Hearing Loss Help  

by Neil Bauman, Ph.D.

When you get “turned on” at your first cochlear implant (CI) mapping session,  it’s a given that the sounds you’ll first hear will not sound normal at all. Don’t be surprised at the strange, robotic nature of the voices you first hear. In time, your brain will learn to understand them and they will begin to sound normal to you.

In order to help your audiologist produce the best map, you’ll need to describe these unearthly sounds and often that can be a challenge. To make things easier for you, following is a list of words people with cochlear implants have used to describe the quality of sounds they heard during or after mapping sessions.

These words also may relate to sounds people have experienced that may indicate a problem with equipment (i.e., a processor cord). Note that how one person perceives a sound may not be the same as another person might perceive that same sound, thus, words on this list could mean entirely different things to different people. When choosing a term(s) to describe your listening experience, be prepared to explain it in more detail to your audiologist.

Here’s some words to get you started.

Banging
Barking
Bass
Beeping
Blaring
Blunted
Blurred
Booming
Bottom of a Barrel/Well
Breathy
Buzzy

Cartoonish
Chimes
Chipmunk
Chirpy
Chopped Up
Clangy
Clashy
Clear
Clicking
Clinking
Clipping
Compressed
Cottony
Crackling
Crinkling
Crisp
Cut Off
Cutting Out
Cymbals

Damped
Disembodied
Distorted
Droning
Ducks quacking
Ducks underwater
Dulled

Echoing/Echoey
Electronic

Fading
Far Away
Flat
Flour-y
Fluctuating
Fog horn
Frog in throat
Fuzzy
Fuzzy on the edges

Garbled
Gargling/Gargly
Grating
Gravelly
Growly
Gurgling

Harsh
Helium
Hissy/”essi” (too much, or not enough “s”)
Hoarse
Hollow

Indistinct
Intermittent

Jumping Out

Layered

Mechanical
Metallic
Metal Pipe
Microphonish
Motorboating
Muffled
Multiple voices
Murky
Mushy
Muted

Nasal

Off the station (radio out of tune)
Ooooom
Out of Focus
Out there (voices sound disconnected from bodies)

Piss-y (“P” sounds)
Pitch
Plinky
Pointy (like “crisp”)

Quacking

Raspy
Resonant
Resonating
Reverberating
Roaring
Robotic
Rough
Rumbling

Screechy
Shadow voices
Sharp
Shrill
Sibilant (too hissy)
Snap
Soft
Solid
Spongy
Squashed
Squawky
Squeal
Squeezed
Static/Police radio-like

Tapping
Thin
Throaty
Tinkley
Tinny
Tunnel-Like/Metal tunnel
Tweety

Underwater

Vibrating

Warbling
Whiny
Whispery
Whistling
White noise

Zipper-y

Note: The words on the above list were contributed by adult cochlear implant users on the CI Forum and Nucleus Forum and compiled by Camille Jones. This list may be reprinted for further distribution. July 2, 2001; Revised May 2005. The original of this list is located at http://www.cochlearcommunity.com/data/files/E/EllenBR/Say_It_in_CI_-_by_Camille_Jones.pdf.

by Neil Bauman, Ph.D.

A lady declared,

I have the new waterproof cochlear implant, but I am certainly never going to wear it in the pool when I am taking aquasize or swimming. I do not trust the manufacturer’s claims. This cochlear implant is too expensive to take the risk of damaging it from water.

The real question is, “Can you trust the manufacturer’s claims or is it all just advertising hype?” There has been so much hype in advertising that people do well to be wary of the fantastic claims many ads proclaim.

Therefore, in order to know whether it is truth or just hype, and thus whether you can/should trust the manufacturer’s claims that your hearing aid or cochlear implant is waterproof or not, you need to check the basis of their claims. Fortunately, there is an easy way to tell.

All you need to do is check out the ISO (International Standards Organization) rating regarding “waterproofness” of your hearing aids or cochlear implants. If the manufacturer rates your hearing aid or cochlear implant as meeting the ISO IPX7 or IPX8 standard, then yes, you can trust the manufacturers claim that it is waterproof and that you can go swimming with it on knowing that the water will not damage your hearing aid or cochlear implant.

I wrote a bit about this in my May 31, 2011 article: Waterproof Hearing Aids and Cochlear Implants—Here They Come.”  Here is an extract of the above article:

If you are interested in exactly what these standards mean, IP stands for “Ingress Protection”. Ingress Protection is how well your hearing aid (or any other device) keeps foreign “stuff” out. The first number relates to solid particles (e.g. dust). A level 5—like the Aquarius hearing aid and Nucleus 5 cochlear implant—are “protected against dust, limited ingress (no harmful deposit)”, while the highest level for solid particles—6—like the Neptune cochlear implant, is “totally protected against dust”.The second number is the level of protection against water (liquids). Level 7 (Aquarius & Nucleus 5) means “protected against the effect of immersion between 15 cm [6"] and 1 m [3']“, while the highest level—8—(the Neptune) is “protected against long periods of immersion under pressure”.

Note: if the rating only relates to liquid protection then an “X” is substituted for the “dust” rating so you know you are talking about the second number (liquid) and not the first number (dust).

Thus, if you see a device rated as IP6 you know it is a dust rating only. If it is rated as IPX6, you know it is a liquid rating only. If the device is rated for both dust and liquid, it would have numbers in both positions, e.g. IP56 or IP68, etc.

Below I have listed the various ISO IPX (liquid) ratings the manufacturers use, and exactly what these ratings mean.

IPX1 No protection from water.

IPX1 Protected against condensation or dripping water falling vertically.

IPX2 Protected against spraying water when tilted up to 15° vertically.

IPX3 Protected against spraying water when tilted up to 60° vertically.

IPX4 Protected against splashing water from any angle.

IPX5 Protected against low-pressure water stream from any angle.

IPX6 Protected against high-pressure water stream from any angle.

IPX7 Protected against water immersion. Immersion for 30 minutes at a depth of up to 1 meter.

IPX8 Protected against continual water submersion in underwater conditions.

Based on the above, if your hearing aids or cochlear implants have an IPX rating of 6 or less, you do not want to go swimming with them on, but if they have a IPX rating of at least 4, splashing water won’t hurt them. If your hearing aids or cochlear implants have an IPX7 rating, you can freely swim and dive underwater up to 3 feet down and do that for to 30 minutes at a time.

However, if you have truly water proof hearing aids or cochlear implants (IPX8), feel free to go swimming and diving with them on. You can be in the water and swim underwater as long as you want, and there is no restriction on how deep you can dive. Thus you can enjoy a good time in the water and can swim underwater to your heart’s content—and never have to worry about water damaging your expensive hearing aids or cochlear implants.

In case you are interested, here are the IP ratings for solid object (dust) resistance.

IP0 No protection against ingress of objects.

IP1 Protection against ingress of objects greater than 50 mm. (approximately 2 inches).

IP2 Protection against ingress of objects greater than 12.5 mm. (Approximately half an inch).

IP3 protection against ingress of objects greater than 2.5 mm. (Approximately 1/10th of an inch).

IP4 Protection against ingress of objects greater than 1 mm. (Approximately 1/25th of an inch).

IP5 Dust protected. Ingress of dust is not entirely prevented, but it must not enter in sufficient quantity to interfere with the satisfactory operation of the equipment.

IP6 Dust tight. No ingress of dust.

How good are these standards? When Siemens tested their Aquarius hearing aid under rigorous field conditions in extreme conditions of humidity over several months, there were no failures. In fact, their field tests in Queensland, Australia from December 2010 to February 2011, in the heat of the summer included some of the strongest floods and cyclones in Australia’s history. Field study participants also continued to wear the Aquarius during showering and swimming with no failures reported. (1)

Therefore, if your hearing aid or cochlear implant is rated with an IPX8 rating for water resistance and an IP6 rating for dust resistance (in other words, it is rated as IP68), feel free to wear it any time under any conditions. You do not have to worry about dust, water or moisture causing your hearing aid or cochlear implant to fail. That is how good those ratings are.

_______________

(1) Chalupper, Josef. 2011. Beneath the Surface: Understanding the Terms “Water Resistant” and “Waterproof”. The Hearing Review. Vol 18. No 11. October 2011. p. 60.

by Neil Bauman, Ph.D.

Did you ever wish you could wear your hearing aids or cochlear implants so you could hear while swimming or splashing around in the water? How about when you were out boating, or while you were in the shower, or caught out jogging when a sudden deluge soaks you to the skin, or when working outside in the heat with the sweat pouring off you?

In the past, activities such as these often caused problems with hearing aids and cochlear implants that necessitated expensive repairs.

The good news is that this is slowly changing. Today, the trend is to make some hearing aids and cochlear implants waterproof so they can be used under all kinds of conditions without causing any damage to them.

Waterproof hearing aids are not exactly new. Few people know this, but Rion of Japan put out the first waterproof analog hearing aid—called the Dolphin—back around 1996. I wrote about the waterproof Dolphin hearing aid in August, 2008.

Now Siemens is getting into the act with their new Aquarius behind-the-ear hearing aid—the first “waterproof” digital hearing aid. It is rated as IP57— basically waterproof to 3 feet for 30 minutes. You can learn more about the new Aquarius hearing aid, just announced on April 5, 2011, here.

For cochlear implant users, Cochlear Corp. was the first CI manufacturer off the block with their Nucleus 5, a “waterproof” BTE speech processor, released back in September, 2009. It meets the same IP57 ratings for dust and water intrusion as the Aquarius.

Coming in the fall of 2011, assuming all goes well, is Advanced Bionics’ new waterproof speech processor named the “Neptune“, according to their May 24, 2011 presentation.

The Neptune will be a body-worn processor, certified to IP68 standards, in other words, totally waterproof.

If you are interested in exactly what these standards mean, IP stands for “Ingress Protection”. Ingress Protection is how well the hearing aid (or any other device) keeps foreign “stuff” out. The first number relates to solid particles (dust). A level 5—like the Aquarius and Nucleus 5—are “protected against dust, limited ingress (no harmful deposit).” while the highest level for solid particles—6—like the Neptune, is “totally protected against dust”.

The second number is the level of protection against water (liquids). Level 7 (Aquarius & Nucleus 5) means “protected against the effect of immersion between 15 cm [6"] and 1 m [3']“, while the highest level—8—(the Neptune) is “protected against long periods of immersion under pressure”.

Note that Advanced Bionics has specifically tested the Neptune in both salt water and fresh water pools at depths of 3 meters (~10 feet) for 45 minutes. Since people do not typically swim underwater deeper than 10 feet  or so and certainly can’t hold their breaths for 45 minutes, for all practical purposes (unless you are SCUBA diving) you should be able to wear it as long as you want while diving and swimming under water, taking a shower, or any other activity that involves water.

by Neil Bauman, Ph.D.

It’s always hard to separate the truth from the hype on most manufacturer’s websites. This is just as true on the cochlear implant websites. Each site touts their product as being the latest and the greatest and the one that incorporates the latest technology, blah, blah, blah.

Thus it is always nice to have an independent person evaluate the features of the various cochlear implants and give a (reasonably) unbiased opinion of them.

This has been lacking for cochlear implants since Jim Ellis compiled his cochlear implant comparison chart back in 2007. Now, that is changed.

Thanks to Rachel Chaikof, you can print out an up-to-date 13-page comparison of the latest Cochlear (Nucleus), Advanced Bionics and Med-El cochlear implants that she compiled and has posted at Cochlear Implant Online. She apparently updates this report fairly regularly. Her last report was updated on February 15, 2011 so it should be current.

You can view Rachel’s cochlear implant comparison report here then click on the download link.

by Neil Bauman, Ph.D., with Michele and Dawn

People have asked me about cochlear implants (CIs), and want to know whether a CI might be a good choice to help them hear better. They want to know what kind of hearing results they might expect. I can’t think of a better way to explain this, than in the words of two of my friends—Michele, who is considering getting a CI, and Dawn, who now has not just one, but two CIs implanted in her head.

Michele is very hard of hearing (although you’d never know that when you talk to her one-to-one) and is investigating getting a cochlear implant. (Incidentally, Michele is a wonderful example of a hard of hearing person who has learned to successfully thrive in spite of her hearing loss.) She wrote to the SayWhatClub’s CI (cochlear implant) list and explained:

I’ve mentioned before that I am not merely ‘surviving’ with my hearing loss, but that I’ve learned to work my way back up into “thriving” with each new hearing dip, and that is mostly true. My hearing loss doesn’t keep me from the things I want to do. For example, I kayak alone in the northern Minnesota wilderness, I travel alone (even internationally), and never really consider that I can’t do anything I want to do because of my lack of hearing.

However, since my last hearing dip several years ago that took most of my hearing in my right ear, I’ve not been able to participate in some group activities that I enjoy. For example, I have a hard time playing board games with the family when we gather for holidays. I have all the struggles that everyone with a severe/profound hearing loss has in group settings, though I’m very good at voicing what I need in these situations. However, when it’s a gathering of other sorts, I’m usually in the dark about the conversations going on around me.

Example: my son’s college soccer coach took the senior players and parents out to dinner this past Friday. We were in a small room at the restaurant where the dinner took place. I was seated at a round table with six other people, and there were several other tables and booths surrounding us. I spent the evening mostly watching what others were saying—trying to keep up, and not doing a very good job of catching what the conversations were about.

Now I’m considering getting a cochlear implant. Can any of you tell me specifically the kinds of situations that you had trouble with before your CI surgery, and how they are different now that you have your CI? I hear many talk of difficult hearing situations even after getting a CI, and I’m wondering about those also. What situations do you still find challenging? Here are some things I’m curious about.

Talking on the phone—do you still need to use CapTel [captioned telephone]? Watching TV—do you still need to use closed captions? Going to the movies—can you watch a movie in a theater without captioning and understand what’s going on? Now that you have a CI, can you follow conversations at gatherings? I want to know the specifics—details and examples.

Dawn, a long-time member of the SayWhatClub’s CI list responded.

My hearing loss was over the course of my lifetime, just as yours was, with significant drops with each of my 3 pregnancies and menopause. I was still working full time, and read lips well enough that many people had no idea how severe my hearing loss was—a 90 to 95 dB loss across the audiogram—basically the same in both ears. Even when wearing my hearing aids, my word recognition scores were only 12% in my right ear, and 30% in my left ear.

One-to-one I did OK, but any social activity where there were multiple people talking, or background noise, I was not able to comprehend speech. Hearing aids made the sounds louder, but they couldn’t help my brain turn it into English that I could understand.

I couldn’t hear at family dinners, or in restaurants. I couldn’t hear anyone who walked up behind me and spoke. I couldn’t hear my name called in the doctor’s office waiting room. In fact, the list of places I couldn’t hear was extensive, while the list of places I could hear was very short!

I had my first implant on my right ear in July 2008. I heard ever so much more clearly with the CI than I did with my hearing aids! Within a month of my activation, I scheduled a second surgery—for a CI in my left ear.

I still don’t feel I hear well on the phone, but it all depends on the speaker and the connection. I can (and do) talk to my kids on my cell phone now. Sometimes it’s crystal clear. Other times it’s gibberish, and I have to tell them to text me.

I can understand the TV now without the captions most of the time, and even have to ask the kids to keep the volume down now! I can understand the radio if there’s not a lot of background noise. I can often understand what’s being said on the loudspeaker in a store, or hear the music they play in the store.

These things were not “instant on” when I was activated. I had to work hard to learn to hear again. I gained these skills as I practiced listening, and my brain learned to use the new sounds my CIs provided.

As soon as they activated my second CI, I could tell the direction from which sound was coming—something I never could do with my hearing aids.

For me, hearing with the CI is a much more natural experience—not the painful and annoying way my hearing aids amplified sounds! With my hearing aids, I couldn’t wait for the end of the work day to take them off. I always had a headache because of how loud they were. All this is gone with the change to my cochlear implants. Now, nothing is too loud—no more headaches.

One year after I had my first CI surgery I took sick and spent much time in the hospital and in doctor’s offices several times a week. I almost always went to the doctor’s appointments by myself. I would never have been able to manage those things alone, or with confidence before my CI surgery.

True, it sometimes does take me a minute or two of listening to someone to “tune in” to their voice so I can understand them clearly. Also, occasionally I still have to ask someone to face me when they speak, but through all my medical issues I only had one doctor I absolutely could not understand, and that was because of his strong accent, not because I couldn’t hear his voice!

When there are large groups and a lot of background noise, I still have some issues, but I have been to several large ‘conference’ type events in large meeting halls, and understood every word the speaker said, which would have been impossible before.

Now I not only hear when my car starts, I can also hear when a car is coming up the street. I can also hear when a car starts when I am walking in a parking lot.

What have I heard that has made it all worth it? I heard my now 3-year-old grand daughter snore in the back seat of the car when she was a newborn. I once heard her speaking when her mother said it was gibberish. She was in the car seat saying something over and over, which her Mom said was nothing, but after a moment it was very clear to me she was saying, “Get me outta here!” I hear her squeal in delight when she sees me. I would not have heard those wonderful sounds if it were not for my CIs.

Sure there are some small sounds I might not hear, but they are inconsequential because what I now hear is a gift!

Everyone is different in the amount of sound/clarity they gain with a cochlear implant. Furthermore, everyone is different in the time it takes them to learn to use the sound the CI provides. I feel that I risked little in the tiny bit of residual hearing I gave up in order to gain ever so much more with the CI!

One key point in learning to hear with the CI—you have to wear it for your brain to learn to understand the new sounds you are now hearing. You can’t just put it on for a social occasion once a week/month and expect to hear well. I wear my CIs all day, every day. Even now, two years post activation, I still notice how sounds continue to improve.

A second thing I’d like to mention is that hearing is now my choice—so when the upstairs neighbors are noisy, or if I want to read a book in total peace and quiet, I simply turn off my CI’s and put them away! I don’t do this often because I enjoy being able to hear when someone knocks on my door (and sometimes I enjoy being just a tiny bit nosey).

The above should give you an idea of what I’ve gained from receiving my cochlear implants. My hearing is still not perfect, and it never will be, but wow, what I hear now sure works for me!

Thanks you, Michele and Dawn, for allowing me to use your stories. You are helping many others learn about cochlear implants, and how they can improve a person’s life.

If you are interested in learning more about cochlear implants, consider joining the SayWhatClub’s wonderful CI list. Not only will you find many of the answers you seek, but you will also receive wonderful support and friendship. That’s a combination that’s hard to beat!

To join the SayWhatClub (SWC), click here, then click on the “Joining” button. There it explains about the SWC, and how you can join. When you contact the SWC, a person from the SayWhatClub’s hospitality committee will contact you and guide you through the process. Maybe I’ll see you there. You will be welcome!

by Neil Bauman, Ph.D.

A man wrote:

I read your article ‘Hair cell regeneration—looking beyond the hype’ which was very encouraging. Currently, my hearing has been severe to profound since age 13. I’m 48 now, but I’ve worn a hearing aid since I was three.

I am now in the process of undergoing a cochlear implant. In the meantime, I’m still researching other options to improve my hearing. I’ve heard or read a lot of negative things regarding cochlear implants such as equipment failure, increased tinnitus, loss of residual hearing, expensive, etc.

My doctor is confident I will benefit from the cochlear implant and that it should improve my hearing much better than currently. This is very encouraging. However, something is drawing me to hold off. I’m wondering if there is something better out there. It seems that stem cell therapy sounds more promising. I fear that I will regret having the cochlear implant when I should have been more patient and waited for the stem cell therapy.

I’ve read that other countries are performing clinical trials but none here in the USA—but I’m not sure if these reports are just hype or are real.

Would you care to give me your opinion on stem cell therapy. Perhaps I’m wasting my time thinking about the stem cell therapy?

I have written a couple of articles regarding hair cell regeneration. You mentioned my article “Hair Cell Regeneration”“Looking Beyond the Hype“ (November, 2004). In addition I have written, “Hair Cell Regeneration”“Overcoming the Challenges“ (November, 2004). As you have read, yes, research on hair cell regeneration by using stem cells is progressing, but no, it is not there yet.

There have been a few recent reports floating around the Internet of a college girl, Chloe Sohl, that had stem cell therapy with supposedly spectacular results. Here is one such report, “Stem cell therapy raises hope for autoimmune hearing loss“.

Another of these “reports” paints stem cell therapy as wonderful, and that it is the stodgy FDA that prevents it from happening in the USA right now. This report is entitled “Stem cells for deafness begins human trials? Great news!“.

These articles make it seem like stem cell therapy is already here and is working great. This is just not true. Yes, they are experimenting on people in countries where they don’t have strict medical standards, but the results are not all what they are glowingly painted to be. There are still serious side effects that need to be overcome. Before you get sucked in by all the hype, read the article “Dose of Reality: Beware of Clinics Touting Stem Cell Panaceas“.

So far, I’ve only heard of this one “success” story using stem cells to improve hearing—and the funny thing is that there is no corroborating evidence from any other stem cell researchers supporting this. Thus, I have to think there are numerous issues that are not being told. If it was a true medical breakthrough, I’d have expected lots of attention about this case by the media and other stem cell researchers—but that is singularly lacking. Thus you need to be very cautious at this point.

Personally, I think you’d be wise to not even consider stem cell therapy until it is approved by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) here in the USA. When that happens, you can be more confident that it will be a good option for you.

As I have pointed out, using stem cell therapy safely to restore hearing is still likely 20 years (more or less) away. It is not imminent at this point.

For a more realistic view of where stem cell research is at, read my recent article, “Hair Cell Research—Some Unexpected Results” (December, 2009).

Furthermore, from everything I’ve read so far, stem cell therapy isn’t the cure for hearing loss that it is made out to be. Yes, hearing gets somewhat better—but nowhere near back to normal. So far they are talking about a 10 to 20 dB improvement (which is definitely a step in the right direction), but you’d still be very hard of hearing. Hopefully, they will find ways to improve on that in the future.

Thus, at present, for example, if you have a profound hearing loss at say 100 dB—you could expect your hearing to improve to maybe 80 dB with stem cell therapy, which would bump you up to the severe hearing loss class. That’s better, but not good.

In contrast, with today’s cochlear implant (CI) technology, you could expect your hearing to improve all the way up to 20 to 30 dB. That’s in the normal range, and that’s really good!

Thus the CI is still the only real option you have today. True, you will find a few people have problems with their CIs, but the vast majority say that in spite of any problems, if they had it to do over again, they would do it again in a heartbeat. That’s how satisfied they are with their cochlear implants. Something like 98% or more report “success” with their CIs—which is a pretty good success rate.

Based on my knowledge of the results of hundreds and hundreds of people I know that have received CIs, I agree with your doctor. You do have a good chance of getting more/better hearing than you have now. It is probably well worth the risk.

Although stem cell therapy sounds promising, this technology is not ready for the big time. There are still far too many unknowns, whereas the CI technology is proven to work.

Since you are worried that stem cell therapy may help you in the future, here’s one solution for you to consider. Why not have a CI in your worse ear now, and wear your hearing aid in your better ear. Then, if and when stem cell therapy has been proven, and approved by the FDA, you could have it done in your better ear and still wear the CI in your worse ear.

That way you could get the best of both worlds—be able to hear better now, and possibly hear much better later.

by Neil Bauman, Ph.D.

A man asked:

Which is better, hearing aids or cochlear implants?

The true answer is “It depends.” You see, it’s not hearing aids or cochlear implants, rather its typically hearing aids first and then, when your hearing aids no longer significantly help you hear, its time to see about getting cochlear implants.

If hearing aids can significantly help you, you are typically not eligible for cochlear implants. However, when your hearing aids no longer significantly help you, its time for you to investigate getting cochlear implants.

To be eligible for cochlear implants, as a rule of thumb (and the rules keep changing), the hearing in your better ear has to be severe or profound, your word recognition has to be under 40% and hearing aids cannot significantly help you.

Incidentally, some new research has revealed that getting a cochlear implant in your worse ear and wearing a hearing aid in your better ear can produce better directionality of sound, better understanding of music and speech and more natural sounds than getting two cochlear implants—at least in some people. Therefore, the answer to your question may be—get one of each if you are eligible.

by Neil Bauman, Ph.D.

A concerned mother wrote:

I have a daughter who was born with congenital CMV [Cytomegalovirus], and she experienced a progressive hearing loss. She was fitted with hearing aids at 13 months, and she has had them for two months. It is great to hear her making more sounds and responding to more sounds. I am encouraged by her progress, but I am also wondering how much benefit she can get with her hearing aids versus what a cochlear implant could offer. I have difficulty trusting that my daughter’s hearing aids are giving her enough sound information! (And of course she can’t tell us!) Any input would be greatly appreciated.

Actually, your daughter is telling you that her hearing aids are working for her by paying attention when you talk, and is now talking herself. These are both good signs.

Hearing aids aren’t perfect by any means, but you typically can’t get a cochlear implant until you can no longer receive much/any benefit from wearing hearing aids. Therefore, your daughter may not be a candidate for a cochlear implant at this point.

If your daughter is progressing normally for her age, then I’d think the hearing aids are doing an adequate job. However, if she is way behind, then by all means have her evaluated for a cochlear implant. (They won’t give her a cochlear implant if she does not meet their criteria. Therefore, if you are really wondering, you could have her evaluated for a cochlear implant now—then you’d know for sure.)

by Neil Bauman, Ph.D.

A lady wrote:

I have bi-lateral Meniere’s and was recently approved as a candidate for a cochlear implant. Your article “Which is the Best Cochlear Implant?” published December 6, 2007 mentions one surgeon in Baltimore as being “one of the top rated CI surgeons anywhere”. Could you tell me how us non-medical people can find a list or ranking of CI Surgeons? What was your source that told you Dr. Niparko was top rated? A medical journal? A magazine article? I’d love to see the source so I could find a top rated CI surgeon near me.

As far as I know, there is no list ranking cochlear implant surgeons as such. What you need to do is “listen around” and see who’s name comes up the most often in relation to cochlear implant surgery; who is thought of most highly; who has a particularly good success ratio with few complications; who has done hundreds or thousands of CI surgeries; etc.

When you do this you’ll hear names like John Niparko and other good CI surgeons. Those are the ones you want to go to.

One way to “listen around” is to join on-line groups specializing in cochlear implants such as the SayWhatClub‘s CI list (click the button on “Joining”) and ask the people there which surgeon they had, and who they recommend in their area. You’ll learn a lot that way.

 by Neil Bauman, Ph.D.

Advanced Bionics produces their “Bionic Buddy” calendar each year. Their website says,

Advanced Bionics has a longstanding tradition of creating a fun and inspiring calendar each year, presenting Bionic Buddy and highlighting children with cochlear implants. The 2009 Bionic Buddy Calendar is a wonderful opportunity to showcase our pediatric recipients and what they are able to hear with their cochlear implants. Parents, family members and friends appreciate being able to show off their own kids and school staff welcome the chance to show other kids that they’re not alone!

Each month it shows color pictures of 21 children with cochlear implants, and showcases another one.

To get Advanced Bionics (www.bionicear.com) “Bionic Buddy” calendar which is for kids and parents of kids with cochlear implants, click the above link . There is no charge.