If you are considering treating a hearing impairment, it is essential to familiarize yourself with the available devices and their advantages. Two hearing devices on the market today are hearing aids and implants. Although both have significant benefits for the user, their implementation depends on the situation of each one and is based on their specific needs.
- Cochlear implants
Although the most expensive option, implants can transform the user’s quality of life in a very effective way. The main difference between a cochlear implant and a hearing aid is that it requires surgery to implant it under the skin of the person who wears it. It is a synthetic replacement for the damaged parts of the inner ear and a more severe treatment option than a hearing aid. Unfortunately, it also requires a lot of care and can have negative side effects. If the implant sustains any damage, another surgical procedure may also be necessary to repair it. So it is better to choose Digital Hearing Aids.
- Earphones
Compared to a delicate and expensive cochlear implant, a hearing aid is a much simpler care and use-device. They are small devices worn in or around the ear, customized to fit the user’s hearing needs. Digital hearing aids implant is a high-tech device that converts sound waves into electrical signals; these are separated, analyzed and played back to the user at the correct volume and pitch. All of this happens instantly and is also customizable to ensure each user hears what is most important to them. They can offer improved hearing in any situation and are highly adaptable to each person’s needs.
- Price and Functionality
For starters, hearing aids are much less expensive than a cochlear implant. A hearing aid is more resistant to shock and daily contact, allowing users to practice sports, water sports, or other outdoor activities. A cochlear implant forces the user to be very careful when doing water or contact sports, even if they are waterproof. However, A cochlear implant can affect MRIs and cause paralysis, dizziness and even more significant hearing loss. That said, a cochlear implant is often used for more severe cases of hearing loss, while a hearing aid is often used to treat mild to moderate hearing loss.
Cochlear implants for?
The cochlear implant is used in people with severe sensorineural hearing loss. This bypasses the cochlea’s damaged hearing cells and allows sound transmission restoration to the auditory nerve.
When the auditory hair cells in the inner ear (cochlea) die, sensorineural hearing loss occurs, and the cochlear implant can process sound, bypass damaged hearing cells, and transmit sound to the auditory nerve and brain.
Not all cases of hearing loss and deafness are the same. Sometimes hearing aids are insufficient and effective in solving the patient’s severe hearing deficit. One of the options that has the best opinions is the cochlear implant to treat severe deafness.
The cochlear implant is a transducer capable of transforming acoustic signals into electrical signals that function as auditory nerve stimuli. Surgically implanted in people with severe or profound deafness, this tool transmits electrical signals to the cochlea.
It comprises two parts: an internal one ( receiver-stimulator ) and an external one ( microphone ), which are joined by a magnet. The microphone comprises a language processor and an antenna responsible for receiving sounds, and the receiver is implanted in the mastoid bone, whose function is to decode and send signals to the brain.
How does it work?
Before undergoing cochlear implant surgery to cure your profound hearing loss, you should know how this device works. In the process, the microphone is placed close to the ear – usually behind – and picks up the sound, which it then sends to a speech processor. When it is transformed into electrical signals, they are transmitted to the receiver and sent to the inner ear, which then does the same to the brain, but already converted into electrical impulses.
The cochlear implant has meant discovery and progress in the field of hearing, and it is reason to celebrate that there is help to make life easier for people who cannot solve their hearing deficit with a hearing aid.
The distinction between a cochlear implant and a hearing aid
Implantable hearing aids collect, amplify, and transmit sound through the ear canal. It is designed for people with mild to moderate perceptual hearing loss. For people with severe to profound hearing loss, hearing aids are not very powerful. If the hearing damage is severe, amplifying the sound through a hearing aid does not provide adequate benefits.
However, the cochlear implant will overcome this drawback by sending the signal directly to the auditory nerve. Unlike the hearing aid, the cochlear implant avoids the injured areas of the ear. The cochlear implant captures sound, processes it, and electrically stimulates the auditory nerve.
