One Implant Made an Impact. Might Two Do Even More?

Steve,

Is what you're describing something that was programmed into your CIs? The reason I ask is because my CIs don't have that. If I put them on the wrong ear, they still work. When this happens, one CI sounds painfully loud and the other sounds extremely soft.
 
I do know a few people that do still wear hearing aids in the other non-implanted ear. They probably could hear better with the hearing aids than I could when I had HA's.
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Yes, I think there will be some people with bilateral CI, but it won't be really commonly seen overall.
I think that the bimodal approach will probaly be most commonly seen...simply b/c it's really rare overall to have a hearing loss that can't be helped by hearing aids at all. Also b/c health plans (except for the most generous) are going to fight tooth and nail to avoid paying for two instead of one....after all the surgery is rather expensive.
 
It's really difficult to say how much a person benefits from their hearing aid if they wear an aid in one ear and a CI in the other. I know alot of CI users who use a bimodal approach that can only hear environmental sounds with their hearing aid, but are more than satisfied with this since it helps to balance out sound provided by their CI. Other people like myself chose to have a second implant (actually my CI surgeon recommended it for me) due to the fact that they can no longer tell when their hearing aid is on or off.
 
The early Freedoms did not have the side matching feature and the software was later updated quite some time ago to add that feature. The audi updates the cochlear sofware to add this feature.
Hear Again said:
Steve,

Is what you're describing something that was programmed into your CIs? The reason I ask is because my CIs don't have that. If I put them on the wrong ear, they still work. When this happens, one CI sounds painfully loud and the other sounds extremely soft.
Click to expand...
 
john57 said:
The early Freedoms did not have the side matching feature and the software was later updated quite some time ago to add that feature. The audi updates the cochlear sofware to add this feature.
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Do you know when Cochlear added this feature? I had my first CI in December, 2004 and my second in February, 2006. I received my first Freedom processor in early to mid 2005 and my second (obviously) with my bilateral CI in February, 2006.
 
Hear Again said:
Do you know when Cochlear added this feature? I had my first CI in December, 2004 and my second in February, 2006. I received my first Freedom processor in early to mid 2005 and my second (obviously) with my bilateral CI in February, 2006.
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Ask your Audiology if there's firmware upgrade for your BTE ? I never thought of that.

I got four BTEs during Spring 2008 and all four have the H6 feature to prevent wrong coil on wrong implants.
 
jtlytle said:
Ask your Audiology if there's firmware upgrade for your BTE ? I never thought of that.

I got four BTEs during Spring 2008 and all four have the H6 feature to prevent wrong coil on wrong implants.
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Thanks for your reply! I will be seeing my audi soon for some testing, so I will be sure to ask her at that time.
 
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