Open or Closed Fitting?

   What is the difference of a Open vs Closed Fitting should be one of the most important questions but rarely talked about.   

Open Fitted Instruments are the most popular fitting for several reasons.  No 1 its easy and less complex so this tends to be the popular way to go for many professionals but there's a catch.  While most Open Fittings do make a substantial hearing difference without a lot of time spent they also tend to provide lower satisfaction in overall hearing in noise and consistency.   So the Fitting ratios tend to support 40-50% Voice range leaving Ear exposed to 50-60% environmental noise making it difficult to hear in noisy situations.  As a result of this Open Fitting style over 50% of the needed sound range is leaking out of the Ear resulting in a much lower satisfaction.  

Closed or Vented Fittings are a bit more work however provide much better results when done properly.   More to come..