A cochlear implant (CI) is a medical device that provides a sense of sound to people who have profound-to-severe sensorineural hearing loss, especially those who receive limited benefit from hearing aids.
Both children and adults can receive CIs, and outcomes tend to improve when implantation occurs earlier in life, especially for language development in children.
How It Works:
Unlike hearing aids, which amplify sounds, cochlear implants bypass damaged parts of the inner ear (cochlea) and directly stimulate the auditory nerve using electrical signals. The brain then interprets these signals as sound.
See the video demonstration from MED-EL, one of the major cochlear implant manufactures.
Options for cochlear implants
There are three major companies that manufacture and distribute FDA-approved cochlear implants worldwide. Each offers slightly different technologies and features, but all provide similar core functionality.
Cochlear Implant 