Dear Auntie Tina
Any ideas for my 5 year old grandson who now has to wear spectacles. We have been to an optician to choose frame and arms are all too thick to fit behind ear with cochlear. Anyone else had similar problem?
re ryan carstairs age 5
Hi Ryan and Granddad,
I wear glasses and a cochlear implant. I’m very lucky as my pair have thin arms anyway, so when I got my cochlear implant, I could still wear my glasses – see the photo below. I got mine from Specsavers where they have some with thin arms – check out Donald7 in the children’s range. D&A have also got some thin armed glasses, there are some very cute ones at Vision Express, Boots are convenient, and it’s worth checking out the smaller independent opticians.
Ask the optician to make sure the glasses fit comfortably alongside the implant processor.
Alternatively, Ryan could wear a kinder clip from Advanced Bionics, a BabyBTE from MedEl, or LiteWear from Cochlear. All these enable a child to wear the cochlear implant on their clothing, so there is nothing on the ear.
I look so I can hear.... 
Which CI processor does Ryan have? Harmony? Opus1? Opus2? Freedom? Nucleus 5?
The answer will vary, depending on the processor used.
dan, sounds like its AB, possibly harmoney, because of the kinder clip.
I have a similar problem and my ear often hurts from having both specs and processor stuff behind. When it does hurt I use an ear gear cover – which stops the skin getting sore. It does mean greater thickness behind the ear but I can clip the processor to my clothes so if it does get knocked off it doesn’t go far.
They do have a design that attached to the specs arm itself
There are spec designs where the arm goes straight back and not around the ear but they may be for adults only
eargear make something for people who wear glasses. : http://gearforears.com/images/EarGearSizing_web.pdf
i never had problems with it. i guess its because i only wear it when im driving at night or watching tv.
is the eyeglasses tight? if it is, go back and have them loosen it!
http://www.gearforears.com/images/Ear_Gear_Catalogue_Retail_USD.pdf <—here's a better link for ear gear for glasses wearer.
Tina, the arms (or legs) of my glasses are very similar to yours (narrow). The end or foot of one rests squarely on the incision scar. I had a sore spot developing there when wearing the Harmony. My “cure” was to heat the foot up with hot water and carefully bend the foot up a little (doesn’t take much). Now the foot doesn’t rest on the incision scar. The initial bend point still rests on the top of my ear so everything else remains the same.
We encountered a similar difficulty with my son, and we 1) ordered wire framed glasses, which fall apart frequently in the not so gentle care of a small boy, but ARE thin, 2) the optical shop snipped off the ends of the earpieces and glued on rubbery hooks which curve snugly around behind his ears, and 3) carefully ground down the portion of this hook right at the point where the earhook competes for space with the glasses, to avoid as much as possible the glasses pushing the implant off the ear. Because of the frailty of wire-rim glasses, this is not an ideal option for a small rowdy boy, but it works most of the time. Good luck!
I’m having problems with the arms of the glasses hurting behind my ear from the cochleae implant . No matter what I do I can not get the arms of the glasses to fit comfortable . I also got the thinner frames to . But I have the kanso . Any ideas of what’s to do ..
Hi Karen
Have you thought about contact lenses? Another option is to get a very soft plaster called moleskin which you can buy in pharmacies. It may help to try out different glasses frames.