A estimated 900,000 people in the UK suffer from server or profound hearing loss (approximately 1.34% of the UK population), and the World Health Organisation estimate that a whopping 5% of the global population suffer from disabling hearing loss! Now you may think that these stats aren’t anything to worry about and that hearing aids will compensate for hearing loss. You wouldn’t be completely incorrect, as hearing aids do help those with partial deafness, but they do not provide the same level of aid for those who suffer from serve/profound hearing loss.

Those who suffer from serve/profound hearing loss are categorised as not being able to hear sounds bellow 71-95dB (for serve hearing loss) and sounds bellow 95dB (for profound hearing loss). To put this into context, imagine you go to a club with a friend who suffers with profound hearing loss. You and your friend would need to stand 1 meter from the speakers in order for them to hear the music, and after a night like that you too may be suffering some hearing loss!

So if hearing aids aren’t the best solution, what is being done? Well in 1961 the first ever cochlear implant (CI) was used, and since then many advancement have been made to shrink the implant and minimise the invasiveness of the procedure. The CI is a device that contains a receiver that is inserted under the skin of the head with an electrode that is implanted into the cochlear directly. Additionally a transmitter and microphone/processor are attached to the receiver on top of the skin via magnets. Essentially what the CI does is receive sound via the microphone and processes that sound into digital information, which passes from the transmitter to the receiver (through the skin) and down the electrode to stimulate the cochlear directly. Allowing for the sounds picked up by the microphone to be heard by the deaf patient.

As of 2022, more than 1 MILLION cochlear implants have been successfully implanted! Granting many people, of all ages, the sense of hearing! So seeing that cochlear implants have the ability to artificially restore one of our key senses, surely no one would object to them? And even if there were, I would assume they’d be ill spirited people that can’t stand the idea of seeing others enjoy hearing. Or perhaps those with personal or religious beliefs that sees the implantation of foreign matter into the body as wrong. Well upon research, there are indeed people as I just described, but the leading voice against CI shocked me and may shock you too.

This voice being those from the deaf community themselves! Many in the deaf community are happy with their lives and don’t see their deafness as a negative attribute. They can communicate via sign language and can still sense the world via touch and sight. So this idea of ‘fixing hearing loss’ can make it sound like those who are deaf are ‘broken’, when they are living healthy lives. In my opinion we, as humans, are designed to be able to hear. So the lack of hearing technically would be a defect, however many of us suffer from different ailments and that isn’t necessarily a bad thing. I understand that for many, deafness is not debilitating, and so do not want to have the CI as they are happy the way they are.

When it comes down to it, cochlear implantations are an elective procedure and if you do not wish to have one you are completely within your rights to do so. However some people still see those who have CIs as “betraying the deaf community” when in reality they are just people making the decision that they believe will most benefit themselves, same as those who opt to not get a CIs.