Hearing aids not helping? Hearing implants can

Brooke M. Steckelberg, AuD, CCC-A Contributed photo

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Answers by Brooke Steckelberg, an audiologist at St. Cloud ENT

My hearing aids are not helping. Are hearing implants an option?

A hearing implant, also known as a cochlear implant, is for people who can’t use regular hearing aids, often because of problems with their outer or middle ear or because they can only hear in one ear. Instead of making sounds louder like normal hearing aids, a hearing implant sends sound directly through the bones in your head to your inner ear, the organ responsible for hearing.

A hearing implant has two main parts. The first part is a device implanted by an otolaryngologist (ENT physician) in the bone behind your ear. The second part, called the speech processor, is a device that sits behind your ear and is visible to others. It connects to the internal implant through magnets. 

Here’s how the device works: First, the speech processor has microphones that pick up sounds around you, like voices or music. Then, it turns those sounds into digital signals and sends them to the internal implant through the magnet. (This process is known as digital piezoelectric stimulation.) The implant then gently vibrates the bone in your skull, and these vibrations go straight to your inner ear, skipping over the parts of the ear that don’t work properly. 

A hearing implant is not for everyone—it is only for people with certain types of hearing problems. Medical professionals most often recommend it for individuals with a condition in their ear that blocks sound from traveling through the ear in the typical way. This includes chronic infections, diseases of the middle ear bones, growths or tumors of the middle or outer ear or cases where the ear did not develop normally. In addition, a hearing implant is occasionally used for people who hear normally in one ear but cannot hear out of the other. Doctors will usually run some hearing tests and scans to see if a hearing implant is a good fit for you.

Once activated, the hearing implant can make speech clearer, especially in places with lots of background noise. Like traditional hearing aids, it can connect to a smartphone, allowing you to stream music, take calls and adjust settings easily. A hearing implant is also designed to be updated over time—its speech processor can be replaced without any additional surgery. 

A hearing implant is an ideal solution for people with hearing problems that regular hearing aids can’t fix. For individuals with the right type of hearing loss, it can improve their quality of life, allow better communication with friends and family and improve the localization of sounds, which helps with understanding speech when background noise is present and with safety. If you have been told you cannot use traditional hearing aids, a hearing implant could be right for you.

We can help

Interested in learning more about hearing implants? Call St. Cloud ENT today at (320) 252-0233. We offer the latest hearing implant technology, including the Cochlear™ Osia® 2 system. The Osia 2 is a powerful, long-term hearing solution that provides access to the full range of sounds for hearing your best, even in noisy environments.