Cochlear implants

In Pasadena, Los Angeles, knowledge of audiology and hearing is improving every day through the hard work of doctors and researchers. Disorders and dysfunction of the inner ear can lead to complex problems for a patient.

Cochlear implants are electronic medical devices that have improved the lives of many who suffer from inner ear problems. Cochlear implants provide sound signals to the brain by performing the functions that a healthy inner ear would perform. Cochlear implants are useful for those who have moderate to profound hearing loss in both ears, receive no benefit from hearing aids, and score 65% or less on sentence recognition tests. They can be planted in both ears to improve the ability to identify direction of sound.

Cochlear implants have come a long way since their initial invention. Today, the benefits are extensive. They have been proven to work more effectively than hearing aids, with an average of 80% sentence understanding. Cochlear implants also allow patients to focus in noisy environments and carry out successful conversations.

There are some factors that can affect these benefits, which is why it is important to check and monitor a patient’s progress regularly. Depending on how severe their hearing loss is, how long they had hearing loss before they got their cochlear implant, and other medical conditions, the success of an implant may vary.

Overall, these devices require monitoring to ensure that each patient’s individual needs are met. Since their initial invention, cochlear implants have changed the face of audiology and hearing and have allowed many to live normal lives. Talk to a doctors of hearing if you would like to receive more information.

Auditory processing disorders

Our audiology practice in Pasadena, Los Angeles, aims to understand different hearing disorders such as auditory processing disorders. APDs are also known as central auditory processing disorders. They can be hard to recognize and diagnose due to the fact that symptom vary between different age groups. APDs occur most commonly in children of all ages.

Preschoolers can begin to exhibit symptoms, though diagnosis of APDs normally occurs in grade school. Some symptoms displayed in preschoolers include difficulty tuning out background noise, and discomfort when hearing loud noises. Usually, preschoolers will not like being read to and won't be able to sit still for story time at school. This is because children with APD are struggling to process what they hear, and this causes them to be overly sensitive to sounds and background noise. Often, children with APD will need to have things repeated them and will have trouble remembering information and instructions.

In grade school, these symptoms will become more problematic. Children will begin to dread reading and sounding out words they don't know. This is because they are struggling to process how different sounds work together in order to form words. These children will have poor conversation skills and will forget things because they have difficulty recalling information they have heard.

APDs can become worse if not treated, impairing a child’s life and their ability to learn. A doctor of hearing will be able to solve the problem with various treatment methods such as therapy (specifically speech therapy) and various learning methods that can be applied in the school place. APD is treatable but what is most important is recognizing symptoms early on (preferably at the pre-school level) in order to start treatment right away.  Contact us at DoctorsOfHearing.com for more information!