- In this video, I'm talking about
how to get a cochlear implant, coming up.
(upbeat music)
Hi Guys, Cliff Olson, doctor of audiology
and founder of Applied Hearing Solutions in Anthem Arizona,
and on this channel I cover a bunch of hearing related
information to help make you a better informed consumer.
So if you're into that,
consider hitting the subscribe button.
I believe cochlear implants are the closest thing
that we have to a medical miracle.
Basically, cochlear implants can overcome even the most
severe cases of hearing loss and they do this
by stimulating the auditory nerve directly
and bypass all of the other structures
that you would typically use to hear.
But there's still a lot of misinformation out there
about cochlear implants
and the process of getting a cochlear implant.
So I want to cover three things in this video
to help you know what to expect
when trying to get a cochlear implant.
Step number one is General Candidacy Criteria.
This process can be a little different
depending on where you go.
But in general you're gonna get an audiogram
and that audiogram will likely indicate
that you have really poor Word Recognition ability.
Essentially, this is your ability to understand speech.
The next step in this process is for you
to actually go through sound field testing.
This is basically where they take hearing aids,
put them on your ears and program them appropriately
to your hearing loss prescription.
You will then listen to sentences coming out of a speaker
and you'll repeat those sentences back to the tester.
That tester is looking for how accurately
you can repeat those words back.
They can even incorporate noise into this situation
to give it more of a real world, realistic feel.
If your percentage of words correct is low enough,
depending on what your insurance criteria is,
then you will likely be a candidate for cochlear implants.
But there are other things that they're looking at
to determine if you're a good candidate
for a cochlear implant.
One of them is having a good support system.
So having good family and friends in your network
to ensure that you have someone to lean on
to get you through this entire process.
The second thing is they could actually have you
complete a questionnaire to determine
what your mental health status is.
And they will also do imaging on you in the form of
either a CT scan or MRI, or both, to determine
if your anatomy is favorable to actually having an implant.
If you test poorly enough and you pass these other candidacy
criteria, then you are well on your way to starting
step number two which is the journey to implantation.
The journey to implantation can take
anywhere from three months to two years plus.
It just depends on how quickly you can get through
all of their requirements.
Some of these requirements can be
going to a cochlear implant seminar;
getting vaccinations, depending on if your surgeon
actually requires them or not;
doing questionnaires to determine if you have
realistic expectations of what you're going to receive
once you get a cochlear implant.
It can require getting medical clearance to determine
if you're healthy enough to actually go through a surgery.
It can require insurance prior approval to make sure
your insurance is actually going to pay for it or not.
And then ultimately you have to be able to decide
which technology that you want.
There are several companies that actually
do cochlear implants and you want to make sure
that you select the technology that is right for you.
Once you have all of these different requirements done,
then you'll actually be able to get scheduled
for surgery.
And step number three is surgery.
And no, surgery is not that bad.
It is not brain surgery that they're performing on you.
It's actually a relatively simple outpatient procedure
that only takes two to four hours depending on
if you're having one ear implanted or two ears implanted.
Some people don't even use prescription pain meds
following the surgery.
Essentially, the surgeon's just going
to make a little incision behind your ear.
Drill out a little space to put the magnet
and then drill a little hole that goes down to your cochlea
where then he'll insert the electrode array.
He'll sew you back up and then the surgery's over.
Surgery really is that simple.
And it can be performed on any age.
They've had individuals under a year old get implanted
and individuals over 100 years old get implanted.
In fact the worst part in this entire process
is that you have to go one to four weeks after your surgery
before they actually turn on the implant for you to hear.
The fun part which I'm sure you've seen in other videos,
is the cochlear implant activation,
but that is a topic for another video.
If you think you might be a candidate
for a cochlear implant, then the first step is to call
an audiologist and get a hearing evaluation done.
If the tests suggest that you might be a good candidate
for a cochlear implant, they can get you referred
to the proper medical professional.
Don't let fear of the unknown or fear of surgery
prevent you from considering a cochlear implant.
A cochlear implant could be
the best decision you've ever made.
That's it for this video.
If you have any questions
leave them in the comment section below.
If you like the video please share it.
And if you want to see other videos just like this one
make sure you hit that subscribe button.
I'll see you next time.
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