Your Audiology Tutorial: Lyric

I don't ordinarily endorse any particular brand of hearing aid here at Lamplight Drivel, but given that there is only one extended wear option out there I feel compelled to discuss the Lyric, produced by the manufacturer Phonak.  A spongy, disposable device that is worn 24/7.  A popular, perhaps ultimate choice for those patients who don't want their friends on the golf course or at the bridge table to know they are wearing something.   Hearing aids still carry a stigma.  I'm not fibbing when I tell you that patients will come into the office with walkers and oxygen tanks with miles of tubing and refuse to get one because "it will make me look old."  

Unlike traditional hearing aids, permanent devices that are purchased once, you pay for the Lyric annually.  It is a subscription service that depending on the clinic can range from three to four thousand for a binaural fit.  It's like leasing or renting, in a sense.

The audiologist or medical doctor will size your ear canal for depth and circumference.  Current available sizes are XXS to XXL.  The straighter the canal, the smoother your experience will be.  If the aid can be placed in the second bend, closer to the eardrum, it is more likely to be comfortable.  And of course, more effective for speech understanding. 

You can shower with the Lyric.  Some patients wear ear caps if they have concerns about water seeping in.  You can also swim with the Lyric but try to avoid immersing your head.  I've had some patients wear head gear for their morning laps and do just fine. 

Contraindications? A tendency to produce a lot of cerumen, for one.  That may shut the aid down sooner than later, leading to multiple office visits.  How often a patient needs to come in is often determined by their ear anatomy.  Those with narrow canals are more likely to accumulate wax and excessive moisture, causing the aid to fail.  Many patients proactively schedule a monthly visit to ensure the Lyric won't fail at a bad moment.  I had one angrily tell me the devices died as they were sitting down to a Broadway show.  Oy.  They had to retreat to the powder room to remove the dead aids (with a special hook tool provided during the initial fitting appointment) which essentially became earplugs.  As the Lyric is an analog device, it does not have a warning beep to tell you when it's about to expire. 

Said tool is also a magnet you can use to turn the aid on or off or change volume.  The Lyric is fairly primitive compared to just about everything else on the market.  You cannot achieve a Bluetooth connection with it.

If you're on blood thinners, you'll need to get medical clearance.  Mainly because if you need to remove aid yourself it is possible that you'll cause a little bleeding.  Though interestingly, a recent pilot study showed that patients caused less abrasion to the ear than when providers took the aids out.  To wit, the Lyric has recently been cleared by the FDA for patients to insert and remove aids if they desire.   Not every time, mind you, and a patient's self insertion will typically not get the aid in the ear at an optimal depth.  That is achieved by the audiologist via a forcep calibrated in millimeters. 

By the way, if you're getting an MRI, the Lyric has to come out ahead of time, as the magnetism will kill it. 

Lyric was originally made by a company in northern California called Insound.  The aids were crafted by hand, my rep informed me way back in 2010, when I began fitting them.  Phonak later bought out the company and now the devices are mass produced in Vietnam.   Some advertisements promised and still promise three months of life but the reality is closer to six to eight weeks.  Again, dependent on how humid and/or waxy the patient's ears tend to be. 

The Lyric is not for all, as you've probably deduced. The price excludes many.  Some cannot get used to the fit, citing occlusion.  It used to be that avid swimmers and SCUBA divers also had to pass,  but given the recent go ahead for self insertion/removal, we'll see how that changes things.