Hearing with two ears is called binaural hearing.It occurs naturally in someone with unimpaired hearing. But in the case of someone with a bilateral hearing loss, it may be achieved through the use of two hearing aids, two (bilateral) cochlear implantsor with a combination of implants and hearing aids.Binaural hearing is extremely important for everyday life and is critical in helping us determine the direction of a sound (sound localization) and better understand speech in noisy situations (speech understanding in noise).
Bilaterally implanted users are able to process sound binaurally and enjoy many of the associated benefits, including improved speech understanding in difficult listening situation and sound localization. In children, stimulation by a cochlear implant has shown to lead to development in the central auditory system. This development occurs in the implanted ear, whether it is one ear or two.
Early bilateral implantation may be the best way to develop binaural auditory pathways. Results shows that the younger a child receives implants bilaterally, or the shorter the period between the two implantations, the better the results and the easier it will be for a child to adapt to the binaural hearing.
These individuals report that the second implant greatly enriched their total hearing experience. The addition of a second implant provides a greater amount of sound information, resulting in fuller, higher quality sound and easier, less demanding hearing. Individuals, who were formerly implanted in only one ear, describe the addition of the second implant as providing them with "3D hearing."
Bilateral users report the level of concentration needed to understand speech in noisy environments is greatly reduced with two implants.
Parents describe that their child often responds more easily and more quickly in group situations, is not as tired after school as they were with just one implant, and has more self confidence. Teacher and therapists observe that bilaterally implanted children acquire speech and language more easily on "on the go" in everyday life than unilaterally implanted children.
Bilateral cochlear implantation can take place during one surgery (called a simultaneous surgical procedure) or during two surgeries (called a sequential surgical procedure).
In the case of sequential procedures, an adjustment period typically exists while the later implanted ear catches up to the previously implanted ear for the two ears to work together optimally. The longer the interval between implantations, the more likely that training will be required to achieve optimal benefit from the two implants.
My experience with cochlear implant My name is Gerald Andrew; I am 29 year old male Tanzanian. Last year (2009) was one of the most memorable for me. It’s when I received my cochlear implant at Apollo hospital in New Delhi after Read More »
I wanted to thank you immensely for the help that you provided to my father and thus to our family by giving him the gift of hearing. He is now recovering well and is able to hear all the conversations as normally as anyone else can.
My father, underwent a Stapedotomy ear surgery to correc ct his hearing problem, first in one ear and then 6 months later in the other. The result of the surgery was better than expected and post full recovery my father is able to hear very well. Read More »
My experience with cochlear implant My name is Gerald Andrew; I am 29 year old male Tanzanian. Last year (2009) was one of the most memorable for me. It’s when I received my cochlear implant at Apollo hospital in New Delhi after more than three years of hearing loss. Everyone’s experience with coch hlear implant is a bit different therefore, am happy to share mine with anybody out there, from the moment I lost my hearing, my experience during my stay at Apollo Hospital and one year later on, after cochlear implant. Read More »