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Old 04-10-2008, 04:43 PM   #5 (permalink)
R2D2
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Join Date: Dec 2005
Location: Australia
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Etoile View Post
This is something I have wondered about. What benefit do people with a profound loss get from hearing aids? Is there any point to wearing them? I know a lot of people DO...but is there a point? I always thought profound meant "can't hear at all" aka no residual hearing...so would HA's even help a profoundly deaf person?
Not necessarily. Not every profound loss is the same. A loss in some frequencies for example still make the use of a hearing aid of some benefit whereas for others, there is no benefit. It's very hit and miss at profound levels. Also, there may be recruitment, which makes it painful to wear hearing aids and severe tinnitus as well. So hearing losses are quite individual.

Also, "benefit" depends somewhat on expectations. For some people, hearing environmental noise only even if it is very unclear is all they want or need, especially if they are used to using sign most of the time. Whereas for others, being able to hear speech is important if they live and work in oral based environments.
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