I went to RIT/NTID, so I know a lot of deaf people who have CI. They aren’t always successful users of it. it is a mixed bag like 50%
It was not easy getting to this point., it take a lot of training with my implant rehab wise … I just sat there listening for month listening to youtube videos / music like 12 hour a day. there were time i gave up hope but my motivation was strong…
And though always hopeful restoration of damaged or dead ear nerve cells is probably fifteen years off. When you read things are being tested in mice, you know nothing is going to happen fast.
Actually, this is farther along than you might think and well past the mice testing stage. 8 companies that I am aware of are already doing human trials with encouraging results. Companies at this stage include: Novartis, Frequency Theraputics, Audion Theraputics (Lilly supported) Acousics Theraputics, Pipeline Theraputics, otologics Pharmacuticals and Decibel Theraputics.
Much of this technology has been available for some time but developing delivery systems and understanding the genetics continues to evolve. But even both of these are moving much more rapidly. This is like COVID in a way which pushed 10 year old technology to the front with the crisis.
I believe that experience will help move some of these faster.
Wow, timely read. I am having my eval at Vanderbilt University on Thursday. I am considered borderline. Ski slope loss in my left ear from normal to profound. In my local CI evaluation I scored 63% aided speech understanding both ears combined, and they want to see below 60%. So, I have asked questions, searched internet, met with reps from all three CI makers, and will talk to the surgeon this week and see if my insurance will cover. Then I have to decide. Some have said wait a while til it gets worse, but part of me wonders if the adjustment might go better if I do it before I lose more hearing. No way to know. Thanks for input and conversation.
I’m , my surgeon asked about my other ear as well. I though long and hard about going for a second .
My L ear has been profoundly deaf for over 7 decades now. I asked my surgeon would a CI in my L ear be successful. He couldn’t give me an answer as this ear has never heard high frequencies, as my loss is congenital.
My L ear can still be aided with a powerful aid.
My aided hearing is 96% now. If the other ear didn’t succeed after having the CI, I would be in a worse situation than I am now.
When/if my L ear hearing does get to the stage of needing a CI I will have to think long and hard…
My ears were the same for a dozen years and then my left ear just tanked about two years ago. I thought my hearing aid was faulty. I was pretty miserable about it for a while and then started looking into and learned that one does not have to wait until it is a last resort and that some have better results adjusting when done sooner than later. I’ll see how the eval goes and then decide. It’s been about a year of thinking and learning and my 63% was in March. May be worse now??? Thanks for the encouragement.
My center did test separately, One ear was 96% (now 74%) and the other ear was 10% pre CI. Make sure they do that for asymmetric testing… you are clearly in that category
Can you explain what the measurements are that you are referring to. ("one ear is 96%). 96% of what and how measured?
I have plotted my going back over 30 years and found that in the past 10 years or so they have not changed. My thresholds for pure tones are more or less the same - declining greatly at around 500 Hz and bottoming out around 1500 Hz at 110 .
What has changed is Speach Recognition Threshold, which has continued to decline approaching 0. The problem we all have is understanding speech. And from my observations its not just volume, its more.
Like the TED video posted here where a neuroscientist was able to use a flashing jacket to communicate, we use lip reading to supplement what I sense is a loss of processing ability. As kids we could comprehend speech even as a soft whisper, but now even at higher volumes that we “hear” we can’t understand.
So what are we measuring when we say we are at 96%?
Furthermore that article points out one of the greatest disadvantages with a CI is hearing in background noise.
You took that out of context. First, it states that any hearing loss can cause great difficulty hearing in noisy situations (yeah, tell us something we don’t know). Then it says that a can help with that.
It also states that initially, during the adjustment period, when the CI still has that weird tonal quality, listening in noisy environments can be harder. But once one adjusts to it, the CI user hears BETTER in a noisy setting.
You conveniently misquoted the first part, by leaving out “during the adjustment period”. And neglected to quote at all the part where they hear better once adjusted.
Again, if you don’t want one, don’t get it. But don’t tell the vast majority of CI users who are VERY happy with their implant how it’s not worth it.
I misquoted nothing in any of my posts here. I’ve also asked if HT members can post and article/link showing that a work fine in background noise, or improve hearing in background noise. So far nothing.
When you read the following - you understand my position.
Cochlear Implants are technology that assist people with hearing loss when hearing aids are no longer sufficient to bring clear communication. Despite advances over time, most recipients experience comprehension challenges in background noise such as multiple people talking, background music, and nearby appliances and machines—typical of the challenges anyone with hearing loss frequently notes. This is nothing new.
Furthermore - These are situations where not only people with hearing loss struggle, but even those with normal hearing may have a hard time. This is because of a problem with (signal-to-noise ratio), is essentially the loudness difference between what we want to hear (the signal) and everything else (the noise). When the noise gets too loud, it drowns out the signal (usually speech) that we want to hear. These situations can happen in loud restaurants and canteens, boisterous classrooms, busy train stations, etc.
There is only so much hearing aid and cochlear implant sound processing can do because the incoming signal captured by the microphone is already compromised.
There are many pluses with a successful CI implant astrohip. But as I’ve pointed out, there are some serious drawbacks also.
We’re going round in circles. There is nothing in what you just posted that says users hear worse in noisy environments than non-CI users. All you’ve pointed out is people have challenges in noisy settings, whether using or CI.
If your brain is damaged you would not be hearing with hearing aids either. The scan and scan should be able to say whether an implant with be successful. Yes there are failures but a very small percentage.
If your brain is damaged you would not be hearing with hearing aids either.
That’s not what he means. If he was born with that hearing loss, it’s unlikely that there are brain areas available at the high frequencies that he is missing for the to take advantage of. The brain doesn’t like waste and will take over unused areas for some other function. CI outcomes for pre-lingually deaf individuals are very different and there isn’t a huge population on this forum to talk about their results. You cannot really generalize from the experience of post-lignually deafened individuals.
My ears were the same for a dozen years and then my left ear just tanked about two years ago.
In your position, I would probably go through the candidacy process and seriously consider an implant for the left ear. Particularly given the growing number of cases I’ve been seeing where residual hearing was almost entirely retained after implantation. You’d want a stellar surgeon.
I am pretty much born deaf but it was an accident for me. if i didn’t have this accident, i would be completely normal. Sometimes it is genetic that plays a role in hearing function, this is why my performance is skyhigh in my case
In your position, I would probably go through the candidacy process and seriously consider an implant for the left ear. Particularly given the growing number of cases I’ve been seeing where residual hearing was almost entirely retained after implantation. You’d want a stellar surgeon.
You actually lose 30 db of hearing on average after being implanted and there is a risk of losing it all because inflammation
That what happened to me after implantation,\
I had the best surgeon, he couldn’t preserve it because of immune system inflammation, lost it after a year of getting my implant
Melbourne
