Can hearing aids help AN patients or not ?? Im confused....

[tatianne]

My neurotologist told me that if and when i loose my hearing in my AN ear a hearing aid will not help me....I was shocked, I thought that there was something out there to help give us a little help with the hearing loss...
Is this true, nothing ??

Tks

[krbonner]

Traditional hearing aids won't really work.  They generally amplify the sound waves, but assume you have good working parts inside the ear.  If your acoustic nerve isn't functioning (either from the stress of the tumor or from being removed by surgery), there's no way to get the sound waves from your ear canal into your brain regardless of how loud they are!   

But the hearing aids that use the bones of your skull to transmit sound to your good ear can help (baha, transear).  There are also cros type aids that use radio waves (I think?) to take sound input from the AN ear and transmit it to a receiver in your good ear.  None of these can restore hearing to pre-AN levels, but they can help.

Personally, I have a TransEar and find that it does help.  I'm not always conscious that it's working, but I notice it's absence now that I'm used to it.

Katie

[leapyrtwins]

Tatianne -

if you lose hearing in your AN ear, nothing will bring it back.  However, as Katie said, there are some very good options out there - specifically TransEar and BAHA.  A lot of us on this forum have one or the other, and while it's not like being able to hear again, IMO it's better than being SSD. 

That said, there are also plenty of forum members who have adjusted just fine to being SSD who don't plan on getting a TransEar or a BAHA.  It's kind of like AN treatment - a personal choice. 

Jan

[LADavid]

Tatianne

I can only add to what Katie and Jan said.  I wear a hearing aid in my good ear.  Just for the sake of experiment I put it in my AN ear.  Nada.  I do find that the sound amplification in my good ear helps to compensate for the loss in my AN ear -- but I am also about 50% deaf in my good ear so it is essential for me just to hear anything.  Eventually, I will be getting a CROS -- once I get through all the post AN stuff.

David

[dpetty]

Just adding to that SSD is a real pain especially if you have to interact with alot of people, I myself have been SSD now for over 6 yrs and I went with the BAHA unit.

David

[Boppie]

A bone conduction aid will definitely give you some help with SSD.  I am talking about BAHA and TransEar.  Some AN patients use a CROS aid.  Google this one.

[leapyrtwins]

Tatianne -

forgot to say that if you want more information about the BAHA or the TransEar just "search" the forum.  There are lots of posts regarding both. 

Also, if you want personal input on the BAHA, I'd be more than happy to give you my 2 cents worth Just PM me.

I had my BAHA surgery on 3/4/08 so I can tell you all about that if you want.  I can't give you any feedback yet on how it's helping me hear because I don't get my processor until 6/4/08, but there are lots of others who have their processors - Lori, Ellis, and Joef come to mind - and I'm sure they'd be glad to help you.

Jan