Hearing aids for profound losses

Etoile

Etoile

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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?
 
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.
 
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.
 
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.
 
Etoile said:
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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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.
 
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.
 
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.
 
Hearing aids help some,but I have to lip read anyway.I still have trouble understanding speech.
 
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.
 
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.
 
Etoile said:
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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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 :)
 
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...
 
That's why I wonder why audiologists even bother suggesting hearing aids when the deaf person can't even benefit from them
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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.
 
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.
 
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.
 
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.
 
cdmeggers said:
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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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.
 
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!
 
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! :)
 
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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