Hearing Aid on the implanted ear.

DevBaby

DevBaby

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For CI... has anyone wore their hearing aid on the implanted ear? I am asking cuz what if someone chooses to not wear their CI and wanna wear a Hearing Aid on the implanted ear? Does it work? Are u not suppose to wear it on the implanted ear?
 
I'm afraid that won't work after you get your ear implanted. The reason why not is that any residential hearing you have left will be destroyed. You'll be totally deaf when you're not wearing your implant.
 
deafskeptic said:
I'm afraid that won't work after you get your ear implanted. The reason why not is that any residential hearing you have left will be destroyed. You'll be totally deaf when you're not wearing your implant.
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That is why I am so chicken to get a CI. LOL!
 
DevBaby said:
For CI... has anyone wore their hearing aid on the implanted ear? I am asking cuz what if someone chooses to not wear their CI and wanna wear a Hearing Aid on the implanted ear? Does it work? Are u not suppose to wear it on the implanted ear?
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When the CI electrode array gets inserted into your cochlea there is a very good possibility of it destroying whatever left you have of your hearing in the CI ear. But, you could wear a hearing aid on your other ear, though.
 
I don't know WHY somebody would want to wear a hearing aid in their implanted ear anyway - the sound from a HA would be vastly inferior to what they coudl get from their CI.
 
neecy said:
I don't know WHY somebody would want to wear a hearing aid in their implanted ear anyway - the sound from a HA would be vastly inferior to what they coudl get from their CI.
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They might if they wanted to return to HAs. Although there is a good possibility of success there are some people for whom the CI doesn't quite work for them for whatever reason. They may prefer the quietness of hearing aids although a CI could be mapped to do the same.
 
After my first CI was activated, curiosity got the best of me and I put my HA in my nonimplanted ear. I turned the volume all the way up, but couldn't hear a thing. (I lost all of my residual hearing following both surgeries.)

However, there are some people who do retain some degree of residual hearing following implantation. One CI user I know could hear the dial tone on her phone. Another could hear speech that was shouted directly into her implanted ear. Still another could hear environmental sounds when she wore a HA in her implanted ear.

If you're still interested in wearing a HA, you might want to continue wearing one in your nonimplanted ear. That's what I did for 6 months following the activation of my first CI until the HA no longer provided any benefit.
 
Oh definitly try using one in your unimplanted ear......I think that's what Dev orgionally meant LOL.
 
No, you don't want to try that as typically all residual hearing is lost in the implanted ear. In some cases where it is not, the hearing isn't quite as it was prior to the implant anyway.

So, the thought might occur for one to have a CI on the worst ear to preserve the good ear. The problem with that concept is one may not be successful compared to having a CI in the good ear.

Basically, one picks their poison...a successful outcome at the expense of residual hearing or a not so successful outcome but still have the good ear left. Personnally when one comes down to the nitty gritty...I much perfer a successful outcome over anything else and the rest is irrelevant. I would never embarked on a CI if I didn't intend to make it work. Otherwise, what is the point?
 
Good point R2, thanks - never considered that. I have zero residual hearing in my implanted ear. I've tried using my CI with my HA in my non-implanted ear, but the vast difference in what I heard in each ear simply confused me, so I stopped using the HA in the non implanted ear completely.
 
I'm one who chose to have my worse ear implanted and the outcome was positive. My left ear has had no speech discrimination since 1995. Three months post activation my speech discrimination (for sentences in quiet) jumped to 67% (from 0% pre-CI) and by 6 months post activation, it shot up to 97%. I know CI users who decided to implant an ear that has had no amplification for 20 or 30 years and are getting excellent results. However, as sr171soars said, it's a chance you take either way with no guarantee of success.
 
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