When hearing aids are not enough

My hearing aids don’t help – What can I do?

When your hearing aids are no longer providing adequate amplification or they are providing poor clarity of sound, the first step is to revisit your audiologist for retuning of the hearing aids.

If the hearing aids have been optimally tuned and they are still no longer working adequately for you, your next step is to consider implantable hearing aid devices.

It has been estimated that 94 percent of potential hearing aid implant candidates do not consider or have not even heard of other hearing options when they are unhappy with their hearing aids! Using Australian Bureau of Statistics figures, more than 182,000 Australian adults have hearing aids that are not working well for them and may be considered hearing aid implant candidates.

What can I do next?

Step 1: Is your hearing bad enough to consider a hearing implant?

Call Northside Audiology on (02) 9419 6999 to make an appointment with one of our friendly implant audiologists for an extensive audiology implant evaluation. This is a sophisticated hearing assessment that is painless and takes approximately two hours.

During your evaluation, the implant audiologist will assess your hearing and determine if you are a candidate for a hearing implant; and they can suggest the best type of hearing implant for you. Our implant audiologists will offer you an information pack to take home and discuss with your family. To receive a Medicare rebate for the implant hearing assessment, you will require a referral from your GP, ENT surgeon, or hearing aid audiologist.

Step 2 – Can my ears accept a hearing implant?

If you are interested in pursuing a Cochlear or other hearing aid implant, then Northside Audiology will organise for you to see one of our implant doctors. Before your visit to the implant doctor, we will refer you for CT and MRI imaging; the scans of your inner ear are then to be taken along to your appointment.

Your hearing implant doctor will undertake an ear assessment involving a history of your past ear health; careful microscopic examination of the ears to ensure that there are no other ear problems; and finally a review of the CT and MRI scans. Your surgeon will also assess your general fitness for surgery.

Step 3 – What will the team decide?

All modern implantable hearing units have a team-based approach to assessing and managing the hearing implant candidate. Effective communication between each member of the implant team achieves the best outcome.

At Northside Audiology we believe in this holistic and comprehensive approach to your ear health. Our whole team meets regularly to evaluate potential candidates; and to discuss upcoming implant surgery, post-implant patient outcomes and how our cochlear implant research (www.deafnessresearch.org.au) is progressing.If our team determines that you are a potential candidate, our implant coordinator, Jo, will contact you. The surgical date for implantation is also set at that time.