Hearing Implants - Cochlear Implant Sound

Hearing Implants - Cochlear Implant Sound

Learn how implantable hearing aids return your hearing without fuss. Discover the companies that sell them and why competition is just heating up.

Implantable hearing aids affix inside your ear canals. They're invisible and work effectively at amplifying sounds. In fact, studies find that hearing aid implants work better than visible models.

While hearing aid implants have been around for years, the FDA only approved them in 2010. This is opening doors for long-time companies to now go ahead and legally offer them to people in the United States. As a result, prices should drop as competition increases.

Facts About Implantable Hearing Aids

With 10 percent of the U.S. population dealing with hearing loss, it's sad to think only 20 percent of those people seek assistance from hearing aid devices. Most give up completely because their hearing aids quickly drain battery power, offer poor sound quality, wear out quickly or routine cleaning is time consuming.

Implantable hearing aids eliminate much of these issues. The some hearing aid implant batteries last five years or more. This is an incredible life span compared to visible hearing aids that often require weekly battery changes.

Because implantable hearing aids are embedded in your ears, you don't need to remove them. They're in your ear canal permanently until you must have them replaced. A local anesthetic is required to implant or repair an implantable hearing aid.

Esteem Hearing Aid Implant Information

Envoy Medical, formerly St. Croix Medical, offers Esteem implantable hearing aids. Esteem hearing aid implants received approval from Europe in 2006 and from the United States in 2010.

Esteem hearing aid implants are embedded deep within the ear and have an external audio device too. The device captures sounds and channels them into the ear canal where they vibrate the ear drum. This triggers the implantable hearing aid to convert the sounds into signals that are then sent to the brain. Function of the Esteem hearing aid implant is very similar to how the ear components work naturally.

With the Esteem hearing aid, you get a remote programmer control that allows you to control volume levels and whether the hearing aid is on or off. Battery life is impressive. Using the device 24/7 usually averages in a battery lifespan of just under five years. If you use the hearing aid device eight hours a day, expect the battery to last about nine years.

Otologics Hearing Aid Implant Information

Otologics recently developed their implantable hearing aid. A microphone is implanted right behind your ear and it sends sounds to components implanted in the middle ear. These components vibrate the bones in the middle ear where the sounds are then sent to and decoded by the brain.

Soundbridge Hearing Aid Implant Information

Med-El's Vibrant Soundbridge is a middle ear implant that sends signals to the middle ear structures. The components function much like the normal ear works. With the Soundbridge, you have an internal hearing aid implant and an external audio processor.

One of the bigger issues with the Soundbridge hearing aid implant is that battery life in the external audio processor is generally limited to two weeks, depending on how often you use the implantable hearing aid device.

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