Retubing Guidelines

Retubing an earpiece can be frustrating. By using the tools and techniques described in this section, you will be able to quickly and efficiently remove old tubing and install new tubing on your patients' earpieces. Never use powered drill bits or cutting burrs when trying to remove old tubing from an earpiece because you can quickly alter the inside diameter of the sound bore and render the earpiece useless.
 

Removing Old Tubes and Cleaning Sound Bores

There are two quick and easy ways to remove old tubing from earpieces. If you have a microwave available in your office, bring a small glass container filled with water to a rolling boil. Our powder and liquid impression mixing bowl works well in this application. While the water is still actively boiling, drop the earpiece you wish to retube into the container. Once the water is cool enough to take the earpiece out, remove it from the still warm water and use a small pair of needle nose pliers to remove the old tube. A sharp tug should be all that is required to pull the tubing free from the earpiece.

The second way to remove tubing from an earpiece is to use a Westone hand reamer. Simply cut the tubing flush with the outside surface of the earpiece, insert the hand reamer and rotate in a clock-wise direction. The drilling action will remove the old tubing from inside the sound bore. After you have removed the old earpiece tubing with either method, inspect the sound bore for any remaining debris. Any debris left in the sound bore can have an effect on the high-frequency response or completely block sound transmission.