A cochlear implant is a like a divine gift for the people who are hard of hearing.
It is an electronic device, placed behind the ear which consists of the following four parts, namely a microphone, a speech processor, a transmitter with receiver, and electrodes.
Although it does not restore a pure natural sound, it can allow the person to communicate and undoubtedly he can lead physical, mental and social life in a better way.
So, it is better than using sign languages in many instances.
A cochlear implant artificially modifies the altered internal part of the ear to transform the sound waves into impulses which are received by the ears as a sound or noise after being processed in the brain.
There are around 25,000 implantees across the world, 14,000 from the U.
S.
alone.
The figure includes adults as well as children.
Children from ages of 2 years to 6 years are considered old enough to receive cochlear implants.
Cochlear implants are extremely beneficial for adults who would no longer have to rely on lip reading and sign language to communicate with others around them.
Cochlear implantation is done by surgery.
Before the implantation surgery is undertaken, the surgeons and specialists will weigh all the pros and cons.
Along with surgeons and advisors, different audiologists should be consulted before a person actually goes for the implantation.
A person who has an implant has to have therapy to understand the sounds that emerge from the implant.
Also, one has to take into account the expense of the surgery as it is an expensive one.