<p>I was talking with my ENT last week and she mentioned that should my hearing become bad enough we would consider a cochlear implant.
Of course, now I must research. Does anyone here have an information to share? Thanks!</p>
<p>My friend had 2, and is extremely pleased.She is in Hong Kong now, so I cannot offer specifics.</p>
<p>I planning on mooching off your thread.
I am deaf in one ear since childhood. I worry that my remaining hearing in other ear will decline with age. </p>
<p>What scenario makes cochlear implants an option to consider?</p>
<p>A friend of mine, deaf since birth pretty much, got a pair and he can hear normally now :). He loves extreme sports so the things seem pretty durable…</p>
<p>I work with 2 people who had spouses get them. One is doing well, wasn’t completely deaf in that ear and another lost his hearing as an adult and he is doing well, but disappointed in progress. He said everyone sounded like Mickey Mouse at first and although it’s getting better, it’s slow. He avoids crowds for now. He felt his doctor should have told him, he made it seem like it would be faster in progress, but I think most people seem to do very well.</p>
<p>There is a tv show called “switched at birth” that deals a lot with deafness, education, etc. I know it’s fiction, but they have service announcement about the subject all the time so I think it’s close to real life. There are characters on the show that are totally against it, some that are totally for it and everything in between.</p>
<p>I watch “switched at birth” and that prompted me to ask this question. In the latest show they had one of the characters put a chochlear on as if it was just a devise attached to her hearing aid. I have figured out that this was just fiction as they are implanted. </p>
<p>I have a moderate/significant hearing loss and wear hearing aids. Last week I had a tube put in one ear to see if it will help with pressure, esp. flying, as well as increase the hearing a little. I asked what would happen if I lost all of my hearing. ENT does not expect that to ever happen but said I could have a chochlear at that point. My H knows a woman who had one put in at the age of 90 and is very happy. ENT also said stem cell and other medical miracles are at least 20 years off. That surprised me as there are so many baby boomers who will be demanding advancements in the field.</p>
<p>My loss is not from noise but most likely from second hand and third hand smoke. There have been articles about this for a few years, ENT told me first. My parents smoked a few packs a day and the air was blue growing up. Car trips were terrible.</p>
<p>My niece had cochlear implants when she was about 2; but a friend of mine whose daughter had a severe hearing loss was not considered to be a good candidate for them. I guess it depends on the nature of the hearing loss? My husband, who is deaf in one ear, investigated them and was also told he would not benefit from them.</p>
<p>Historically, the use of CI, especially in young children, has been a contentious point within Deaf culture and the Deaf/deaf community. although attitudes seem to be changing to be more accepting of them, ancedotally. </p>
<p>As with anything, CI work fabulously for some people and not well in others. They tend to work better in children, especially when implanted young (although, as noted above, that can lead to social/culturally/ethical issues). It’s important to note that CI don’t turn Deaf/HOH/HI people into “normal” hearing people overnight and the the aural rehab process can be–and usually is–a long and sometimes incomplete one. I hadn’t heard on them being widely used for late-deafened/ late hearing loss adults, but judging from some of the points on this thread, perhaps that is changing?</p>
<p>[Cochlear</a> Implants](<a href=“http://www.asha.org/public/hearing/Cochlear-Implant/]Cochlear”>Cochlear Implants)</p>
<p>I know several adults who were deaf since birth who got CIs in adulthood. All but one have had them removed. They just could not deal with the adjustment. Those who went from hearing aids to CIs though seem to really like them. It’s a slow adjustment period from what I’ve heard. OTOH, children I know with them seem to have adapted quite well. </p>
<p>If you have been hearing (even if not well) most/all of your life, and your doctor recommends it, it’s probably a good choice for you. </p>
<p>It is definitely a “different” sound but, IMO, it’s a better alternative than losing your hearing all together.</p>
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<p>The CI has 2 parts. There’s a portion that implanted under the skull, and then there’s a part that you wear on your ear that picks up the sounds, converts them into a form the implant can process and sends the information to the implant. The outside part can look like a hearing aid, attached to a round piece that is magnetically attached to the head.</p>
<p>So, part of it is always there, but if you want it to actually work you put on the part that looks like a hearing aid, and the part that goes on the skull.</p>
<p>Thanks CJ–I had just thought of that today!
Good article, lizard.
I find that being hearing disabled is pretty exhausting. It takes so much effort to understand, lip read and so on. My H suffers in a different way. He has a hard time understanding that if I cannot see him and do not know the context of his comments than I am just not getting it. There are other times, due to my experience with all of this, that I can navigate a noisy dinner or party and he cannot.</p>