of previously generally unavailable solvent washing.