Hearing aids vs cochlear implants

[@barrytaylorprofoundlydeafi2479]

Hi nelle after over 40 yrs of wearing hearing aids & with the beep test showing only residual hearing i thought i might finally get a cochlear implant,but the inner ear test showed the hairs that help you hear were working! So it seems somewhere along the line signals are not reaching the brain! So i have to have this special test in london to work out why,it makes you feel a fraud wearing powerful hearing aids for 40 yrs! So i hope at least in 2024 you get your 2nd implant & i will continue to donate towards it,i just wish somehow i get to hear again maybe this year! Your young & will make the most of two implants and get to enjoy sounds & a better life ♥️♥️♥️

[@nellefindlay]

It doesn't make you a fraud at all, there are so many causes of hearing loss. The most common is the cochlear hair cells, but there are other issues that affect the auditory nerve or brain or the middle ear that also cause deafness which means cochlear implants might not work so it's really important that they work out what is causing the hearing loss. Thank you for your continued donations and good luck with your further testing.

[@songsignwithsarahxoxox]

I’m getting my middle ear implant between March and May this year (not BAHA), it’s similar to cochlear but designed for middle ear as my profoundly deaf ear is a mix of conductive and sensioneural hearing loss. So excited as my hearing aid doesn’t do much. I’ll be keeping my hearing aid for my right ear which works well but my left ear will have an implant. Nervous but excited. I did trial Bi-CROS hearing aids last year. Which had some amplification on my right but then my left (profoundly deaf ear) didn’t amplify, but was like a mic, so all sounds went round to my right ear. I did 3 months and was taking so much ibuprofen for headaches. Not just like little headaches, sickly migraines. So went back to just 2 bog standard hearing aids. I refused a BAHA due to risk of infection as I’m type 1 diabetic and have addison’s disease too, so had funding through to get a middle ear implant xxx

[@nellefindlay]

Good luck with your new implant. I hope it works well for you. :)

[@mysteriam9679]

i've heard of cases where cochlears dont work, is it because of a different cause of deafness or??

[@nellefindlay]

Yes, there are people who are unsuccessful with cochlear implants due to the cause of their hearing loss or due to their brain not being able to adapt to the sound. Back when they first started doing CIs, it was more common for people to get them and them not work, whereas now the screening process is pretty good so normally they can give an idea of whether or not a CI will work before going ahead with surgery. These days, it's less common for people to have failed implants because they will usually be turned down for surgery.

[@mysteriam9679]

@@nellefindlay that's so cool! thanks for responding