Facts About Cochlear Implants

Over the past several decades, considerable strides have been made to help the deaf and severely hard of hearing. One of these ways is through the introduction of cochlear implants. The United States Food and Drug Administration (FDA) reports that in 2006, over 112,000 people across the globe had received cochlear implants. That number is now over150,000 people who have completely different lives because of this new technology.

Instructions

• 1

  Understand the difference between a hearing aid and the cochlear implant. Hearing aids amplify or increase sounds, so the damaged ears can hear them. Cochlear implants go around damaged parts of the ear that are incapable of hearing and instead directly stimulate the auditory nerve. Then, the signals that the implant sends travel from the auditory nerve to the brain. The brain deciphers these signals as sound. Although people with cochlear implants have to relearn the process of hearing, they can recognize alarm signals, understand a variety of environmental sounds and, sometimes for the first time ever, converse with a friend or talk on the phone.

• 2

  Learn the different parts of a cochlear implant. These are the microphone, which collects sound from the environment; a speech processor, which chooses and orders the microphone's sounds; a transmitter and receiver/stimulator, which take the signals from the processor and change them into electric impulses; and an electrode array, or a collection of electrodes that put together all the impulses from the stimulator and transmit them to various areas of the auditory nerve.

• 3

  Recognize that unfortunately not everyone can be helped with a cochlear implant. In the first case, a person's hearing loss has to be bilateral, or in both ears, and profound. The definition of profound deafness is a hearing loss of at least 90 decibels. The degree of hearing loss is determined by measuring hearing threshold, or the levels in decibels (dB) at which a signal is just about heard. The louder that sounds have to be made to be heard, the greater the degree of hearing loss. Second, the person has to recognize 30 percent of sentences correctly or less even under best conditions. Children who are at least two years old who have profound sensorineural loss in both of their ears are also candidates for cochlear implantation.

• 4

  Understand how the ear and hearing works. The cochlea is a very small structure in the ear that is shaped like a snail. It is the most important part of the hearing process and rests in the inner ear. When someone has cochlear damage, it means that part or all of the inner ear is injured and hearing loss is permanent. This is called sensorineural hearing loss. This damage can be caused by illness, loud noises, strong antibiotics, tumors or natural aging.