Who will benefit with a hearing aid? 

If you frequently ask people to repeat themselves, have trouble following conversations at party or get complaints about your loud TV, you might be benefited with a hearing aid.

The characteristics that determine hearing aid candidacy can be divided into audiologic factors and motivational factors.  The audiologic factors include the type of hearing loss and the degree of hearing loss.  Motivational factors relate to the patient’s lifestyle and acknowledgement of a hearing problem.

Those patients with intractable conductive hearing loss typically retain good inner ear function.  Most of such conductive hearing losses can be corrected by surgical intervention.  However in cases where surgery is contraindicated or wherein the patient does not desire such surgical intervention, a person with such a hearing loss will also benefit by using a hearing aid.

In sensorineural hearing loss, the condition of the inner ear is highly variable. Therefore, sound-processing capacity is not predictable from a pure tone audiogram.  Two individuals with sensorineural hearing loss and identical pure tone audiograms may have quite different sound processing capabilities, such that one relies heavily on amplification and the other does well without it.  The person with mild to moderate sensorineural hearing loss typically hears the louder portions of speech, such as vowels, but not the voiceless consonants like t, p, k, f, s and ch.  The result is a patient who can hear speech, but not understand it.  The likelihood of benefit from hearing aids is increased if the degree of hearing loss is moderate to severe.  Those with moderate to moderately severe hearing loss need amplification in almost all social skills.  Word recognition is usually lacking in those with profound hearing loss, which substantially reduces the derived benefits of amplification.  Patients with mild hearing loss are more difficult to assess.

Motivation for hearing aid use is influenced by degree to which the individual’s quality of life has been affected by hearing loss. This is referred to as the individual’s hearing handicap.  Denial of a hearing problem reduces motivation, which diminishes chances of a patient using the hearing device.  In children, motivational factors usually play a lesser role in determining candidacy.  With few exceptions, any child with significant long-term hearing loss is a candidate for hearing aids