Cochlear implant average aided scores: 40db?

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deafdude1

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I have been looking all over the internet for case studies and here they are. It appears that average aided CI scores are 40db. It's not uncommon to get 30db and a few lucky people even get 20db! Hear again gets 10db to 30db at 250Hz to 2000Hz.(high frequency disabled) Overthepond has a 40db CI audiogram from what she's shown and posted on this forum. Miss Kat gets 15-25db. LadySekhmet has the best CI audiogram anyone has ever seen with a 10-15db score. She actually says it's too good/loud and had it reduced a few db for now till her brain gets used to it.

I am just posting what I found from Google. Some of you are saying that the average is better than 40db. If so, this is good news and something I will need to read and learn about. I am also learning what, how and why CI aided results are the way they are. Ive read that how well a person hears with CI depends on:

1. Electrode array placement in the cochlea.
2. How healthy your cochlea and auditory nerve are.
3. How well your brain responds to electrical pulses.
4. How good your mapping/programming is.
5. The type and quality of internal CI implant and external reciever.
6. Several other factors as well.

I know that how well a person hears with HAs is much more simple:

1. Type of HA.
2. How well it's programmed.
3. Amount of residual hearing.


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45db to 60db aided.

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About 40db aided.

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Good aided score, 30-40db.

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This case study shows a 30-35db CI score.

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20-40db with CI. Impressive 20db in some frequencies.

This female tells her CI results: With my cochlear implant my hearing thresholds are now in the 25-40 dB HL range! I was flabbergasted and emotional when I saw my audiogram.

Cochlear Implant book says: On average, patients with cochlear implants demonstrate soundfield warble tone thresholds of 35 to 40 dB HL for the test frequencies of 250 to 4000 Hz.

Some more CI results: Our aided thresholds were typically in the 30-40 dB range.

CI candidate being told this: Oct 5, 2007 ... I was told that I may hear at the 30 to 40 db range if I get one.

More CI results: Cochlear implants (CIs) are typically programmed for each individual patient .... conditioned play techniques were seen around 35-40dB at test frequencies

Another source for CI: Median thresholds were 40 dB

More CI scores: The cochlear implant has been described in the management of cognitively .... threshold of 40 dB HL were noted.
 
5. The type and quality of internal CI implant and external reciever.

I beg to differ with this point except when it comes to comparing old CI technology with new CI technology.

For instance, if you have two people with different CIs that both use up-to-date technology, chances are they will hear quite well.

However, if you have one person with an N22 CI and another person with a Freedom CI, the results could be much different.

Then again, this also depends on how used to their CI a person becomes. If someone has used an N22 CI for many, many years, they may understand speech just as well as someone who uses a Freedom.

In my case, I understand speech much better with my Freedom than I do my N24.
 
I hear at 20 dbs with my implant. With my HA I could only hear stuff at 40 dbs and sounds were much harder to understand.
 
My daughter's audiologist said he will not rest until he gets a CI user to hear above 30 db. He is great and he takes his time, that is why I drive 2 hours each way to see him! He doesn't put up with 40 db, so I don't know why other audiologists would.
 
I wonder if an average of 40dB is best that a CI can do or this is after people have requested to reduce what they can hear. Because I think I hear high frequencies too well and need to reduce it. LadySekhmet even said the same about reducing the sensitivity. I'm willing to bet an average of 40dB is after all the adjustments, including reducing the sensitivites.


Also, Id like to add that my audiogram 2 months after getting a CI had an average of 30-40 dB but this was while I was in the "overstimulation" mode, basically my auditory nerve and brain was getting used to it still.
 
Well he hasn't shared where he got this information, so I don't know if it is true, current, and accurate.
 
Reprogramming of the cochlear implant, or what is commonly called a “MAP”, refers to the setting of the electrical stimulation limits necessary for the cochlear implant user to perceive soft and comfortably loud sound. Normal acoustic hearing can process sounds within a 120dB range. Normal speech ranges anywhere between 40 and 60dB (the shaded area of this audiogram). Cochlear implant recipients have a dynamic range of only 6-15dB in electrical current. Therefore, in cochlear implant speech processors, a 120dB acoustic range must be compressed into an electric range of 6-15dB.
Click to expand...

Mapping a Cochlear Implant - Hearing Pocket
 
I hear across the range in the 30dbs. It is more important to look at comprehension. With both Cis, I have comprehension at around 96% in the booth on HNT sentences. Now out in the real world, I think it depends on the environment. I hear just fine in noisy and quiet environments. I never had this comprehension with hearing aids, it always seemed that I was missing something. So before you worry about the average aided score, think about is it sound or comprehension. I want to understand what I hear not just hear it.
 
When my CIs were initially activated, I was hearing at 35-40 dB, but as time went on and I became used to what I heard, this improved to 10-70 dB across all frequencies. Even though 6 high frequency electrodes were turned off on each CI and I'm hearing 4K and 8K at 60 and 70 dB respectively with my right CI, I'm still able to understand speech better than I have in 4 years.
 
When my daughter heard her first implant, her audiogram was around 35-40 db across the board. That was for tones. For speech, she would respond at the 20db level (the lowest they could test in the booth), but she could hear a whisper.

After her implant 'failed', she was reimplanted. Her audiogram isn't as good as with the first. It's all over the place, but she has a malformed cochlea and we don't feel this implant is in as good a spot as the first. Most of it is between 30-45db, but at 2000hz it sinks to 80+db (she really doesn't respond to the warbles at this frequency). We don't feel it is accurate though, because she does respond to speech at that frequency. She just doesn't hear that warble.

Our audi told me that with a CI, they are happy with 35db across the board on tones. That is what they hope for.
 
Even if I could "only" hear at 35-40 dB with a CI, I wouldn't complain. It's better than the aided hearing I had pre-CI. (60-70 dB with NR at 1000 Hz and above)
 
Hear Again said:
Even if I could "only" hear at 35-40 dB with a CI, I wouldn't complain. It's better than the aided hearing I had pre-CI. (60-70 dB with NR at 1000 Hz and above)
Click to expand...

That level seems to be where speech is. I wondered why they want them to be in the 10-20db range, and Faire-Jour answered it is so much more than speech.

But that did not really answer my question at all. What is in those db range that they want her to hear? Since I thought speech was the point of the CI.:dunno:
 
Bottesini said:
That level seems to be where speech is. I wondered why they want them to be in the 10-20db range, and Faire-Jour answered it is so much more than speech.

But that did not really answer my question at all. What is in those db range that they want her to hear? Since I thought speech was the point of the CI.:dunno:
Click to expand...

Yes.. all speech, including dolphins communicating each other. I'm sure Miss Kat and I can eavesdrop on them now. :)

The thing is, that banana is the "speech range" right? Speech range INCLUDING noisy environments or whispering or any other non standard way of communicating? I am not sure, it's possible that when she gets older she will ask to move it to the 20-40 dB range?
 
That level seems to be where speech is. I wondered why they want them to be in the 10-20db range, and Faire-Jour answered it is so much more than speech.
Click to expand...

Would this qualify as Bionic Hearing!!
 
Bottesini said:
That level seems to be where speech is. I wondered why they want them to be in the 10-20db range, and Faire-Jour answered it is so much more than speech.

But that did not really answer my question at all. What is in those db range that they want her to hear? Since I thought speech was the point of the CI.:dunno:
Click to expand...

I'm not sure, Bott. I would think that being able to hear at 35-40 dB would be acceptable since this falls within the speech banana.
 
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