Cochlear Implants - Any Experience With Them?

Nephew was deaf at birth and has some. He likes to turn them off though.

quote:

---

 has some. He likes to turn them off though.

---

I have a friend like this

quote:

---

Yall watch those 'baby gets implants turned on and hears parents voices for the first time' - videos? That stuff will make you choke up every time

---

What will really choke you up is dealing with your sister in law, who watched too many of these videos, when her twins didn't react in remotely the same manner.

I had a couple of kids come through Sunday school with them.

I had no idea how they worked… freaked out when one of the kids was playing and one of the gadgets “fell off”. Lady the next room over came and just plopped it back on his head- it was magnetic.

That’s all I got.

quote:

---

How did they react?

---

Like they were still deaf

My wife (no pics) is a speech pathologist and has worked with several kids that had them. Any specific questions you have about them?

They talk about spatial awareness being a little confusing due to hearing on the implant side then sound being transferred to the hearing aid side. Any info on that?

Since the cause of loss is nerve damage in the brain is there a chance it doesnt help?

Morbid said the user loses all retained hearing once installed. What does that mean, can the procedure be reversed or will the user forever be deaf if the implant is removed?

I am interested as well. I’ve recently had snhl hearing loss in my left ear which was my good ear. My right ear was my not so good ear. I’ve got some low frequencies back, but the highs are distorted. Had my first intratymoanic injection yesterday. Hopefully I get some more back.

quote:

---

Since the cause of loss is nerve damage in the brain is there a chance it doesnt help?

---

Cochlear implantation is a pretty in-depth process before you actually get to the surgery. Part of this is because only specific types of hearing loss and certain severity of hearing loss warrant implantation and the other factor is that insurance companies of course play God with what they allow to be covered

So while implantation has a very high success rate, failures do happen, but are usually due to procedural error, or complications after surgery.

quote:

---

Morbid said the user loses all retained hearing once installed. What does that mean, can the procedure be reversed or will the user forever be deaf if the implant is removed?

---

This is accurate. During implantation, whether it’s one ear or both ears , the cells involved in processing sound within the temporal bone are more or less permanently destroyed. So no takes backsies. So yes, whichever ear is implanted can therefore no longer function without the implant. This is another reason why screening and work up prior to surgery is so important.

Another fun fact is that if the patient has been entirely deaf since birth, and they’ve gotten to a certain age range (parentheses I can’t recall the exact average age, but usually 40s and older) the brain has never developed the Aries in the brain involving hearing in the first place, so implantation, while still being technically possible, wouldn’t provide any meaningful return of hearing. The patient literally just does not have the organized structures in their brain to process and understand sound, let alone human speech. Technically they would “hear” but that would be like a person who’s been blind since birth, and therefore never having seen anything visually suddenly having their vision granted with perfect clarity. But not only would they be entirely overwhelmed by the new sensory information but their brain would just not have context for anything they see. , it would be profoundly difficult to then form the connections in their brain to understand anything visually.