Cochlear Implants Research Paper

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A cochlear implant is a small device that is surgically implanted for people who are deaf or hard of hearing to help them gain a sense of the sounds and conversations around them. The device has two parts; one is located outside and placed behind the ear and the other one is placed surgically under the skin. However, cochlear implants does not restore hearing completely but it gives people who are deaf or hard of hearing a sense of the sounds around them and it also helps them understand speech (NIDCD). Surprisingly, cochlear implants could cost as much as 100,000 dollars including surgery, device, evaluation, and rehabilitation. Luckily, a lot of insurance companies cover the costs of cochlear implants (American Academy of Otolaryngology…show more content…
Every team of professionals involves an audiologist, an otologist (ear doctor), a surgeon, a psychologist, a counselor, and a speech-language pathologist (American Speech-Language-Hearing Association). Adults and children at the cochlear implant centers go through a lot of testing by the professionals to determine whether or not they are suitable candidates for an implant. For adults to be suitable candidates they should have severe to profound hearing loss in both ears, limited benefit from hearing aids, no other medical problems, and lost their hearing after speech-language development. However, it is more complicated for children to be suitable candidates for cochlear implants. They should have profound hearing loss in both…show more content…
After the surgery the patient can go home on the next a day but would not be able to hear until after the operative incision heals completely, which takes about 3-6 weeks (FDA). On one hand, there are many risks from the implantation surgery; the patient might have an injury to the facial nerve, meningitis, cerebrospinal fluid leakage, perilymph fluid leak, an infection of the wound, tinnitus, taste disturbances, numbness around the implanted ear, and the body could reject the implantation which is reparative granuloma (FDA). Moreover, patients can develop risks from the use of cochlear implants where they could hear sounds differently, lose residual hearing, may not understand speech and language properly, might have an infection, failure of the implantation, might have to make lifestyle changes because the implant will interact with the electronic devises in their environments, and they may hear strange sounds (FDA). On the other hand, there are a lot of implantations that succeeded. People who had successful cochlear implantations could have normal abilities to hear and understand speech and language, could perceive loud, medium and soft sounds, can make phone calls, watch television without captions, and some

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