Hearing Aids Versus Cochlear Implants and How They Can Be Acquired
Table of Contents
- Introduction
- What are Hearing Aids?
- What do Cochlear Implants Refer to?
- How are these two Devices Different?
Introduction
As we proceed in life and age, our body begins to experience numerous changes. Many of these changes can be for the better or the worse. One of these changes could be how we hear sounds. Hearing can be affected by a traumatic event to the ear or by age. Our hearing can worsen and make it quite difficult to proceed. Children who end up experiencing traumatic events associated with the ear whose hearing gets affected usually acquire hearing aids. While devices such as cochlear implants and hearing aids can assist individuals in dealing with hearing loss, cochlear implants stimulate the auditory nerve, where the brain acquires the signals it understands as sounds.
A study stated that as of 2019, doctors around the globe had surgically implanted cochlear implants in about 737,000 patients. Newborn children who cannot hear too well or have profound hearing loss will gain an advantage from cochlear implants. Implants will also be your only option if you’ve acquired profound hearing loss. Hearing aids can be acquired relatively easily, but depending on your level of hearing loss, you may have to get cochlear implants, which require surgery.
What are Hearing Aids?
Hearing aids are minuscule and battery-functional, and an individual has the potential of being worn in or behind the ear. They serve to assist people with hearing issues ranging from mild to profound hearing loss, and they help by better amplifying sounds. They are hearing aids that are typically made up of three parts: an amplifier that’ll boost the noises, a speaker that’ll send the boosted noise into the user’s ear, and a microphone that’ll acquire and transform sound waves into electrical signals. A lot of hearing aids have distinct kinds of sound profiles that are suited for numerous sound environments, such as a busy supermarket or a quiet gaming room. There are multiple kinds of hearing aids available to the public who wishes to buy them; these include completely-in-canal, behind-the-ear (BTE), and receiver-in-ear. A few of these kinds might be better suited for distinct hearing loss degrees.
What do Cochlear Implants Refer to?
Cochlear implants are also minuscule electronic devices implanted behind the ear, with one component surgically attached underneath the skin with strings or electrode arrays allocated within the ear’s cochlea. Surgeons perform this surgery by drilling into the skull to anchor the implant. This device ignores the inner ear to boost the auditory nerve directly, allocating a sensation of sound for people who have acquired profound hearing loss. However, cochlear implants are only suited for those who have sensorineural hearing loss. This hearing loss begins to appear due to damage to the hair cells within the inner ear, vestibulocochlear nerve, or the brain’s central processing centers. A few reasons why sensorineural hearing loss occurs are head injuries, noise-induced hearing loss, and diabetes. A few cochlear implants, like hybrid models, are given to people with some hearing left. These individuals with hearing loss can acquire assistance from these hybrid devices as they preserve hearing, with research displaying that they can assist in speech within noisier environments. Cochlear implants comprise four components: a microphone that captures sound waves and transmits them to a speech processor that a transmitter and a receiver acquire and transform into electric impulses. An electrode array then shall gather this information and send it to the auditory nerve.
How are these two Devices Different?
One of the significant distinctions between cochlear implants and hearing aids is that people can easily take care of their hearing aids and remove them, whereas cochlear implants are permanently attached. Many people will be required to undergo outpatient surgery to acquire a cochlear implant. However, patients and children who have underlying health issues will be necessary to have inpatient surgery. Those who have mild-to-severe hearing loss are recommended to acquire hearing aids, whereas those who have acquired profound hearing loss will be required to develop cochlear implants as that’ll be their only option. While hearing aids have the ability to amplify noises, cochlear implants can provide a sense of sound. If you require further assistance with deciding what device you should acquire, try consulting an audiologist, as they’ll be able to recommend a device that caters to their patient’s specific needs.
As for cochlear implants, they directly boost the auditory nerve, which the brain thinks of as sound. They have distinct frequencies, and there is a chance that users hear abnormal sounds because of magnetic fields, while other sounds may have an artificial quality. People will require additional support after having a cochlear implant. Speech-language audiologists and pathologists will be permitted to assist individuals in understanding the signals that cochlear implants send.
