Cochlear Implant Candidacy

We provide Cochlear Implant Candidacy screening. The assessment includes diagnostic audiometry, AZBIO sound field speech testing in best-aided conditions, hearing aid programming, and real ear measurements. The goal is to prevent unnecessary travel to Vancouver. Patients who meet the criteria will still need to be formally assessed by the provincial cochlear implant program at St. Paul’s Hospital in Vancouver.

What is a cochlear implant?

A cochlear implant is a device that provides direct electrical stimulation to the auditory nerve in the inner ear. Children and adults with a severe to profound hearing loss who cannot be helped with hearing aids may be helped with cochlear implants.

This type of hearing loss is sensorineural, which means there is damage to the tiny hair cells in the part of the inner ear called the cochlea. Because of this damage, sound cannot reach the auditory nerve. With a cochlear implant, the damaged hair cells are bypassed, and the auditory nerve is stimulated directly.

The cochlear implant does not restore or cure hearing loss. It does, however, allow for the perception of the sensation of sound.

Some benefits from a cochlear implant depend on many factors, such as the age of the patient when he or she receives the implant, whether the hearing loss was present before or after the patient developed language skills and the motivation of the patient and his or her family.

External parts

The external parts include a microphone, a speech processor, and a transmitter. The microphone looks like a behind-the-ear hearing aid. It picks up sounds just like a hearing aid microphone does and sends them to the speech processor. The speech processor may be housed with the microphone behind the ear, or it may be a small box-like unit typically worn in a chest pocket. The speech processor is a computer that analyzes and digitizes the sound signals and sends them to a transmitter worn on the head just behind the ear. The transmitter sends the coded signals to an implanted receiver just under the skin.

Internal parts

The internal (implanted) parts include a receiver and electrodes. The receiver is just under the skin behind the ear. The receiver takes the coded electrical signals from the transmitter and delivers them to the array of electrodes that have been surgically inserted in the cochlea. The electrodes stimulate the fibers of the auditory nerve, and sound sensations are perceived.