Hearing implants, also called cochlear implants are electronic devices that are surgically implanted in the cochlea of patients suffering from severe hearing loss, but who still have functional auditory nerves. While hearing aids serve as signal amplifiers, hearing implants work by generating an electric field that stimulates the auditory nerves each time the external microphone detects sounds, bypassing the damaged segments of the ear. The cochlear implant consists of two parts: the stimulator and receiver part which is implanted behind the ear, under the skin, and the microphone and transmitter part which attaches magnetically on the scalp, over the receiver. As there are no wires between the inner and outer parts of a hearing implant, the risks of getting infections are reduced.
With hearing implants, people learn to associate various signals with sounds they used to know from the time when they were hearing fine. Hearing through such an implant is different from the natural way humans hear, therefore a period of therapy and accommodation with the device is required. Another type of hearing implants are middle ear implants, which convert sounds into mechanical vibrations, thus stimulating the middle ear bones and making hearing possible. Such hearing implants are suitable for treating mild to severe sensorineural, conductive and mixed hearing loss. The first condition for somebody to get such an implant is to be healthy enough to withstand surgery with general anesthesia.
In order to benefit from hearing implants, a patient will have to go through a thorough medical assessment. Usually, this happens only after a certain period of time of wearing hearing aids, when there’s no other solution for restoring the hearing function.
As hearing implants are expensive, insurance would cover only a part of these costs, the patients being required either to bring in their own savings or to find funding elsewhere for their surgery.