What is a cochlear implant?

A cochlear implant is a small electrical device that helps people hear better. For those who are unable to hear well with hearing aids and have significant hearing loss due to inner ear damage, it may be a choice.

The cochlear implant is divided into two parts: one that is surgically inserted under the skin and the other that is positioned externally behind the ear. Parts of an implant include the following:

• A microphone that captures background noise.

• A speech processor, that selects noise coming from several sources and then groups them for detection of microphone.

• A transmitter and receiver/stimulator that receives the speech processor’s signals and then creates an electric impulse.

• An electrode array (collection of electrodes) to receive impulses from the stimulator and route them into auditory nerve locations.

Normal hearing cannot be restored with an implant. Rather, it may help a deaf person understand speech and provide a helpful illustration of noises in the surrounding environment. Learning how to recognize the signals from a cochlear implant as words requires practice and patience. After using a cochlear implant for up to six months, most users experience significant improvements in their ability to understand speech.

How do cochlear implants function?

A hearing aid and a cochlear implant are not the same thing. Hearing aids increase sounds so that deaf ears may hear them. Cochlear implants activate the auditory nerve system directly

without considering damaged parts of the ear. Then auditory nerve transfers these signals to the brain through the implant, and the brain understands these signals as sound. Learning new information or relearning what you’ve already learned is a process that takes time while using a cochlear implant. However, it enables a lot of people to understand speech in conversation or over the phone, identify warning signs, and distinguish other noises in their surroundings.

Who can use cochlear implants?

Cochlear implants can be used to help deaf or extremely hard-of-hearing children and adults hear normally. Globally, approximately 736,900 registered devices had been transplanted as of December 2019.

In the middle of the 1980s, the FDA began to authorize cochlear implants for the treatment of adult hearing loss. The FDA has authorized cochlear implants for use in qualifying kids as early as nine months of age as of 2020. When a child becomes young and is either deaf or extremely hard of hearing, by implementing a cochlear implant, sounds are surrounded at a time when speech and language skills are most likely to develop.

Studies have indicated that children who receive a cochlear implant at a young age and undergo serious therapy thereafter often perform better than their classmates who receive implantation at older ages in terms of speech, hearing, and understanding of sound and music. Research has also demonstrated that early cochlear implant recipients are well-performing, and their development of language skills in regular classroom settings is much better when compared to children with normal hearing.

For this implantation, children as early as 9 months of age are eligible. At the same time, a cochlear implant may be also beneficial to some adults who have lost all or most of their hearing later in life. They get used to identifying the signals from the implant with sounds they can recall, including speech, without the need for visual clues like lip-reading.

What is the procedure for getting a cochlear implant?

To relearn or learn how to hear, along with cochlear implant significant therapy or surgery. Is required. Also, with this equipment, not every user performs at the same level.

Sometimes people may decide not to get a cochlear implant. These reasons may be like any type of surgery or an expensive procedure. So, the decision to get an implant should be made after consulting with medical professionals.  However surgical implantations are nearly always risk-free and available in a cost-effective range at our clinic Kitikar Sound UP, located in Pune.

We have a team of skilled cochlear implant surgeons who understand how to identify sounds produced by an implant. Since practice and time are required for successful implementation of this technique. So, keep patience. Before implantation, all factors must be taken into account by us.