Cochlear implants were first approved by the FDA in the 1980s. As of 2018, about 60,000 adults and 40,000 children in the United States have received them. You may qualify for cochlear implants if you have severe hearing loss and if other methods, such as hearing aids, haven’t worked for you.
- Your ear, nose and throat (ENT) doctor
- A surgeon
- A speech pathologist
- A counselor
The process can be intensive, and it’s usually not done unless you’ve tried every other treatment. But for those who need them, cochlear implants change the quality of your life for the better. Your specialist is your go-to professional for more information about cochlear implants. Schedule an appointment to talk to an expert to decide if they’re right for you.
How Do Cochlear Implants Work?
Cochlear implants work in a completely different way than hearing aids. Whereas hearing aids just make sounds louder, cochlear implants take sound signals from the environment and send them directly to your auditory nerve. This allows sounds to skip right past your cochlea, which may be damaged if you have serious hearing loss.
The cochlea is in your inner ear, past the ear drum. This part of the ear works to change sounds into electrical signals that tell the brain what you’re hearing. With cochlear implants, this work is done by a small device instead of your own cochlea. The device has four parts:
- A microphone that takes in sounds
- A processor that arranges speech sounds
- A transmitter that receives those sounds and converts them into electrical signals
- An electrode array, which sends the signals to different parts of the auditory nerve
The Cochlear Implant Process
The first part of the process involves consultation, during which you typically go through several screening processes, such as a:
- Inner ear exam
- Speech test
- Hearing test
- Balance test
- MRI or CT scan
- Psychological evaluation