Tuning in to Cochlear Implants
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Stories by Mischelle1. PM Bionic ear still going strong 3. Mischelle's story through deafness to hearing was shown on ABC's Australian Story in 2003. Mischelle's Australian Story
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Tuning in to Cochlear Implants
Broadcast on ABC Radio Wide Bay Qld: Tuesday, October 9, 2007. 3:06pm AEST
By Jodie van de Wetering
The latest technology to improve your hearing was on display at Better Hearing Australia's national conference in Maryborough on the weekend. Mischelle Edmunds was one of the delegates in town for the event, giving attendees advice on implantable hearing devices such as cochlear implants. But Mischelle doesn't just work for a company that makes these devices - she also uses one herself.
"I was profoundly deaf for 20 years, before I had my implant," Ms Edmunds recalled. "I've had my implant now for seven years, and it has just changed my life."
| However, Mischelle said it took her years to decide to get the implant, but she didn't let anything stop her from enjoying life. She's the tallest one in a red dress! |  |
"I had been told for about 15 years that I was probably a candidate, but there's a fear in having this surgery, a fear of the unknown. I thought with my hearing aids I was hearing well enough - I thought, 'I don't need an implant, they're for deaf people!'
"That's what a lot of people think. But these days the criteria has changed, there are more people getting cochlear implants, and hearing so much better with them than they ever did with their conventional hearing aids."
The cochlea is a coiled mechanism in the inner ear. A cochlear implant works by bypassing this organ, and sending the information directly to the brain.
"A cochlear implant is for people with a sensorineural hearing loss, which means that their cochlea is not working properly," Mischelle explained. "The hair cells in there have been damaged or destroyed, so it doesn't matter how loud you make a conventional hearing aid, those people will never hear those sounds. With a cochlear implant, we bypass that part of the ear and directly stimulate the auditory nerve."
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The surgery to implant the internal mechanism takes one and a half to two hours, and Ms Edmunds said there are no age limits on the procedure. "The youngest person to ever have a cochlear implant was eight weeks old, the oldest was 103 years old. You just need to have the right sort of hearing loss, and be well enough to withstand that routine surgery. |
"You need to have that sort of hearing loss where hearing aids are no longer useful - cochlear implants aren't an alternative to hearing aids, they are something that you would go for when your hearing aids no longer work for you."
Mischelle said the devices were quite easy to care for, and users need to visit an audiologist annually for 'mapping' - the cochlear implant equivalent of a person with glasses going to the optometrist for a check-up.
"Because it's a computer, there is a program for every individual person, it's not one size fits all," Mischelle explained. "You have a program made up to your specifications. The audiologist plugs your implant into a computer, and they measure what you're hearing through the implant. You tell them what you can hear, what sounds good, and they put all that into the processor for you.
"Once you get that set up, generally people only need to go back once a year to make sure that's all OK.
Single sided deafness may be helped by a Baha
People who aren't candidates for a cochlear implant, for instance those who are deaf in one ear or who have a Conductive hearing loss, may be able to be implanted with a *Baha system.
"A Baha is a bone anchored hearing system," Mischelle explained. "It is for people who might have single-sided deafness, or a conductive loss, who for one reason or another can't wear a conventional hearing aid. We implant what's called a fixture (a small titanium screw) into the person's skull behind their ear, and a tiny Sound Processor clips on an abutment afixed to this fixture. The sound processor vibrates, the vibration is picked up by the cochlear through bone conduction, and people get the sensation of hearing back on that side.
"People don't realise how difficult it can be, having a single-sided or conductive deafness. With a single-sided loss you lose that direction of where sounds are coming from, you lose that stereo effect, and it can be quite difficult in noisy situations."
* Information on Baha has been updated since the radio interview.