In contrast to persons with bilateral severe-to-profound hearing loss, persons who have only one ear with profound or severe-to-profound hearing loss and the other ear with substantially less hearing loss have not, to date, been considered cochlear implant candidates. This is because it has been assumed they will do well enough with a conventional hearing aid in the better ear. A problem with this assumption is that even with an appropriately fit better ear hearing aid, many of these hearing-impaired individuals still experience significant difficulties in speech understanding in their everyday listening environments, along with significant communication handicaps that interfere with their employment and quality of life.