DEAR MAYO CLINIC: I'm 70 years old and have worn hearing aids for about a decade. Over the past several years, my hearing seems to be getting worse. Although I have tried several different kinds of hearing aids, I feel as if they are not effective any longer. A friend suggested I ask an audiologist about cochlear implants. I thought those were just for people who are deaf. Could a cochlear implant help someone like me? How does it work?
ANSWER: A cochlear implant could be a good alternative to hearing aids in your situation. It's true that when they were introduced in the 1980s, cochlear implants mainly were used for people who had complete hearing loss. Today, however, they often are used to help people who have more advanced hearing loss that cannot be corrected with hearing aids.
Your ear has three areas: the outer, middle and inner ear. Sound waves pass through the outer ear and cause the eardrum to vibrate. The eardrum and three small bones of the middle ear transmit the vibrations as they travel to the inner ear. Within the inner ear, the vibrations pass through fluid in a snail-shaped structure, called the cochlea.
