Hearing aids make sounds louder. Cochlear implants are different; they bypass the damaged part of the ear and stimulate the hearing nerve directly.

Cochlear implants enhance the clarity of sounds and improve your ability to understand speech. It may also help you to regain confidence in social situations, rejoin friends and family and live a fuller life.

In a recent study, people with cochlear implants could understand sentences eight times better than they could previously with their hearing aids.1,2

How cochlear implants produce clearer sound

Cochlear implants replace the function of damaged sensory hair cells inside the inner ear. Unlike hearing aids, which mostly make sounds louder, cochlear implants may further improve the clarity of sound and enhance your ability to understand conversations.

A cochlear implant system has two parts:

1. the external sound processor

2. the implant surgeons put under the skin and attach to an electrode array they place in the inner ear.

Together, the sound processor and implant bypass the part of the ear that isn't working, sending sound straight to the hearing nerve.