What is a Cochlear Implant?

A Cochlear Implant opens up a whole new batch of questions. What exactly does a Cochlear implant do? Does it fix his deafness? What does "activated" mean? Will he wear something noticeable?

A little of what we learned....

Ben will always be deaf. The implant is like a more powerful hearing aid, although it is very different from a hearing aid. Instead of simply amplifying sound, it creates signals that the brain interprets as sound, making it ideal for people who have little or no hearing. Cochlear implants use a device called an external speech processor, worn outside the ear, to capture sound and convert the sound into digital signals. Those signals are then sent to a surgically implanted electronic receiver inside the head, which tells the implant to stimulate the electrodes inside the cochlea (inner ear). The brain then recognizes these signals as sound. Those that are qualified for an implant must have a certain degree of hearing loss (meaning "bad") and not get any use out of a hearing aid. I used to see a person with hearing aids and ask myself, "Why don't they just get that surgery done to 'fix' their hearing." I now know that most that wear the hearing aids, get enough sound from them, so that there is no need for an implant. Ben's left ear may be like that.

Normal hearing is about 10-20 decibels. Ben is considered profoundly deaf in the right ear, hearing between 90 and 110 dB (depending on the frequency, meaning high pitch sounds vs. low pitch sounds). He is severe in the left, hearing between 70 and 90 dB.



The Cochlear Implant surgery can only be done after Ben is 12 months old and has worn hearing aids for six months. He has to show no benefit from the aids. We hope he will have good hearing with the aid in the left side, meaning Ben will most likely only qualify for an implant in the right ear. The implant is not simple-- it has an inner device that has to be surgically implanted. He wouldn't hear with just that, he would have to attach the outer device-also called the processor (it is a magnet that attaches to the magnet on the inner device) in order to receive sound. So at night or in water, when we would take the processor off, he wouldn't hear anything.

"Activated" basically means "turned on" or "hooked up". Ben would be activated several weeks after the implant surgery. At that appointment he would receive the processor and will begin hearing in "surround sound!" :)

Here are some pictures for you to see what the implant looks like.



This is what is implanted inside...


This is the speech processor that is seen on the outside...



Isn't technology amazing!