For people with severe or total hearing loss, a cochlear implant can help make it possible to hear! If regular hearing aids don’t help you at all, you may be a good candidate for a cochlear implant.
A small device is placed under the skin, with electrodes that connect to the cochlea. This is the cochlear implant. You’ll also wear a microphone behind the ear, to pick up sound, and a speech processor that may be worn behind the ear or elsewhere on the body. Here’s how it works: the microphone picks up sound and sends it to the speech processor. The speech processor translates the sound into information the cochlear implant can understand. The implant tells nerves in the ear to send a message to the brain — this message is understood in the brain as sound.
The cochlear implant does the job of the damaged or missing auditory nerve cells that a normal ear uses to hear. Rather than make sound louder (like a hearing aid), a cochlear implant improves how you hear sound. The implants can be programmed according to your specific needs and the degree of your hearing loss.
Risks and complications involved with a cochlear implant include:
- The usual risks of surgery, including infection and difficulties with anesthesia.
- The implant moving out of place — this will require another surgery to move it back.
- The implant not working — possibly due to a manufacturing defect or an injury or problem with the ear.
- Facial twitching or paralysis. This is rare, and rarely permanent when it does occur.
- Possible increased risk of bacterial meningitis. Since the first notification of this link in 2002 (from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration), certain types of implants that were associated with bacterial meningitis are no longer in use. Removing the implant entirely may not lower the risk of meningitis.
To help prevent the risk of bacterial meningitis, make sure your child is up to date on all vaccinations before receiving a cochlear implant. Watch for signs of ear infection (ear pain, fever, reduced appetite) and signs of meningitis (high fever, headache, stiff neck, nausea and/or vomiting, difficulty with bright lights, sleepiness, and/or confusion).