It is important to discuss medical treatment options with your ear doctor before seeking technology treatment options. The technological options range from very simple to very sophisticated digital hearing aids, as well as cochlear implants.
The most commonly recommended treatment to improve hearing sensitivity is a hearing aid. A hearing aid amplifies sound or more simply, makes sound louder. By amplifying sound, any remaining, healthy sensory cells in the ear are stimulated to transmit sound information to the auditory nerve and brain.
Hearing aids come in all different sizes, types, and capabilities. The types of hearing aids that are suited for your specific hearing loss are best determined by hearing professionals. Healthcare plans do not typically cover the cost of hearing aids.
Hearing aids are most effective for mild to moderate hearing loss. The greater the hearing loss, the more variable the benefits are from hearing aids. Making sound louder cannot always overcome the damage or loss to sensory cells in the inner ear, which means that sounds and speech may be detected but not understood or not detected at all even with powerful hearing aids. Therefore, adults and children with severe to profound hearing losses turn to cochlear implants.
For adults and children with severe to profound sensorineural hearing losses, hearing aids are often not able to improve speech understanding. While very powerful hearing aids exist today, they may not improve hearing if there are too few or no remaining sensory cells to stimulate. Therefore, the sound information cannot be properly delivered to the brain. For these persons, a cochlear implant, or “bionic ear,” may be recommended.
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Cochlear implants attempt to restore hearing to people with severe to profound hearing loss by delivering stimulation directly to the hearing nerve, bypassing the damaged structures of the inner ear. Cochlear implants are prosthetic devices with internal components that are surgically placed and external components that require fitting and programming. Cochlear implants are considered the only medical treatment for severe to profound hearing loss.
Hearing aids acoustically amplify sound and rely on the responsiveness of healthy, inner ear sensory cells to receive that sound and send the message to the brain. In people with severe to profound sensorineural hearing loss, the inner ear sensory cells are lost or damaged to the degree that a hearing aid is no longer beneficial, for understanding speech or hearing sounds.
A cochlear implant, however, bypasses the missing or damaged sensory cells and stimulates the hearing nerve directly by converting acoustic sounds into an electrical pattern, which is then sent to the brain and interpreted as sound.
Next: How a Cochlear Implant Works>>
