Velislav Krastev Blog

What is an artificial ear?

A silicone prosthetic ear is a reconstructive option for patients born with microtia and other birth differences such as Treacher Collins or Goldenhar syndrome; as well as those who have suffered traumatic injury or undergone cancer resection surgery (auriculectomy).

Here we have the outside ear.

A cochlear implant (CI) is a surgically implanted neuroprosthesis that provides a person who has moderate-to-profound sensorineural hearing loss with sound perception. With the help of therapy, cochlear implants may allow for improved speech understanding in both quiet and noisy environments.^[1][2] A CI bypasses acoustic hearing by direct electrical stimulation of the auditory nerve.^[2] Through everyday listening and auditory training, cochlear implants allow both children and adults to learn to interpret those signals as speech and sound.^[3][4][5]

The implant has two main components. The outside component is generally worn behind the ear, but could also be attached to clothing, for example, in young children. This component, the sound processor, contains microphones, electronics that include digital signal processor (DSP) chips, battery, and a coil that transmits a signal to the implant across the skin. The inside component, the actual implant, has a coil to receive signals, electronics, and an array of electrodes which is placed into the cochlea, which stimulate the cochlear nerve.^[6]

Here we have the function of the ear hearing.

For the ear we have already ready to use implants that can improve hear loss. Lets say that we have now the technology to do that and have artifitial hearing and artifitial ear.