Hearing Aids vs. Cochlear Implants

My advice is to get new hearing aids (or a hearing aid and a cross) and wear them consistently. It’s the only way to get used to them and get the full benefit from them. If you aren’t happy with the options from your current audi, find a new one who will work with you.

I really doubt you need an implant yet. A cochlear implant is surgery during which you will likely lose all the natural hearing in the implanted ear. You have SO much natural hearing left.

I’m not against implants in general. I recently had a cochlear implant (advanced bionics brand) and I love it after years wearing a a hearing aid and a cross yet still missing so much. I love my implant and for me, speech in quiet and music is already wonderful - beyond my expectations. (I’m still working on speech in noise.)

But if you look at my audiogram you can see the difference. You are nowhere close to my loss when I decided to get the implant.

Advanced Bionics offers great colors. Mine are teal and I love them. Can mix and match covers, etc.

I’m probably the closest to your situation on this forum. SSD with total loss in right ear. I’ve used cros as a kid and more recently; I did not care for them or find them very beneficial.

I opted for a CI. For me, I will likely never have good word recognition with it. It has however given me sound awareness on my bad side. I’ve also already noticed an improvement in understanding sound in difficult situations, like restaurants. There is a lot more work that goes into a CI than I really expected. I was told this going into it however, experiencing it is deferent than hearing about it.

Now there will be people that say your hearing is too good for a CI, and they may be right or wrong; however, remember that hearing is very subjective. One person may have very poor hearing and still be able to understand conversations in tough situations, and another may have very good hearing and not understanding conversations in the best of situations. As such, a CI evaluation will help you find where you fall on that spectrum. So regardless, I’d recommend proceeding with the evaluation unless you’re happy how you are.

One thing that can help though is auditory training. Using an app like Hearos daily will help you train your brain.

Now, if hearing aids aren’t helpful to you, and you don’t want all the effort required for a CI, you may want to consider something like an Osia or Bonebridge. Either of these can be discussed with your Audiologist or surgeon after a CI evaluation.

The OP is a candidate for a left CI.

I would agree with the general recommendation to try a hearing aid first for a while, but honestly if a hearing aid doesn’t given him more than 35% clarity in that ear it’s probably going to sound like junk and he won’t wear it and then why worry about losing remaining hearing in that ear because without a hearing aid it’s not giving him anything anyway. Certainly there are risks to surgery, but that’s not the one I would worry about if hearing aid benefit fails.

CI outcomes are known to be poor after long-term bilateral auditory deprivation, but outcomes for long-term unilateral deprivation are less clear. I believe I’ve seen some early evidence a while back that good input to the auditory system from one ear may be enough to support function that leads to better outcomes than we’d previously thought, which may be why it is being offered in the case. Best to discuss with the CI team.

If the OP opts against hearing aid AND CI in the left, consider a CROS to access sound on the left without craning your neck, but realistically a Roger On with a Roger Focus in the good ear may be more effective in complex listening environments. Most individuals with long term unilateral loss have pretty good coping mechanisms for positioning people towards their good ear in quiet, it’s noise where things get hard.

@Neville

But the OP gives up on hearing aids very very quickly.

Most CI centres require you to wear HA/s for 6 months first if they don’t already wear them unless NO hearing at all.

Thanks and I totally agree.
But the OP has not been wearing an aid. He has not given his brain time to acclimate to an aid.

Yeah, I agree he should give a hearing aid a solid try first. But he can certainly go through the assessment process. It’s the best way to get sound information. And yeah, I also expect that the ci team would probably require a hearing aid trial.

OP here; I wanted to provide a quick update. First, I wanted to thank the group for all of the advice and feedback!

I have decided to try as a HA first step and meet with my audiologist next week to discuss a trial. As others have stated I want to: a.) rule out this isn’t a good option for my case and b.) prove to myself I can stick to adoption.

The CI is still on the table, but something I will reevaluate in the next 6-12 month.

Again, thank you all for the support!

Addendum: A small point, I think you are younger than 65. Medicare’s requirements for a CI are more stringent than regular insurance. In September of 2022 they modified the requirements. A small step, but important. Bummer to hear that those (me) with long term bilateral loss have less beneficial outcomes. Did I say this before? Infoo might be of use to those of us on medicare. Crazy to use the same criteria with the fluctuating nature of meniere’s.