Can A Hearing Aid Damage Your Hearing?
February 11, 2020What Is the Difference Between a Cochlear Implant and a Bone Anchored Hearing System?
April 12, 2020Hearing aids are designed to help individuals with mild to severe hearing loss. Unfortunately, hearing aids are not an option for individuals who have profound, severe hearing loss. Severe hearing loss requires a more advanced technology such as Cochlear implants, which are a great option for individuals of all ages with advanced hearing loss.
What Is a Cochlear Implant?
Cochlear Implant is the process of surgically implanting a device that will hear sound waves within the ear. Cochlear Implants can help individuals who have advanced hearing loss. They can provide lifelong assistance in not only hearing the sounds but also to understand what those sounds mean. With the proper use of Cochlear Implants, these sound signals can be passed along to the brain.
The purpose of the Cochlear Implant is to improve the life of the individual. As technology continues to evolve, many people can have a better life and a brighter future.
How do they work?
Hearing loss happens when the hair cells are damaged and can not detect sounds. Cochlear implants can avoid the damaged cells and sends electric signals to the brain, where they are translated as sound.
The two main functions of cochlear implants are to detect sound and send them to the internal implant. A microphone for the implant makes a connection with the brain. Once the brain makes the connection, the audio signals are sent from the head to the brain where the brain hears them. The right implant can allow an individual to hear better. The person can understand speech in a very different way.
Types of Cochlear Implants
The two kinds of implants available are the implant-to-bone or implant-to- middle ear and the implant-to-inferior ossicles. The differences in the implant are as follows:
1. The bone-to-bone implant can be placed in the bones around the outside of the ear.
2. The implant-to-middle-ear implant is placed inside the ear.
3. The implant-to-inferior ossicles, the inner ear is removed to allow the patient to have the implant inside the ear.
The Longevity of Cochlear Implant
There are many factors involved in the longevity of the Cochlear implant.
1. The first thing is the quality of the implant material used to make the device. The better the quality of the device, the longer it will last.
2. The frequency of the hearing loss. If the frequency of the hearing loss is of low enough level then it will not affect the device’s durability. The device will also work with other frequencies of source levels.
3. The longevity of the device will also depend on the type of cochlear implant. Some implants are permanent, others can be replaced by another device.
Cochlear Implant is surgically implanted to last a lifetime. However, there are scenarios where the equipment fails and must be replaced. Also, as the technology for external processing continues to evolve, there will be a need to update the internal technology to be compatible with external technology.