Cochlear Implant Tinnitus
You may have heard about an implant that can help mask or eliminate the ringing sounds of tinnitus. What you’re likely thinking of is a cochlear implant. This is a device that is created for people with profound hearing loss in both ears. This implant consists of an electrode array that is placed via surgery into the inner ear, a small microphone as well as a speech processor.
Together, this device is meant to restore hearing to people who are clinically and functionally deaf. Tinnitus is a common thing in deaf people of all ages. When the cochlear implant is successful and it allows the deaf person to hear some external sounds, it usually reduces tinnitus symptoms for that person.
Tinnitus often occurs with people who are deaf either completely or partially. If even some level of hearing can be restored, it usually improves the tinnitus for the person who is suffering. If you just have tinnitus with no hearing loss, it is not likely that you would be a candidate for a cochlear implant as this is not what the implant is designed for.
In fact, it is only a small percentage of people with tinnitus who qualify for the use of these implants. However, there is good news because there are other types of treatments and devices that can help such as hearing aids, sound generators or maskers and also combination units of maskers and hearing aids together.
Much research is still being done in the field and to help create new devices and possible future implants that can help tinnitus sufferers. For now cochlear implant for tinnitus is mainly only used for certain special cases with severe hearing loss. So as you can see, cochlear implants are not for everyone but there are still other options you can and should consider if you suffer from tinnitus with or without hearing loss.
