Cochlear implant vs hearing aid — when do you switch?

Signs that hearing aid alone may not be enough: • Repeatedly asking people to repeat • Difficulty understanding family members in quiet rooms • Heavy reliance on lip-reading or captions • Avoiding phone calls, social gatherings • Reduced confidence at work or in public A professional CI evaluation includes pure tone audiometry, aided speech tests (e.g. CNC words, AzBio sentences), counselling and imaging. If you struggle at typical aided word/sentence test thresholds despite well-programmed hearing aids, CI candidacy is worth exploring.