Hearing Loss Education Center

Connecting people to a world of sound
 
Hearing Loss Education Center
Hearing & Hearing Loss Screening & Testing Treatment with Hearing Aids Advanced Treatments for Hearing Loss What is a Cochlear Implant? How Do Cochlear Implants Work? Candidates for Cochlear Implants The Process of Acquiring a Cochlear Implant Insurance & Reimbursement Daily Life with a Cochlear Implant What is Baha? Communication & Language Choosing the Right Treatment Resources
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The Process of Acquiring a Cochlear Implant

The process of getting a cochlear implant involves activities before, during, and after the actual surgery. In most cases, people get an implant in only one ear, although there are some people who get implants in both ears. To learn more about the cochlear implant experience, request a copy of the Cochlear Implant Education Guide.

Hearing Evaluation from Audiologist or Hearing Specialist

Your first step in this process is having your hearing thoroughly evaluated by an audiologist or hearing specialist. An audiologist holds a Doctoral or Masters Degree in Audiology.  A Hearing Specialist is trained to perform hearing tests and to dispense hearing aids.  If a hearing loss is detected during your evaluation, you will be referred appropriately. If you are interested in having your hearing evaluated by a cochlear implant specialist, visit the Cochlear Americas clinic finder.  

Outpatient surgery

The entire cochlear implant procedure usually takes 1-3 hours. Thousands of cochlear implant surgeries are performed each year. Typically, you will go home later the same day or will be released early the following morning. Your surgeon will discuss the potential risks that may be associated with the procedure. In terms of recovery time, you may find it surprising to learn that most children and adults are able to return to normal activities in less than a week.

The external processor, which is worn on the ear, is typically activated within 2-4 weeks after surgery and sometimes sooner. This delay in activation allows for healing time. Once activated, everyone’s initial experience with a cochlear implant is unique. Most cochlear implant users say that the sound changes over time and gets better every day. Daily practice and listening patience are important to the process. Children who have had little or no hearing prior to their cochlear implant appear to get used to the sound very quickly.

Time to activate the cochlear device

Within a few weeks after the surgery, you will have an appointment with the audiologist to have the device activated. The audiologist will program the device to match your hearing needs. This will likely take more than one session with the audiologist to fine tune the settings.

Some devices offer customizable sound programming

Although not available with every cochlear implant system, some devices offer a range of programmable listening options that can be adjusted to optimize sounds for different listening environments. This way you will be able to change the settings on the external processor to adjust for noisy or quiet environments, even for music. Children might not need more than one program setting at the start, as your child grows up and their needs change you will want to have a system that grows with them.

Ongoing care for you or your child’s lifetime

One concern often heard from parents is what happens after their child’s implant is activated. Important considerations when choosing a cochlear implant system are the technical support available from the manufacturer for their customers; the length and coverage of product warranties available; and the long term reliability of the device. It is important for you to be confident in knowing that you, or your child, will be connected to the hearing world for life. 

Adults

  • Your rehabilitation program will involve developing new listening skills through daily activities. Your speech clinician, or other members of your implant team, will help you come up with helpful techniques which may include:
    • Using your implant system for as many hours a day as possible.
    • Reading aloud to yourself, your family and friends.
    • Listening to books on tape while you read along with a printed copy.
    • Listening to the radio at home and in the car.
  • If you have been without hearing for a long time, you may need an auditory development program. Designed by members of your implant team, your program will:
    • Encourage you to practice recognizing speech and environmental sounds.
    • Develop techniques to use hearing for communication.
    • Help you and your family develop techniques that make communication easier.

Children

  • A good training program is necessary for a child to fully benefit from a cochlear implant. Several options may be available, including auditory-verbal and auditory-oral programs.
  • Any program should include:
    • Getting the child to wear the speech processor whenever they are awake.
    • Providing plans to teachers, therapists, and the family that focus on improving the child’s listening skills using the implant for spoken communication and learning (and reducing forms of visual communication).
    • Listening and speaking skills that are mixed into the child’s daily activities.
    • Motivational support to help maintain the training program. Learning to use a cochlear implant takes time and effort, but the results can be amazing.



  
   

Hearing Loss

For hearing loss, refers to less than average ability to hear and understand sounds due to one or more parts of the hearing system not working properly.

Hearing Loss

For hearing loss, refers to problems hearing in both ears, not just one.

Hearing Loss

For hearing loss, refers to problems hearing in one, but not both ears

Mild Hearing Loss

People with mild hearing loss have some difficulty following speech, mainly in noisy situations; quietest sounds they can hear in their better ear average between 25 and 39 decibels (a standard measure of sound)

Moderate Hearing Loss

People with moderate hearing loss have difficulty following speech without a hearing aid; quietest sounds they can hear in their better ear average between 40 and 69 decibels (a standard measure of sound).

Severe Hearing Loss

People with severe hearing loss get help from powerful hearing aids, but often rely on lip-reading even when using an aid; quietest sounds they can hear in their better ear average between 70 and 89 decibels (a standard measure of sound).

Profound Hearing Loss

People with profound hearing loss mostly rely on lip-reading and/or sign language; the quietest sounds heard in their better ear average from 90 decibels or louder (a standard measure of sound).

Otosclerosis

A disease in which bone grows abnormally in the middle ear preventing structures within the ear from working properly and causing hearing loss.

Cochlea

Part of the ear that contains both the organ of hearing (the cochlea) and the organ of balance (the labyrinth).

Feedback

A high-pitched, sometime painful, whistling sound that occurs when a microphone picks up sound from a nearby speaker and replays it again and again (commonly occurs when a poorly fitting hearing aid earmold allows sound to “leak” from the speaker back into the microphone).

Assisstive Listening Devices

Electronic devices or accessories for hearing aids that provide extra help in specific listening situations (telephone, noisy backgrounds, small or large group settings, etc.).

Sensorineural Hearing Loss

Hearing loss due to failure of the auditory nerve, also called nerve deafness.

Mastoid Bone

A portion of the lower skull bone that contains the inner ear.

Rehabilitation

For individuals who previously experienced hearing and get a cochlear implant, the comprehensive training program that “re-teaches” them how to hear and interpret sounds, to recover any lost speech skills, and to properly use the cochlear implant speech processor and controls.

Habilitation

For individuals who had not previously experience hearing and get a cochlear implant, the comprehensive training program that teaches them to hear and interpret sounds, to develop or improve speech skills, and to properly use the cochlear implant speech processor and controls.

Coverage

For health insurance, coverage involves making sure a health plan or policy pays for the cochlear implant device and related professional services (for example, physician and audiology services). Usually, you go through a preauthorization process. This means getting a guarantee from the health insurance plan that they will pay for the implant and services before getting treatment.

Billing

For health insurance, billing involves the process by which health care providers charge, code, and submit their bills (in the form of a claim) to the health insurance company or plan.

Payment

For health insurance, payment involves getting the full amount allowed for services given a health plan’s limitations, allowables, deductibles, and co-payments.

Menieres

A disorder of the fluid volume of the inner ear that can cause hearing loss, dizziness/vertigo, tinnitus (ringing in the ear), and/or pressure or pain in ear.

Meningitis

a viral or bacterial infection that causes inflammation and swelling of the membranes covering the brain and spinal cord; among possible serious complications are hearing loss or deafness.

Mumps

a viral infection that causes swelling of the salivary glands; sometimes spreads to central nervous system which can result in hearing loss.

Measles

a viral infection that causes rash, fever, and cold-like symptoms; sometimes causes complications like ear or brain infections which can result in hearing loss.

Unilateral

on one side, but not the other; used to describe a type of hearing loss in which there is normal or somewhat impaired hearing in one ear and little or no hearing in the other ear.

Unilateral Hearing Loss

condition in which one ear has little or no hearing ability and the other ear has normal or close to normal hearing. Also referred to as Single Sided Deafness (SSD).

Osseointegration

the natural process of bone growing into the titanium fixtures creating a direct connection between an artificial implant and living bone.