Counseling Hearing Aid Users
When they were first introduced, CIs were only considered for patients with bilateral profound sensorineural hearing loss who scored 0% on open-set tests of sentence recognition, making it easy for clinicians to identify and refer potential candidates for a CI. These patients were often highly motivated to consider a CI as it was the only option available for them to obtain access to hearing.
Over the years, FDA-approved indications for CIs have expanded as the benefits of this technology have become proven across the age range. Such indications typically include statements regarding speech recognition with appropriate hearing aids as well as statements regarding the audiometric configurations that typical candidates should demonstrate. FDA-approved indications can be confusing, however, as they vary depending on the device manufacturer and the make and model of the electrode array.
