If you’ve got a hearing loss that is serious enough that you still can’t understand speech with the best hearing aids and assistive technology, then cochlear implants can often provide better hearing. Hearing aids amplify sounds and use the ear’s normal acoustical path to allow you to hear better. Cochlear implants are surgically implanted and electrically stimulate the cochlea to cause you to hear sounds.

Before you can get a cochlear implant, a qualified ear, nose and throat doctor and audiologist would have to evaluate your candidacy. You’ll need good information to make a good decision.

There’s a lot of information about cochlear implants available on the Internet and in books and magazines that you can check into. You may have seen one of the several movies that play up the controversial aspects of cochlear implants.

But if you’ve ever considered a cochlear implant or if you know someone who might be interested, there’s an opportunity coming up in Wake County this fall that you won’t want to miss.

Hearing Loss Association of Wake County is sponsoring a seminar on cochlear implants with a special consumer focus. This seminar is free and open to the public. Whether you are a person considering a cochlear implant, a hearing loss professional, or just interested in hearing loss, this seminar is for you, your family and friends.

The seminar is being held Saturday, Sept. 13, from 2-4 p.m. at Trinity Baptist Church, Fellowship Hall, 4815 Six Forks Road in Raleigh.

At this seminar, you’ll meet a panel of cochlear implant users who will share their personal experiences with the qualification, implantation, mapping, and aural rehabilitation phases of their return to hearing.

Can’t hear well? No problem. If you wear hearing aids with telecoils in them, you can listen to what’s being said using our assistive listening (loop) system. Even if you can’t hear at all, the entire meeting will be captioned, so you can read what is being said even if you can’t hear well. ASL interpreters are also planned.

It will not be a sales pitch, nor will it focus on any of the three particular brands of cochlear implants, but you’ll meet and can talk with cochlear implant recipients who were deaf (or nearly so) and are now able to hear again. This kind of exposure can give you important, first-hand information that would be hard to get from books, magazines, movies, the Internet, or even from your hearing health professional’s office.

Hearing Loss Association of Wake County is a local chapter of Hearing Loss Association of America. We are volunteers with all levels of hearing loss sharing our experience and knowledge to help anyone interested in hearing loss. While this seminar is focused on cochlear implants, our group meets throughout the year and addresses topics of interest to people interested in any level of hearing loss. All meetings are open to the public.

If you have a hearing loss, learning how to make the most of your hearing is crucial to your friends, your employers, your family and to you.

For more information about this cochlear implant seminar or about Hearing Loss Association of Wake County, call Janet at 858-1606 or e-mail Steve at steve.barber@earthlink.net. Or visit nchearingloss.org.