Etoile

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?

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neecy

In my case, while my HA gave me no benefit in distinguishing speech, and only minimal help when lipreading, I got the most benefit from it helping me distinguish some environmental sounds. A door closing, a car honking, a fire alarm, some music (if it was loud enough) etc. Profound doesn't mean no residual hearing at all, but a db threshold of 90 or greater. Mine was 120 in both ears.

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cdmeggers

for myself, my left ear is PROFOUNDLY deaf so therefore hearing aids are useless. No sounds, nothing. Just a bunch of vibrations from the earmold and that's it.

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deafskeptic

Well like Neecy, I could hear speech but not understand it.. About the only thing I could have told you about the speakers on the radio was if they were males or females. It did help with environmental sounds though. My loss in my left ear before I got implanted was mostly in the 115 db range though I could hear a couple of freqs at 85 db.

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R2D2

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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deafdyke

Good post R2D2!
Yes, everyone thinks profound=no sound at all. Not quite true......Profound can mean "just able to hear enviromental sounds", but it can also mean that you can only hear 10% of the spondee list unaided.

ismi

Just before I got my implant, I was profound in both ears (100-110 dB), and used hearing aids. It's not that there's no residual hearing left, just that you're beyond one more threshold.

Pepsi

Hearing aids help some,but I have to lip read anyway.I still have trouble understanding speech.

VamPyroX

I am more deaf in one ear than the other. That's why I can't wear a hearing aid on that ear.

I used to wear 2 hearing aids when I was younger. However, I usually ended up turning it off or not wearing it because it wasn't helping me at all. The problem with that ear is that it is more sensitive to bass than tremble. I can't distinguish between various sounds if I hear it. For instance, I can't tell if someone dropped a book on the table... slammed the door... banged a wall... etc. On the level of vibration, they all feel the same. With my other ear, I can usually determine what the sound is and/or where it's coming from.

That's why I wonder why audiologists even bother suggesting hearing aids when the deaf person can't even benefit from them. It's as if they're just trying to make money.

Perhaps, a non-biased audiologist would give us a better answer instead since they are not associated with hearing aid shops and don't benefit from selling hearing aids.

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cdmeggers

Some CI audiologists will recommend you wear a hearing aid in the bad ear, even if you don't get any benefits from the hearing aid, if you are considering getting a CI in the bad ear (this was what my CI audiologist advised me to do with my left ear... I managed to wear an old analog in the left ear for maybe 3 months before I stopped again oops). For stimulation purposes. Other than that... uh yeah I don't know.

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Canuckian_Chick

I have severely profounded hearing loss (nerve damage in the ear) so I do wear hearing aids but it has to be the most powerful one on the market every two to three years like the phonak I always go by them than unitron (very weak) ... I think its also depending on how you were taught when younger since when I was younger I never knew asl only through speech therapy. lipreading and listening skills which helps now I use asl in later in life.. ... I'm not 100 percent accurate but an ability to hear about 70 to 80 percent of the time... better than nothing.. smile.. it just like people who wear glasses, the more you wear them the more you need stronger ones.. my hearing loss will never change but at the same level... just technology is getting better for us... like the fm system i had in public school was soooo darn powerful I couldn't get past the first volume...

smile

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Canuckian_Chick

Also, if you got a good health plan why not use it... as I have to use it for work since I work with clients.. I think it's depends on each person's preferences... on weekends I take my hearing aids off lol.. to give my ears a break.. smile

Also I find that I have to wear two hearing aids or else I'll lose my balance walking like if I'm drunk ...

Also, I have digital hearing aids that can block sounds from background and also a smart link (not yet till I get my new hearing aids) just like FM system to listen to music or talk on phone... no I don't usually hear the words but if i know the song I'll know some words by studying the lyrics lol.. smart aleck I am lol ... smile anything is possible...

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deafdyke

Well b/c everyone's very indivdual in how they respond to hearing technology. Also some people might find just hearing enviromental sounds of benifit.

shel90

I have a 120 dB loss in both ears since birth. Without my HAs, I cant lipread but with them, I understand most hearing people most of the time as long as the group doesnt exceed no more than 2 people at a time. In large groups, forget it.

I used to be able to have short conversations on the phone when I was a kid despite my severe loss. I just had to concenrate VERY hard to the other person talking and the other person cant say more than 2 words at a time.

I can hear people calling my name.

I dont really care for understand speech without lipreading. I spent too much of my life growing up working my ass off trying to understand speech without lipreading due to speech therapists telling me that I am not working hard enough so now, I am not motivated at all. Too much work for me and no point for me anyway.

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Miss-Delectable

I find I get benefit from HA's which enables me to lipread more easily. Also can hear some specific sounds like cat meowing, my name being called (only in quiet places) and few others.

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kimpossible

No that's a pretty big myth. I hear basically all sounds and I have a profound loss in my good ear (left) that I wear a really powerful digital BTE in. My hearing loss was progressive and I was not born/early deafened, so I probably receive more benefit from my aid than other people who were born deaf and have profound losses. I listen to music all the time, I can hear very quiet sounds, I can talk on the phone with ease.

VamPyroX

Eh? From what my friends have told me, the ones who were recommended to wear hearing aids were the ones where the audiologist worked at the hearing aid shop... and the ones who said nothing were the ones who were audiologists alone (in hospital, etc) without sales in hearing aids.

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JennyB

I have seen more audiologists than I want to think about in the last month. The only one who has said that hearing aids will help me is my regular audiologist who also dispenses. When I tried aids with her they did help! I heard speech but I couldn't make words out of the sounds without speech reading.

I remember reading somewhere (I think it was this thread) that audiologists who dispense will say aids will help just to make a sale. I think that audiologists who dispense recommend aids more often because they know that could actually help! They are up to date on the technology, and what is available. I think they actually know that aids CAN help. Anyway, just my thoughts!

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Etoile

It's funny...I had an audiologist said HA's wouldn't help because my loss was mild to moderate in most areas. I went to somebody else and got HA's and they DO help!

It's been very educational reading responses from so many people with profound losses, thanks you guys!

highlands

I have bilateral severe/profound loss at 92 decibels and I do get a lot of benefit from hearing aids.. it is not enough ,though. anyway, I can enjoy most environmental sounds.. but when it comes to speech perception I must highly rely on speech reading to support hearing aids.. and I can hardly understand speech sounds coming from some devices such as tv set,radio set,loudspeakers etc

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deafbajagal

To answer your question, yes.

http://www.alldeaf.com/hearing-aids-...-s-office.html

This is a thread that I had posted about my new hearing aid. I'm profoundly deaf in both ears. Up until that day, I've only heard very loud environmental sounds such as sirens (if they are close enough), jets, lawn mowers, etc. You get the picture. With this Oticon Sumo DM that I got (a digital BTE), I can actually hear things that at one time was not possible with a hearing aid. Literature on this hearing aid has dubbed it to be the most powerful hearing aid in the world. I'm still amazed by this experience. My "lines" of my audiogram are way at the rock bottom...and with the hearing aid, the right ear, the audiogram line moved up nearly at the top - well above the speech banana portion. I can hear every sound of the English language. Of course, my perception and auditory discrimination skills are lacking because it is going to take time for me to learn how to recognize all of the audiotory stimulation I'm getting. I've got some serious audiotory processing to do. There are so many things I hear that I have no idea what it is or where it is coming from. I chose not to use a hearing aid in my left ear because it has a loss of 113 DB and since my older hearing aids never really did much good for my "good ear" I certainly didn't see the need for my "bad ear" to have one. I stopped wearing my left hearing aid when I reached fifth grade - it was too annoying and actually made things worse (balance-wise). For now, I don't want a hearing aid in it but my audiologist did suggest having one because he said with this hearing aid, even my left ear will be able to benefit (going as far up as in the middle of the speech portion of the audiogram).

I heard my daughters' voices for the first time. And recently during a visit, I heard my mother's voice for the first time.

**** Very important. Keep in mind I've had years and years of intense speech therapy training and audiotory training. This makes a difference with how well I was able to receive this hearing aid (in my opinion). For someone who has never used a hearing aid before, the effects and reactions might be different for that person. Actually, everyone is different. Just because one thing works for me doesn't mean it will for everyone.

DragonYoga

I have profound to severe loss in both ears (90 db in R, 110 in L), and I wear HAs all the time. I can hear at around 75, 80 db with them in and I can distinguish sounds. I can understand speech sometimes, though most of the time it's like listening to a different language. I can hear the words but I can't understand what the words are. I lipread better with my hearing aids because I can listen at the same time. So for me, it's been very benefictial.

Sometimes, when I'm talking to my hearing friends, and they say something while I'm not looking at them, I will understand anyway and answer. Odd, but yay for me I guess :-P

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jillio

Your experience and dB loss is very similar to my sons. He uses his HAs in select situations, but in others, prefers to be without them.

DragonYoga

Jillio, cool beans!

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BRADY BOATMAN

I lose my hearing in my left ear..because the US.GOVERNMENT give my baby shot when i was still a baby and now i am a bit deaf in my righ ear and i have to wear a hearing aid to hear faraway sound around me

BRADY

Etoile

I'm confused. The government did what?

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AliciaM

Maybe he is immigrant and had to get booster shot b4 coming in the u.s. Alot of people had that. Or he's just talking about a shot that the gov't requires babies and children to get at a certain age before they start school. For ex. tb shot, or measles, etc

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