Single Sided Deafness

To assess if cochlear implants (CI) provide more benefit than conventional hearing aids (HA) in prelingually deaf patients.

There are many things that people in the hearing world take for granted every day, such as verbal communication, using a telephone or something as simple as the feeling you get when your favorite song comes on the radio. To a person that has been completely immersed in the deaf community, it may be easy to view the sense of sound as unnecessary. As a member of the haring community it would seem nearly impossible to live a day without sound. Cochlear implants are devices that help a person who is deaf gain hearing to some degree, and in some cases nearly full hearing. This new technology has become very controversial throughout both the hearing, and the deaf world.

Explain that wearing the aids as often and as consistently as possible is essential to speech and language development for the child. The hearing aids provide access to sounds for the child and without this stimulation speech and language development will be negatively impacted. Auditory input is needed to help the child to learn to listen, if the aids are not being used and the auditory pathways of the brain are not being stimulated then the child will eventually lose that ability. The quality of the signal in the hearing aids is directly related to the child’s speech intelligibility. A high quality auditory input provides a better opportunity for learning and better speech intelligibility. Full access is important for children who are learning

A decade ago there were no technological solutions available to assist a cochlear implant candidate/recipient, who presented with severe to profound hearing loss. A cochlear implant can improve your hearing, but it can never be certain how much. People who have received the surgery often report an improvement in hearing. The ability to hear things is essential to living in any society, even a slight improvement can increase a person’s quality of life.

Medical professionals all over the world have paved the road for further research and technological advances in the hearing impaired spectrum. Implantations, such as the cochlear implant (CI), have given patients with profound sensorineural hearing loss newfound hope for habilitation and rehabilitation services. However, “there exists a small subset of deaf individuals who will not benefit from the CI due to (1) a small or absent cochlea, (2) a small or absent auditory nerve, or (3) injury or scarring of the inner ear or auditory nerve secondary to meningitis, trauma, or tumor” as stated by Kaplan et al. (2015). A treatment option for those who did not meet the candidacy qualifications for a cochlear implant needed to be implemented.

Hearing loss is one of the most prevalent chronic conditions in the United States, affecting nearly 35 million, or 1 in 9, Americans. Hearing aids is a necessity in the life of someone who is hard-of-hearing, if they choose to use them. Furthermore of the 35 million living with hearing loss only 25% of them actually use a hearing aid, this means that around 26 million are living with untreated hearing loss (Audicus, 2014). Most of the reasoning behind

The idea is to give someone something they do not have, not a means to fix something broken. Maybe all it takes is ones situation and perspective to see whether or not cochlear implants are beneficial. For someone who lives among

Infants and children who suffer from hearing loss are at an increased risk for developing delayed speech, language, social, and emotional skills 1. Many children who suffer from mild to moderate hearing loss have great success with hearing aids, however those who are born profoundly deaf cannot benefit from hearing aids alone. If a profoundly deaf individual chooses to hear their only option is to have cochlear implants. Cochlear implants are a two-part system consisting of external and internal parts 2. The external part is much like a hearing aid that has a transmitter, speech processor, and microphone 2. The internal parts consist of the receiver and electrodes. The speech processor process sounds, sends the code to the transmitter 2. The

A cochlear implant is an electronic device inserted under the skin and behind the ear to cure severe hearing loss. What isn’t understood by most is that the people who are making the decision to get the implant are usually not the ones going under the knife. Most hearing

Imagine being profoundly deaf and being told by your doctor that you won't be able to hear certain voices or sounds in your life. Imagine living with that statement every day, and knowing that you won’t be able to hear the whispers in the background or birds chirping when taking a nice walk. Until one day, everything has changed. All because of one technology, you are able to hear much more than you were expecting to hear. This whole situation is based on my life, and you are going to learn how much a CI have impacted me. A CI is a cochlear implant, and it is a device that is worn by a deaf person, and it sends neural transmitters to the cochlea, and it helps them hear greatly. There are some factors that have greatly developed me using my

Over 360 million people or about five percent of the world population have disabling hearing loss (Deafness). Disabling hearing loss refers to hearing loss greater than 40 decibels for adults and a hearing loss of greater than 30 decibels for children (Deafness). 40 decibels is equivalent to the tune of a refrigerator humming. Although hearing loss can be mild, moderate, severe, or profound -- there are numerous ways of improving the damaged hearing (Deafness). The most common ways are through hearing aids and cochlear implants. Cochlear implants is a type of implanted electronic hearing device; it is designed to produce hearing sensations that are useful to a person with profound nerve deafness Cochlear Implants -€“ Facts). The device is more ideal for people who cannot benefit substantially with the help of hearing aids (Cochlear Implants -€“ Facts). Today, over 219,00 people are using Cochlear Implants (Cochlear Implants, Baylor). The technology used in cochlear implants is more complex and improves hearing and communication skills drastically. Despite cochlear implants having many disadvantages, there are more benefits that will help towards improving hearing loss.

After making a conclusion on the hearing loss of the patient, the physician will choose possible avenues for treatment. In cases where the hearing loss is not severe, a hearing aid can be installed in order to help the individual hear properly. In cases where hearing loss is permanent and severe, cochlear implants are available for specific nonsymptomatic deafness where the inner ear is not at risk to reject the implantation. There is also hearing assistive technology (HATS) which can be equipped with both adults and children to help process sounds. Similar to headphones, hearing aids consist of three major parts: the microphone, the amplifier, and the speaker. The microphone picks up sound and transfers it via electrical impulse to the amplifier,

To conduct the study, researchers gathered 154 people with mild to moderate hearing loss between the ages of 55 and 79. These participants were split into three groups. One group worked with an audiologist to have their hearing aid properly fitted and programmed. Members of another group were given hearing aids that had been pre-programmed in the same way that OTC devices would be. The final group served as a control group and were given non-functioning hearing aids. All three groups tested their hearing aids for six weeks.

After a complete audiologic evaluation, the child was diagnosed with auditory neuropathy spectrum disorder (ANSD) and central auditory processing disorder (CAPD; Iliadou et al., 2015). Case two was an 8-year, 10-month-old girl who was diagnosed with SSD after receiving speech therapy for two consecutive months and obtaining slow progress (despite what the mother felt). After completing a diagnostic hearing evaluation, the girl presented with a slight-to-mild hearing loss bilaterally, impaired cochlear involvement, and CAPD (Iliadou et al., 2015). The final case analyzed was a 4-year, 5-month-old girl who was receiving speech therapy for SSD and was not making the expected gains after four months of therapy. The parents reported their daughter did not speak in sentences until she was 3-years-old, but had an otherwise unremarkable medical history. The audiologic evaluation determined she had CAPD (although the actual diagnosis is not given to children until after the age of 7 years), cochlear dysfunction, and middle ear dysfunction (even after bilateral pressure equalizing [PE] tubes were inserted; Iliadou et al., 2015). While the definition of SSD describes the absence of acquired disorders (such as hearing losses, CAPD,

“Hearing loss is a major public health issue and HearUSA believes that hearing care needs to be recognized as a medical necessity and made more affordable, accessible and accountable,” said Dr.