Patent ID: 7467022

Claim:
A method for fabricating a hearing aid comprising the steps of: by interaction between a patient having a hearing impairment and an audiologist at a dispenser location, determining electronic component and programming specifications for a circuit for a hearing aid to correct said hearing impairment, producing an ear mold of the patient, scanning said ear mold to generate an electronic 3D data set representing a shape and size of said ear mold, creating a test prototype consisting only of an otoplastic or shell for a hearing aid device from said 3D data set, conducting a test fit with the patient of said prototype and, if necessary, modifying said mold to produce a modified mold and re-scanning said modified mold and creating a modified prototype and test fitting the modified prototype with the patient until an acceptable fit is acknowledged by the patient; only after said acceptable fit is acknowledged by the patient, electronically transmitting the 3D data set for the prototype that was acceptable to the patient, and said electronic specifications to a fabrication site; at the fabrication site, manufacturing a hearing aid device having an otoplastic or shell conforming to the 3D data set electronically transmitted to the fabrication site with said circuit embodied in said otoplastic or shell; and sending the hearing aid to a location for pick-up by the patient.