rehabilitation
Treating hearing loss often calls for a multidisciplinary approach. It can involve speech and language pathologists to identify and work on sounds and language, surgeons such as ear, nose and throat specialists, and developmental pediatrics physicians, as well as others. Learn more below about options available for hearing loss.
cochlear implants
The cochlear implant clinic at Dayton Children's provides a comprehensive, multidisciplinary approach for the evaluation and management of patients with congenital and acquired severe to profound deafness.
A cochlear implant is a surgically implanted device that helps overcome problems in the inner ear, or cochlea. The cochlear implant stimulates the inner ear area with electrical signals, which provides stimulation to the hearing nerve, which allows the child to hear.
Dayton Children’s has been performing cochlear implant surgeries since 1995. In order to qualify for the surgery, the patient must typically be at least 12 months old and have a severe and/or profound sensorineural hearing loss in both ears. The patient must derive no significant benefit from hearing aids when tested in the sound booth. The patient must also be enrolled in speech/ aural rehab therapy and not be reaching age-appropriate speech/language milestones.
The surgery provides patients who have severe or profound hearing loss with:
- Better access to low-, mid- and high-frequency sounds
- Better quality of sound compared to what can be achieved with hearing aids
- Better distance hearing, which can improve a child's ability to learn in the classroom setting
Learn more at cochlear.com
hearing aids
The Dayton Children’s audiology department provides a comprehensive service for children needing hearing aids (conventional, CROS or Bi-CROS aids--explain what these are?). This includes a hearing aid evaluation, fitting and ongoing monitoring of your child’s hearing. In order to ensure that your child’s hearing aid is fitting and working correctly, we will schedule follow-up appointments regularly.
Your child's first monitoring appointment will be scheduled about a month after he or she is fitted with the first hearing aid. As your child gets older, we will ensure the hearing aid technology meets his or her changing hearing needs.
Our team also will work with each family to identify funding sources in order to ensure that our patients are able to afford the technology.
BAHA (bone anchored hearing aid)
The BAHA ® (bone-anchored hearing aid) is a hearing aid option for children who may not have the ability to wear a standard hearing aid or who have hearing loss in only one ear.
The BAHA ® stimulates a patient’s inner ear via a bone-conducted signal (explain how this differs from conventional, CROS, Bi-CROS?). There are three components of every BAHA ® system: the surgical implant, an abutment or magnetic attachment, and a sound processor.
Learn more at cochlear.com
