Hearing Aids or Cochlear Implants: What's the Difference?

You’ve just found out your child’s been diagnosed with hearing loss. But what hearing devices will they need? Should you look into hearing aids or cochlear implants?

With today’s technology, babies as young as a few weeks old can get the devices needed for their hearing loss. Your pediatric audiologist will recommend what makes sense for your child based on their level of hearing loss and unique needs. 

Before your next appointment with the pediatric audiologist, you can prepare with a little more knowledge about these hearing devices. Here’s a quick intro to cochlear implants and hearing aids!

First, How Do We Hear? 

To understand the differences between hearing aids and cochlear implants and what they do, we also need to understand some basic ways the ear works. We often think hearing loss is about the ears, but it's really about the brain. That means hearing aids and cochlear implants are actually brain access devices! 

Think of hearing loss as a doorway problem. So if the doorway to the brain is blocked, hearing aids and cochlear implants open that door. They provide the brain with access to sound, meaning, and language so that a child can learn to listen and talk. 

Here’s a short description of how the ear works. We have the outside part of our ear, and we have an ear canal. The ear picks up sound as transmitted and that sound is acoustic energy. It travels through the middle ear and it travels to the cochlea. The job of the cochlea is to transduce or to convert the acoustic energy into electric energy. It does that, it has inside the cochlea, it has little hair cells, and those hair cells propagate or move that sound along and help transduce or convert it.  

In a typical ear, electric energy is carried onto the brain and the signal gets to the brain. But sometimes there are those little hair cells within that cochlea that are missing or are absent. In that case, sound needs to be louder or amplified — that's what hearing aids do. Sometimes the hair cells are missing or absent to the extent that the sound can’t be made loud enough. In that case, the ability of the cochlea to transduce or convert acoustic energy into electric energy needs to happen through a cochlear implant. 

Hearing Aids v. Cochlear Implants 

Think of hearing technology as a continuum. No matter what the severity of your child's hearing loss, they can have access to sound thanks to today’s technology. They can have access to all the speech and the language that surrounds them so that they have their little brain stimulated as it grows and develops. 

Whether your child needs a hearing aid or cochlear implants really depends upon the severity and the type of hearing loss your child has. Your pediatric audiologist will be your partner and best guide in deciding what's going to be the best technology for your child.

Whatever device your pediatric audiologist recommends, the important thing is to act urgently so your child can wear hearing devices during all waking hours. Ask your audiologist to make sure that your child has access to all the sounds of speech through their hearing technology. Stay up to date on your child’s audiological appointments.

Your child's diagnosis of hearing loss may be overwhelming or unexpected, but the terrific thing about today’s hearing technology is that your child can learn to listen and talk, read, and do well in life. 

This article has just barely scratched the surface of the detail and the information that you may be seeking and want to know. Click here to access a free helpful webinar with a leading pediatric audiologist who goes into more detail about today’s hearing devices.

Hearing Aids or Cochlear Implants: What's the Difference?