Deafness is a disability that often cannot be completely corrected. Some people happen to be more deaf then others, and there isn’t a definite cure. Hearing aids can be made to improve a persons hearing, but depending on their level of deafness, the hearing aids don’t always help. Although hearing aids can help most people with hearing loss, some people may benefit instead from surgery to improve or correct their hearing. Some kinds of hearing loss can be treated only with surgery. A new and improved cure for deafness is known as cochlear implants. The implant is much different from hearing aids. This procedure involves a surgery on the ear. An electronic device is surgically implanted into the ear and it provides a sense of sound to a person who is profoundly deaf or severely hard of hearing. The surgery is not always successful and it affects every single person differently. Many people benefit from the surgery, but there are also many precautions that have to be taken into consideration. The implants can give almost any hard of hearing person a chance to hear more and make it easier to communicate.
The most common type of deafness is caused by damaged hair cells in the cochlea, which is the hearing part of the inner ear. Hearing loss can also be caused by infection, trauma, loud noises, aging, and birth defects (Turkington 1). Deafness can be reversible by being addressed medically or surgically. It can also be non reversible by using hearing aids and other assistive hearing devices that are semi helpful (“Deafness” 679). Many people would prefer to correct their hearing loss and get the cochlear implant surgery. Stalcup talked about the cochlear implant and stated that “this is a miracle of biblical proportion, making the deaf hear” (2). There are surprisingly many people who disagree with the implants and would rather live the way they were born. Roslyn Rosen, dean of continuing education at Gallaudet University in Washington D.C., asserts that “most people...