There are circumstances where a cochlear implant is helpful but unfortunately not funded by the NHS, such as Single Sided Deafness or Bilateral Implantation in Adults.
Bilateral Implantation in Adults
It is natural to listen with two ears, and the information from each ear provides a three-dimensional representation of the sound world. Hearing sounds in two ears (bilateral hearing), can help us to hear where people are talking from or where vehicles are approaching from (spatial hearing). Restoring bilateral hearing with a hearing aid or cochlear implant can also provide better understanding of speech in noisy environments, and for many with hearing loss this enables effective employment and an active social life.
There is evidence that bilateral (both left and right) cochlear implants can improve hearing in these ways, providing spatial hearing and improved understanding of speech in the presence of background noise.
Within the UK National Health Service, patients with severe-profound hearing loss in both ears only receive a cochlear implant in one ear, unless they are under 18 years old or registered blind, in which case they are given bilateral implants.
It is possible to have bilateral cochlear implants inserted at the same operation, and this is routine in children in the UK. Alternatively, some people have a second cochlear implant inserted after living with a single implant for a while.
Private cochlear implants can provide the profoundly deaf with either simultaneous bilateral hearing restoration or staged additional benefit over NHS single-side implantation.
Single sided deafness
Single sided deafness is the complete loss of hearing in one ear, which often occurs suddenly and results in a reduced ability to understand speech where there are multiple people speaking or there is background noise, and the loss of any ability to determine the direction that sound is coming from. This has a big impact on quality of life in terms of work, education, and importantly, psychological and social wellbeing.
While some patients choose to have no intervention, treatments for single sided deafness include contralateral routing of sound (CROS) hearing aids, where a hearing aid on the deaf side gathers the sound and sends the signal wirelessly to a hearing aid receiver in the good ear, or a bone conduction hearing implant (BCHI), where the sound is sent by vibrations through the skull from the deaf side to the good ear.
Cochlear implants are the only option that can allow the deaf ear to hear again and potentially restore the ability to use both ears together to hear better in noise, and to determine direction of sound.
There is growing evidence from clinical trials that cochlear implants result in a greater improvement in quality of life as compared to CROS or BCHIs in both adults and children. While cochlear implants in single sided deafness are routinely available in other European countries and North America, they are currently not available through the NHS. At Cambridge Hearing and Balance, we are pleased to be able to offer you the option of a cochlear implant for single sided deafness as a private patient and restore hearing in your deaf ear.
