What's the difference between cochlear implant and hearing aid?
Cochlear implants are three types of medical devices, which are divided into two parts: external processors and implants. Implants need to be surgically implanted. The general working principle is that the external processor receives the sound and processes it, and sends a signal to the implant, and the implant directly stimulates the auditory nerve through current. Electrical stimulation is the way to hear sound. Cochlear implant is the first "artificial organ" that completely replaces an organ in human history. Cochlear implants are "artificial ears" used to replace ears.
Hearing aid is an amplifier, but because the hearing loss is not linear, digital hearing AIDS are used more than simple amplification, some frequency losses are amplified more, and some frequency losses are smaller. In this way, the hearing aid can effectively compensate for hearing. Or amplify the sound and reach the brain through the eardrum, ossicular chain, cochlea and auditory nerve, which is regarded as the "enhancer" of the ear and plug-in. At present, it is generally believed that hearing AIDS can effectively assist hearing below 90 decibels. Above 90 decibels, the compensation effect of hearing AIDS is limited, and cochlear implants are usually recommended. However, under what circumstances, hearing AIDS should be equipped and cochlear implants should be made according to the actual situation of patients. The effective range of cochlear implant and hearing aid itself is not very clear. For example, below 70 decibels, it must be a hearing aid; Above 90 decibels, usually cochlea; But 70-90, which belongs to hearing AIDS, is also effective. Cochlear implants can also be implanted in some foreign hearing and medical developed areas, and both options can be used. There are two modes:
1
One ear cochlea, one ear hearing aid: This is the most common choice for users with severe sensorineural deafness. Dual mode definitely works better. Let's talk about disyllables. Wearing a hearing aid while implanting a cochlear implant is called dual mode. Its main purpose is to use the residual hearing of non-implanted ears, mainly low-frequency information, to assist the sound perception of implanted ears. Generally, bad ears are selected for unilateral implantation to make full use of the residual hearing of non-implanted ears. From the clinical manifestations, preserving and using residual hearing may improve the speech perception ability of implants, such as the recognition ability of Chinese tones and the speech recognition rate in noisy environment. Our brain has a very strong ability to learn and integrate, and it can make full use of all the received information to identify. Therefore, how to provide more effective information for the brain is something we need to consider and study. Dual mode is such an attempt. At the same time, the cochlea provides electrical stimulation, and then the hearing aid provides acoustic stimulation of low-frequency signals. Some implant sensing systems can extract and use this information to achieve better sensing effect. For example, some implants will obviously feel that they can't hear clearly when wearing a hearing aid alone, but wearing a cochlea and a hearing aid at the same time will make them hear better than wearing a cochlea alone.
2
The same ear has both a hearing aid and a cochlea, and the other ear uses a hearing aid: this is called "sound-electricity combination". Minimally invasive technique is used in cochlear implant surgery to preserve residual hearing, so that high-frequency cochlear implant and low-frequency hearing aid can be used in the same ear. According to the lectures given by several authoritative experts in China, the effect is very good.
In addition, there are bilateral cochlear implants, bilateral hearing AIDS and so on.
Cochlear implant is an electronic device. The speech processor in vitro converts the sound into an electrical signal with a certain coding form, and directly stimulates the auditory nerve through the implanted electrode system to restore or rebuild the hearing function of the deaf. Cochlear implant surgery is also a kind of surgery. The hearing of cochlear implant surgery is extremely powerful. Although there is no strict age limit for cochlear implant surgery, it is not recommended if the patient is older and misses the language development. Generally, children from a few years old to a teenager do more. Hearing aid is a small speaker, which amplifies the originally inaudible sound, and then uses the residual hearing of the hearing impaired to make the sound reach the auditory pathway of the brain and feel the sound. Common shapes are divided into: behind the ear, open, standard in-ear and customized in-ear The difference between the two is the price, from thousands to tens of thousands of hearing AIDS, from hundreds of thousands to 300 thousand cochlear implants, and the later maintenance cost is several thousand a year. The difference is that the cochlea needs surgical implantation, which has certain risks. Hearing AIDS can be worn as long as they are equipped. It is suggested that young and middle-aged people and the elderly with hearing loss wear hearing AIDS, which are scientifically fitted and worn daily, without surgery, and are safe and risk-free.
The difference between cochlea and hearing aid lies in:
Cochlear implant is an electronic device. The speech processor in vitro converts the sound into an electrical signal with a certain coding form, and directly stimulates the auditory nerve through the implanted electrode system to restore or rebuild the hearing function of the deaf. Cochlear implant surgery is also a kind of surgery. The hearing of cochlear implant surgery is extremely powerful. Although there is no strict age limit for cochlear implant surgery, it is not recommended if the patient is older and misses the language development. Generally, children from a few years old to a teenager do more. Hearing aid is a small speaker, which amplifies the originally inaudible sound, and then uses the residual hearing of the hearing impaired to make the sound reach the auditory pathway of the brain and feel the sound. The difference is that the cochlea needs surgical implantation, which has certain risks. Hearing AIDS can be worn as long as they are equipped. It is suggested that young and middle-aged people and the elderly with hearing loss wear hearing AIDS, which are scientifically fitted and worn daily, without surgery, and are safe and risk-free.
Hearing AIDS and cochlea can both be called hearing AIDS. In terms of price, hearing AIDS are cheaper, cochlear implants are more expensive, hearing AIDS can be worn directly, and cochlear implants need surgery. Hearing aid is an amplifier, which can fully amplify external signals, then introduce them into the ear canal of the hearing impaired, pass through the middle ear, and then enter the auditory receptors of the inner ear, so that the hearing impaired can hear this "amplified" sound. The working principle of cochlear implant is not to amplify the sound, but to apply pulsed electrical stimulation to the well-functioning auditory nerve located in the cochlea, so that the patient can regain the sound.
Cochlear implants are generally suitable for severe or extremely severe cochlear hearing loss in both ears. The best implantation age for prelingual deaf patients is 1.2 months to 3 years old, because if a child can't hear any sound because of congenital deafness, it will affect his ability to learn to speak, and he will easily change from a deaf person to a "deaf person". If cochlear implants are implanted before the age of 3, with appropriate language training, most deaf children can basically live like normal people.
Hearing AIDS are suitable for a wide range of people, such as the elderly with hearing impairment, deaf people, bilateral or unilateral deaf people and so on. By wearing hearing AIDS, people can better protect their residual hearing. Especially for people with deafness in both ears, hearing AIDS with clear, full and natural sound quality can avoid hearing deprivation and prevent speech resolution from decreasing and hearing loss on one side; Secondly, binaural selection makes it easier to locate sound, which is beneficial to suppress tinnitus and shorten the adaptation period of hearing AIDS.
For people with hearing loss, there may be two choices, wearing hearing AIDS or implanting cochlear implants. What is the difference between hearing AIDS and cochlear implants, and what kind of people are they suitable for? Hearing AIDS and cochlear implants have both similarities and differences. The similarity is that they can all be called hearing AIDS, and they all convert external sound signals into electrical signals through special electronic circuits, and then into sound signals acceptable to the human body. The difference is that the hearing aid is an amplifier, which can fully amplify the external signal, then introduce it into the ear canal of the hearing-impaired person, pass through the middle ear, and then enter the auditory receptor of the inner ear, so that the hearing-impaired person can hear this "amplified" sound. The working principle of cochlear implant is not to amplify the sound, but to apply pulsed electrical stimulation to the well-functioning auditory nerve located in the cochlea, so that the patient can regain the sound.
Hearing AIDS are suitable for patients with mild to severe hearing loss. However, due to the different types and qualities of hearing AIDS, the amplification effect of sound signals is also different, that is, the fidelity of sound signals is different. People with hearing impairment will sound different. Cochlear implants are suitable for people with extremely severe hearing, that is, people who can't use hearing AIDS. Moreover, there are many kinds of hearing AIDS, such as behind-the-ear machines, in-ear machines, ear canal machines, invisible hearing AIDS, etc., and there are many kinds to choose from. Cochlear implant is an electronic device. The speech processor in vitro converts the sound into an electrical signal with a certain coding form, and directly stimulates the auditory nerve through the implanted electrode system to restore, improve and rebuild the hearing function of the deaf. In recent twenty years, with the development of high technology, cochlear implant has made rapid progress, and has entered clinical application from experimental research. At present, cochlear implant has become a routine method to treat severe deafness to total deafness in all countries of the world. Cochlear implant is the most successful biomedical engineering device at present. Cochlear implant requires strict preoperative evaluation, and there are absolute and relative contraindications, so not everyone is suitable for cochlear implant. And you need to go to a regular hospital for surgery. Whether you wear a hearing aid or implant a cochlear implant, you need a certain adaptation period. Cochlear implants, in particular, are very different from those of healthy people, so there will be some differences between the perceived sound and the natural sound. Postlingual deafness takes a long time and several months of rehabilitation training, while prelingual deafness (children) needs 2-3 years of language rehabilitation to achieve the ideal effect. At present, the cost of a cochlear implant plus surgery is about 200 thousand, and the price of a hearing aid ranges from thousands to tens of thousands.
Cochlea: Ear implantation through surgery is suitable for patients with extremely severe hearing loss, and the cost of surgery is relatively high.
Hearing AIDS: As long as hearing loss occurs, hearing AIDS can be fitted within the range of hearing aid fitting, and the cost ranges from low to high. You can go to the store to audition before you decide to buy it.
One is original, the other is plug-in ~
Hearing AIDS and cochlea can both be called hearing AIDS. In terms of price, hearing AIDS are cheaper, cochlear implants are more expensive, hearing AIDS can be worn directly, and cochlear implants need surgery. Hearing aid is an amplifier, which can fully amplify external signals, then introduce them into the ear canal of the hearing impaired, pass through the middle ear, and then enter the auditory receptors of the inner ear, so that the hearing impaired can hear this "amplified" sound. The working principle of cochlear implant is not to amplify the sound, but to apply pulsed electrical stimulation to the well-functioning auditory nerve located in the cochlea, so that the patient can regain the sound.