- With Mayo Clinic audiologist
Rene H. Gifford, Ph.D.
Treatments and drugs (2)
- High-frequency hearing loss: Can hearing aids help?
- Cochlear implants: Who are they for?
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Question
Cochlear implants: Who are they for?
I am considering getting hearing aids, but have heard about cochlear implants as an option. Who are they for?
Answer
from Rene H. Gifford, Ph.D.
Cochlear implants — which bypass damaged or nonworking parts of the inner ear — can improve hearing if you have severe to profound hearing loss. A hearing aid amplifies sound and directs it into your ear canal. Cochlear implants, however, are electronic devices that work by converting acoustic sounds into electrical pulses that stimulate the auditory nerve directly. Your auditory nerve carries the signal to your brain, which recognizes the signal as sound.
If your hearing loss is severe enough, you may be a candidate for cochlear implants. Cochlear implant candidates generally report that they have great difficulty understanding speech in everyday listening situations — even with appropriately fitted hearing aids. Cochlear implants cannot restore "normal" hearing. But with communication training and intervention, children as young as 12 months of age, and adults who have lost their hearing later in life, can benefit.
Communication training teaches you how to associate different signals from the cochlear implant with speech and environmental sounds. This process takes time and practice — from a few months to a period of years — and results won't be the same for everyone. For example, some may be able to enjoy music and talk on the telephone while others may not. Children are generally more adaptable and learn more quickly than adults do, so they may achieve the most benefit. In fact, children who get implants before 18 months of age generally receive the greatest benefit.
An audiologist — a professional who specializes in hearing loss and hearing aids — and a medical doctor who specializes in disorders of the ears, nose and throat (ENT) can complete an evaluation to determine if you are a candidate for a cochlear implant. If you are a good candidate for an implant, your audiologist and ENT doctor will discuss the risks and benefits as well as potential costs with you. Cochlear implant surgery, equipment and follow-up can be expensive. Most insurance plans cover cochlear implants if you meet Food and Drug Administration criteria, Medicare criteria or both, although other plans may not.
Next questionHigh-frequency hearing loss: Can hearing aids help?
- Cochlear implants. National Institute of Deafness and Other Communication Disorders. Accessed Dec. 18, 2008.
- Before, during, & after implant surgery. U.S. Food and Drug Administration. Accessed Dec. 18, 2008.
- Gifford RH (expert opinion). Mayo Clinic, Rochester, Minn. Dec. 18, 2008.
- Benefits and risks of cochlear implants. U.S. Food and Drug Administration. Accessed Dec. 19, 2008.
- Nicholas JG, et al. Will they catch up? The role of age at cochlear implantation in the spoken language development of children with severe to profound hearing loss. Journal of Speech, Language, and Hearing Research. 2007;50:1048.
