Answer

I’m sorry that your family member is experiencing these problems.  By your description it seems that the hearing aid’s performance is being affected by acoustic feedback. Assuming that the hearing aid has been checked by the manufacturer for an internal fault, there are some other possible causes.  Firstly, the hearing aid may be at the limit of its performance capability and some of the sound output from the hearing aid is escaping around the earfitting and being detected by the hearing aid’s microphone.  The earpiece may not be fitting as well as it should be and allowing sound to escape.  There could be an obstruction in the ear canal such as a build up of wax which is preventing sound from travelling down the ear canal to the eardrum.  Most modern hearing aids have a feedback manager which can usually be programmed effectively to remove the problem of acoustic feedback unless the earpiece is defective or there is an ear canal obstruction.

If the hearing aid was provided by Amplifon, please ask your family member to make an appointment at their local Amplifon Hearing Care Centre where the cause of the problem will be fully investigated. If not supplied by Amplifon, I can only suggest that your family member returns to the person who supplied it.  They should ask for an explanation of the cause of the problem and why it is proving so difficult to solve.  If this does not result in a solution, please contact us again.