Cochlear implant program at Dell Children’s Medical Center
If you think your child may be experiencing hearing loss, your child’s care starts with child-friendly hearing tests and evaluations. At Dell Children's Medical Center, part of Ascension Seton, we take a multidisciplinary approach to care. Your child's care team includes pediatric otolaryngologists (ear, nose and throat doctors), audiologists, speech therapists and other specialists. We work together to diagnose, manage and treat hearing conditions, including partial and complete hearing loss. We help you set family-centered communication goals and educate you on all of your child’s communication options. Your child’s care may include cochlear implants if they have a significant hearing loss and hearing aids do not provide enough benefit. If your child needs a cochlear implant, you are in the right place with a team of specialists who provide the full range of care – from evaluation to surgery and auditory rehabilitation therapy. Our goal is to help your child and family overcome hearing differences and be able to communicate.
Comprehensive care for children with cochlear implants
Your child’s care team may include a team of ENT doctors, audiologists, speech therapists, social workers, psychologists and more. If your child needs a cochlear implant, it will be surgically placed inside the cochlea. A child usually goes home the same day the surgery is performed. General anesthesia is used, and your child will sleep through the procedure.
What is a cochlear implant?
A cochlear implant is a small electrode that is placed in the inner ear (cochlea), bypassing the damaged nerves and directly stimulating the hearing nerves. The processor, which is worn on the outside, converts sound waves into electrical signals that go to the hearing nerve. T, the electrical signals are then sent to your child's brain where they are recognized as sound.
We use evidence-based hearing care and focus on supporting your child and family. Listening with cochlear implants takes practice. We help your child adapt to the cochlear implant and fit the device during adjustment appointments. We also offer information about how assistive listening devices, such as telephone amplifiers, microphones and TV listening devices, may help improve your child's quality of life. We are here for your family from your child’s first appointment through speech rehabilitation and beyond. We also offer support for mental and emotional health needs unique to patients with hearing differences.
As your child grows, our specialists at Dell Children’s continue to deliver ongoing care for your child. We help coordinate your child's care and connect your family with other specialists and services at Dell Children’s Medical Center, such as speech therapy, auditory verbal therapy, mental health and community support.