For someone like myself who has limited hearing, yet isn’t totally sold going the CI route - life choices can be hard. Being profoundly hard of hearing and a CI candidate for last ten years, life certainly has its ups and downs. I find with my Phonak P90 Nadia’s I do very well with general sounds yet very poorly with speech understanding. Face to face with voice projection works well but in normal speech conversation I’m probably missing 60%. In a group of five or more I might lose 70% word recognition.
With that said I’m fairly active with HA’s, do a lot of work outside and like the freedom of taking my aid off or leaving on when I’m doing something physically active. I’ve researched CI for years and feel I know benefits and drawbacks. When done right a CI will allow someone to hear (in a quiet environment) between one or several individuals And when I say hear - I believe the CI wearer is not straining to hear verbal communication nor lip reading. That is a huge benefit versus what I’m experiencing now. Yet I feel CI technology (for what ever reason) has not advanced as much as I’d like over over the years and decades. Hearing experts will tell you that a “CI connection” is not ideal as far as a processor capturing sound signals and sending to receiver implanted under the skin behind the ear. New technology seems to be lagging in the area where the receiver sends the signals to electrodes implanted in the snail-shaped inner ear. Case in point - it takes six months to a year plus to adapt to the way a CI allows you to hear and decipher sounds. Your brain has to be reprogrammed to learn how to accept new incoming CI sounds and foreign verbal communication.
Initially nothing happens quick with a new CI but sometimes good things have to waited for. Part of my hesitation in getting a CI is that they do not do well in noisy situations. In fact I’d say a CI user when compared to a power hear aid user both struggle to hear properly with background noise. Been that way since CI came out in the 1980’s. Generally I feel the operation part of the CI is fairly safe but no doctor or CI facility is going to guarantee everything will work properly or that you will have your hearing level restored to normal. Also if you look at the history of CI manufacturers there is on more than a few occasions a unfortunate track record of part defects and and moisture issues. But I’d say no more than what a typical HA user goes through wearing aids year in, year out. Of course a CI cost way, way more that a HA, so you would thing they would operate at a higher level quality wise.
Lastly I know there are lot of other people out there just like me that sit on the fence and wonder which way they should go regarding sticking with power aids or move towards a CI. Yes I know the standard line here is “well ask you Audi, or ear doctor, or specialists, etc”. Personally I think you can get all the info you need (some what unbiased) off the internet. And probably talking more directly with a CI user. This might hit a nerve with a few readers here but I’ve felt at times that a certain medical clinic or hospital or Audi pushing a CI is looking more at the ($30,000 to $50,000) collection fee more than the actual pros and cons of the CI itself.
In any case I’ll probably keep sitting on the fence before I make an future decisions. I do know (from my limited) research that replacement technology for a CI is probably ten years off. And though always hopeful restoration of damaged or dead ear nerve cells is probably fifteen years off. When you read things are being tested in mice, you know nothing is going to happen fast. And should any research facility get past the mice testing stage and still have money left to burn, you still have to through many levels of human trial testing and then long FDA review process which could take years. Just look how long OTC hearing action took to be approved by FDA - five long years.
