TESTING, 1… 2…
Increasingly sophisticated hearing implants expand the soundscape.

Have you ever wondered what Beethoven’s Ninth sounds like to a grasshopper? Now you can find out through a cochlear implant device currently gaining traction in the United States. The Baha system, depicted at right, can enhance hearing for people who haven’t been helped with a traditional hearing aid. The system works through the same principles that allow grasshoppers to hear. In the insect, the exoskeleton of the head connects directly to its cochlea; in the implant, a tiny transducer picks up sound vibrations and transmits them directly into the bones of the skull.

According to John Niparko, director of otology here, the implant technology can restore hearing to a level that allows a person to converse naturally. It works especially well, he says, for people with single-sided deafness. A national leader in cochlear implants, Niparko successfully treated the only deaf Miss America.

To refine the technology, Niparko partnered up with its Swedish inventor 10 years ago. The model shown here is their latest. When viewed with the naked eye, it’s slightly larger than a sugar cube. At 11 grams, it weighs about the same as a robin’s egg. Small is good, in this case, because the Baha unit must be anchored intobone just behind the patient’s ear, where it can easily be covered by the person’s hair.

Niparko’s younger patients are often proud of their implants and not at all interested in hiding them. Some even decorate them with brilliant purple and pink stickers.

As for results, studies have shown, this hearing expert says, that the device corrects deafness in most patients to a level that is “close to how someone with only a mild loss would hear.” Less than 10 were implanted in the United States during the ’90s, but Niparko now implants that same number here monthly—the highest volume nationally. About 30,000 units are currently in use worldwide. The outpatient procedure takes about one hour.