The Benefits Of Cochlear Implants

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What Are Cochlear Implants?
In the past thirty years, scientists and researchers have been developing and improving an electronic medical device, referred to as a cochlear implant (Cochlear Celebrates, 2016). This small therapeutic device replaces one’s damaged cochlea, and is responsible for providing the proper sound signals to the brain so that one can hear. Not to be confused with a hearing aid, a cochlear implant is very different. A cochlear implant is responsible for bypassing the damaged proportions of the ear while directly stimulating the auditory nerve (Cochlear Implants, 2014). Research has shown that the signals produced by cochlear implants are sent by way of the auditory nerve to the brain, which is then recognized to be sound
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Hearing typically ranges from nearly normal so that one can have the ability to understand speech sounds and process them as language (U.S. Food and Drug Administration). It appears that adults typically start to benefit and improve around three months after being “turned on,” while children improve in their language acquisition a little slower (U.S. Food and Drug Administration). Typically child will develop language acquisition by picking up speech sound from their environments and their new experiences (U.S. Food and Drug Administration). Studies have shown that people have reported they can perceive different types of sounds like soft, medium, and loud (U.S. Food and Drug Administration). Some of these everyday sounds include: the sound of a light switch being turned on or off, dogs barking, or even a car engine (U.S. Food and Drug Administration). Typically most of the people who have cochlear do not necessarily use lip- reading as a form of understanding speech; however, it has been concluded that having this particular implant has helped improve one’s lip- reading skills (U.S. Food and Drug Administration). Most people with cochlear implants are able to use the phone (U.S. Food and Drug Administration). The ability to hear a familiar face’s voice is life changing for some. Most …show more content…
This particular device is supposed to have superior hearing performance, be fully automated, allow one to have “true” wireless freedom,” allow for “natural hearing,” be the smallest processor yet, and even be water resistant (Cochlear Implants, 2014). The reason behind the Nucleus 6 being the best innovation yet is the microchip (A, 2013). The microchip is located in located in the processor itself and is capable of holding five times the processing capacity than the previous systems (A, 2013). The microchip also drives the sound signal that is responsible for improving hearing in noisy or quiet environments (A, 2013). Furthermore the chip allows for data logging which was designed to dramatically improve counseling discussion (A, 2013). This makes it even easier to adjust the cochlear implant to best fit the recipient 's best needs (A, 2013). In results, the recipients of the Nucleus 6 will be able to access new breakthrough in hearing technology simply because of the software upgrades (A, 2013). The recipient of this innovation is able to change the four programs either by the processor control on the device itself, or by using one of the two styles of remotes (A, 2013). The first style is simplistic with one function per button while the second style provides more advanced control (A,

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