Cochlear implants are often a next solution for our patients, when their hearing aids are not providing enough assistance. Many people start by wearing two hearing aids. However, as hearing loss progresses, you may need something more. To improve your hearing performance and help you understand more clearly, you may need to consider a solution that helps you hear your best with both ears. For many, a cochlear implant in one ear and a hearing aid in the other can provide a richer more natural hearing experience. This combination is referred to as bimodal hearing.

As a member of the Cochlear Provider Network, we work with local surgeons to assess and treat those who may be candidates for a hearing implant. At Dr. Hecker & Associates, we conduct candidacy evaluations to determine if an implant might be right for you. We also support recipients of cochlear implants by meeting their needs for initial activation, interim programming, troubleshooting, upgrades, and even equipment orientation.

What Is a Cochlear Implant?

A cochlear implant is different from a hearing aid. A hearing aid processes and amplifies sounds so they can be picked up by the hair cells in your cochlea (inner ear). These cells create impulses for the hearing nerves to send to the brain, which interprets the impulses. The more damaged your hair cells, the more processing and amplification is required to successfully hear with a hearing aid.

A cochlear implant, on the other hand, is made up of several components that work together to completely bypass the hair cells — both intact and damaged — to directly stimulate the hearing nerve. Specifically, an external processor picks up sound and creates digital information, which is transmitted wirelessly to the first implant. This implant uses the digital information to create electrical impulses that travel to the cochlea, where the second implant — a bundle of electrodes — distributes the impulses along the hearing nerve. The impulses continue on to the brain to be interpreted.

Who Can Get a Cochlear Implant?

Cochlear implants are for those who get no or almost no benefit from hearing aids. Adults and children can safely and successfully benefit from cochlear implants, but there a few things to keep in mind:

  • Cochlear implants don’t restore hearing — they allow the brain to receive and process sounds.
  • The input your brain receives will be different than normal hearing, so you will have to relearn how the new type of input matches up with the sounds you are familiar with.
  • This learning process requires patience. It will take time, but you’ll have a team — an audiologist; speech therapist; and ear, nose, and throat doctor — working with you to ensure you’re as successful as possible.
  • You’ll need to be motivated — the technology does have a learning curve, and your success depends on your efforts in adapting your technology to the important environments in your lifestyle.

Signs that hearing aids may not be providing enough benefit

With hearing aids, do you:

  • Have difficulty hearing conversations, especially with background noise?
  • Often ask people to repeat themselves?
  • Often misunderstand what people say?
  • Have trouble hearing on the telephone?
  • Turn up the volume on the TV louder than others in the room prefer?
  • Feel people often mumble when they talk?
  • Struggle to hear sounds of nature such as birds chirping or rain falling?
  • Find yourself agreeing, smiling or nodding during conversations when you’re not sure what’s been said?
  • Regularly withdraw from conversations because it’s too difficult to hear?
  • Read lips to understand what people are saying?

 

What Are the Different Kinds of Cochlear Implants?

The basics are the same for all cochlear implants — an external processor captures sound, it’s sent digitally to an implant that sends electrical impulses to a second implant in the cochlea, and the impulses are distributed along the hearing nerve.

However, there are different setups for the external portion. Traditionally, the microphone and speech processor look like a behind-the-ear hearing aid. They are connected by a wire to the transmitter, which sits against your scalp and stays in place by way of a magnet in the first implant.

A second type has the microphone, processor, and transmitter all in one unit that sits on the scalp, secured by a magnet, so there’s no behind-the-ear unit or wires.

 

What Brands of Cochlear Implant Do You Offer?

Cochlear

Cochlear is the pioneer of the first commercially available cochlear implant. Their two families of products are the Nucleus® and the Baha®. Cochlear is notable for their off-the-ear sound processor option, which, as mentioned above, has the microphone, processor, and transmitter in one wireless unit that secures to the scalp.

Their Nucleus line includes traditional cochlear implants as well as a Cochlear Hybrid Hearing option, a combination of a cochlear implant and a traditional hearing aid. The hybrid technology, which is only appropriate for certain kinds of hearing loss, leverages the natural hearing you may still have while using cochlear implant technology to bypass damaged areas of the inner ear.

 

Their KansoTM Sound Processor, one of the newest additions to cochlear-implant technology, works in concert with the Nucleus line of implants. The small, button-shaped, off-the-ear processor – designed to treat severe to profound hearing loss – requires no wires, comes in a range of colors, and sits comfortably on the side of the head, where it can be discreetly hidden by hair.

Kanso sound processor

Bone induction cochlear implantTheir Baha line is what’s known as a bone-conduction implant. In some cases, a person with a perfectly healthy cochlea has a hearing loss because of a problem with the outer or middle ear. Rather than using brute force to move sound waves through these problems areas, like a hearing aid, a bone-conduction implant uses bone’s natural ability to transfer vibrations.

The Baha doesn’t transmit electrical impulses to an implant in the cochlea, like a traditional cochlear implant. Rather, the external sound processor sends digital information to the transmitter implant, but the transmitter is secured in the bone just behind your ear, and this transmitter sends vibrations through the bone, past your damaged outer or middle ear, and directly to the healthy inner ear.

Hearing Loss & Bone Conduction Solutions - Fact Sheet

 

How Do I Know if I’m a Good Candidate for Cochlear Implants?

Our Doctors of Audiology can perform an extensive auditory evaluation to determine whether you’re a good candidate. If so, they’ll work in conjunction with an otologist from either Eastern Virginia Medical School (EVMS) or Virginia Commonwealth University (VCU) to determine if you meet certain physical and balance requirements.

Cochlear Implant Fact Sheet - AdultsCochlear Implant Fact Sheet - Children

 

Your Audiologist

Once the procedure is over, our audiologist partners with you through the placement of the technology and all the follow-ups and adjustments. A cochlear implant isn’t just a procedure — it’s a relationship between you and your audiologist. They’ll be on the journey with you, testing and adjusting your technology and encouraging you as you gain new successes in your hearing.

You can learn more about the entire process, from initial evaluation through post-implant follow-up and adjustment, on our Cochlear Implant Process page.

If you might be a good candidate for cochlear implants, contact us today to schedule an evaluation at either our Newport News or Williamsburg office!