Cochlear Implants
Have experienced sometimes called "bionic ear," the cochlear implant is the hope of regaining or restoring the ability to sound for some people to feel profound hearing loss.
Although they are not miracle devices, cochlear implants to help a few children and adults, whether they are born deaf or hearing loss that occurs later in life, loved to speak of experience on the phone, listen to music, and hear the voices and those of their friends.
What is a cochlear implant?
A cochlear implant is a surgically implanted device that helps to overcome problems in the inner ear or cochlea. The snail is a snail-shaped, curled tube located in the area of the ear where nerves are contained. Its function is to gather electrical signals from sound waves and transmit them to your auditory nerve (or nerve) is. The auditory nerve then sends these signals to the brain, where they are translated into recognizable sounds.
If important parts of the cochlea is not functioning properly and stimulates the auditory nerve is not, there is no way for the electrical signals to the brain to get. Therefore, hearing does not occur. (Sometimes referred to as deafness, hearing loss is called.) By completely bypassing the damaged part of the cochlea, the cochlear implant uses its own electrical signals to stimulate the auditory nerve, allowing the person to hear.
As normal hearing occurs
The ear consists of three parts, and the sound of a person who has normal hearing through all three on the way to the brain. The outer ear is made up of the outer, visible part of the ear and ear canal.
If a person is exposed to a solid, the outer ear catches the sound vibration and sends them through the ear canal into the middle ear, which consists of the eardrum and three tiny bones. The sound vibration then causes motion move in the three tiny bones, which makes the fluid in the cochlea. The movement of the fluid stimulates the hair cells, which are thousands of tiny hearing receptors in the cochlea. The hair cells bend back and forth and send electrical signals to the auditory nerve and the auditory nerve then carries these signals to the brain where they are interpreted.
By aging, heredity, illness, infection, or severe or repeated exposure to loud noises hair cells can be damaged or destroyed. When the hair cells does not work, the nerve can not be stimulated and hence no information to the brain. Thus, the person is not able to hear.
Hearing loss may be mild, moderate or severe, depending on the number of hair cells that are defective, damaged or destroyed. People with mild or moderate hearing loss may find that hearing aids, which make sounds louder simply help. Those with profound hearing loss, or perhaps even having trouble understanding loud noises. A hearing aid will not help in these cases, and a doctor might recommend a cochlear implant.
What Does a Cochlear Implant
The cochlear implant artificially stimulates the cochlea with electrical signals, transmits these signals to the hearing nerve, and allows the user to hear. Although sound quality of a cochlear implant is different than that of a person with normal hearing, the cochlear implant provides users with the ability to sense sound that they did not hear otherwise. Improvements in the way the implant processes sound information are constantly being made to appear to sound more natural.
The actual cochlear implant comprises an implant-package, which is fixed to the inside of the skull, and a tone and voice processor worn externally (outside the body). Work together more components of the cochlear implant to obtain sound him. To the auditory nerve, and send it to the brain
The implant package consists of:
a receiver-stimulator of all electronic circuits, including the flow of electrical impulses in the control ear
an antenna, the signals of the external sound and speech processor
a magnet, which holds the external sound and speech processor in position
a wire with electrodes in the cochlea (the number of electrodes can be used according to the cochlear implant model type) may be used. The electrodes act like normal functioning hair cells and provide electrical charges to stimulate the auditory nerve.
The sound and speech processor is processed into digital information, a minicomputer, the sound, and then send this information to the implant package in the form of electrical signals. The sound and speech processor worn externally and looks much like a normal hearing aid. Depending on the type of sound and speech processor used, it can be worn as either a headset behind the ear or in a band, belt or pocket.
The components of the sound and speech processor include:
The sound and voice processing unit (either a body-level model, which is hung on clothes like a radio transmitter, or an ear-level model over the ear can be cut)
a microphone
a transmitter which transmits signals to the implant package. The transmitter also includes a magnet, the user to align the processor to the implant can help package.
Works for the cochlear implant, the implant should be package and the sound and speech processor are aligned - that is, what are the magnets. By lining up the magnets in both the implant package and sound and speech processor are secured and work as a unit.
If the implant package and the sound and speech processor is not completely aligned, the device does not work and the person can not hear. Since both components must be aligned to listen to the user, some people take the sound and speech processor sleep at night. Others leave it all the time.
How a Cochlear Implant Works
Knowing exactly what the cochlear implant can not help to better understand children, their new bionic ear and the cool technology behind it, which they can hear better.
Here's how the implant works:
The microphone picks up sound.
The audio is sent to the sound and speech processor.
The sound and speech processor analyzes the sound and converts it into an electrical signal. (The signal contains information on how much electricity is sent to the electrodes determined.)
The transmitter sends the signal to the implant package where they decoded.
The implant package determines how much current to the electrodes reach and transmits the signal. The amount of electric current determined volume, and the position of the electrodes to determine the pitch.
The nerve endings in the cochlea (the area where the hair cells are located) are stimulated and the message is sent to the brain along the auditory nerve.
The brain interprets the sound and the person listening.
Cochlear Implant Surgery
The actual surgical procedure, which lasts 2-4 hours, and general anesthesia is used, the security package of the implant under the skin and within the skull, and threading the wires with the electrodes in the spiral of the cochlea.
To secure the implant, the surgeon first drilled a 3 - to 4-millimeter bed in the temporal bone (the skull bone, the part of the ear canal, the middle ear and the inner ear contains). The surgeon opens the mastoid bone to allow access to the middle ear behind the ear next. Then, a small hole is drilled in the cochlea and the wires, which are inserted the electrodes. The implant is then attached again, and the incision is closed.
After cochlear implant surgery, a child:
will probably be able to go home the next day
have a dressing over the implant area wear for 24 hours
may be out of balance or dizzy for a few days
there may be slight to moderate pain (the doctor may recommend giving painkillers)
not have to remove the stitches - they are absorbable and dissolve on their own
lying on the side with the cochlear implant in a few days
Two to four weeks after surgery, the sound and speech processor is matched with the implant package and is programmed and fine-tuned to the child's individual hearing needs.
Learn a Cochlear Implant Use
Because the extent and nature of the hair cell damage, an electrical signal pattern, and the sensitivity of the nerve are different for each person, a specialist has to fine tuning of a sound or voice processor for each patient.
By measuring the lowest and highest current for each electrode, the doctor finds the loudest and the softest sounds heard (each electrode produces a different sound with different pitch) are. The speech processor and sound with sounds at different electrodes with different volumes and attempt to create a precise version of the original sound. However, since only a limited number of electrodes among themselves about the function of thousands of hair cells in a normal ear, sounds are not entirely "natural".
After the first few sessions programming, the user begins to pick up sounds with the implant to give, but the implant full power is a gradual process that takes several months to complete. In children who are born deaf, the stimulation from the implant will allow them to develop the brain pathways necessary to hear sounds. This is an extended process with programming and intensive therapy, often takes several years.
During programming, the user takes speech therapy sessions to help identify and interpret the new sounds he or she hears. In addition, contains an important part of therapy parent education and training.
The therapy will help to develop a child and to understand spoken language by detecting, imitating, and associating meanings of sounds. These sessions last at least a year, along with parents education and training programs. In many cases, therapy has helped children with cochlear implants develop speech and language on par with their peers and attend mainstream schools.
Some families choose to have implants in both ears. This can help with speech detection when. Background noise and in localizing the source of the noise
Can a Cochlear Implant Restore Hearing for all?
Cochlear implants are very successful for some people, but not everyone is a candidate for a receive. Ideally, children under 12 months of age or older with severe to profound hearing loss in both ears excellent candidates, but not every child is eligible.
Some of the most common reasons that a child might not for a cochlear implant:
Hearing the child is "too good" (meaning the child can something sound and speech with hearing aids to hear)
The reason for hearing loss is not a problem with the cochlea
the child has experienced numbness for a long time
the auditory nerve itself is damaged or missing
Each potential candidate must be evaluated by a cochlear implant team to determine if a cochlear implant is the best option.
For those who have received a cochlear implant, the performance may differ. The length of the rehabilitation varies from person to person, and many factors (such as the status of the auditory nerve, or the presence of scar tissue in the cochlea) prevent the success of the implant.
The expectations should be realistic, and the doctor or surgeon will help you choose the level of success can adequately achieve the implant for your child.