Bi-Modal Fitting

In Bi-Modal hearing, one ear should be stimulated with a hearing aid while another ear should be stimulated electrically with the help of a cochlear implant.  Most of the people who are using a cochlear implant processor, experience aidable hearing in the second ear which is non-implanted. If this system is fitted with a hearing aid in the second non-implanted ear, use of bilateral cues, binaural cues, and complementary acoustic cues may increase the overall performance of complementary acoustic cues.

“Bimodal” is the combination of two different kinds of hearing loss solutions- one for each ear. For instance, someone, having a cochlear implant in one ear and a hearing aid in the other ear and a hearing aid in other one is actually hearing biomodally.  If you have hearing loss in contralateral ear, it will no doubt interfere with their hearing. But, it is not severe enough that can demand a cochlear implant.

When Should You Consider Bi-Modal Fitting?

You might be thinking when you should implant (consider)Bi-Modal fitting. In this context, it is important to assert that time of this implementation might be varying from one person to others. According to some people, a late bi-modal stimulation is able to facilitate the adjustment to the cochlear implant.

As per a study, conducted in 2015,( please quote the study )( some studies on bimodal i know are – teresa ching et all -sydney)

There are five reasons why most of the people today tend to receive a single cochlear implant. The reasons are:( not clear what it means ? )If it means why people choose implant only in ONE ear ? then Indian perspective can be different .In INdia money is a BIG factor for unilateral CCHLEA R implant .BUT this point to mention here is not relevant .

Rather we can write 5 good reasons to go for bimodal hearing fitting :

  1. Can achieve hearing from both ears
  2. The contralateral ear nerve is stimulated
  3. Better listening in NOISE
  4. Can localise & lateralize sounds coming from different directions
  5. Can use other ear inspite of not having funds for two implants & these days technology of hearing aids & implants are merging to provide users some REAL benefits.
  • Complicated medical and social situation
  • NO Useable low-frequency hearing
  • No hearing loss in the other ear
  • Observing the progress of the first implant
  • The progressive hearing loss in the contralateral ear

If you are experiencing any of these five points mentioned above, then you must know the possible outcomes:

  • Receiving no implant in the contralateral ear
  • Might be receiving an implant in the upcoming days

A Final Takeaway

If you are familiar with these symptoms, you might be in need of reliable bimodal fittings along with proper medical assessment.

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