Cochlear Implants: Advanced Hearing Solutions

Cochlear implants are a well-established, FDA-approved medical treatment option designed to replace the function of your inner ear (cochlea) and mimic natural hearing. They use electrical impulses to transmit sound to the inner ear and on to the hearing nerve and which, in turn, your brain converts to sound. Cochlear implants contain an external processor and an internal implant.

Though your hearing loss will not cured by cochlear implants, they work by restoring your access to sound. This is significantly different to the amplification method of regular hearing aids.

Although cochlear implants have been available since the 1970s, ever improving technology makes them a great choice if you are experiencing hearing difficulties that regular hearing aids can't to fix.

Because cochlear implants involve a surgical procedure, whether they will be appropriate for you is determined by both your audiologist as well as the surgeon. Not everyone is automatically suitable for cochlear implants, and specific candidacy requirements exist that include, hearing loss, the ability to understand words, performance with hearing aid use as well as medical history.

In short, cochlear implants are intended for patients with moderate to profound hearing loss when hearing aids are not sufficient to improve word understanding to certain levels.

A cochlear hearing evaluation consists of general hearing testing in a sound booth with pure tone detection and word understanding. In addition a thorough case history review is done.

Your hearing care provider will answer any questions you may have, to make sure you are fully aware of what might be involved for you.

Your cochlear implants are typically activated around 4 weeks after surgery. At this point your devices will be programmed by our experts and sounds, both loud and soft, will be introduced. This helps the brain to start to recognize more and more of the sounds going on around you and, over the next few weeks or months, your ability to determine specific sounds will increase.

Throughout the process, your provider will check and re-program the implants as required, until you have the most optimal experience possible.

Many insurance plans cover cochlear implants, including Medicare.

We do advise that you check your insurance plan before attending your appointment, but your hearing care expert at All About Hearing will be ready to assist you with any questions you may have.