TexasEngineer
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- Aug 6, 2020
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CountryGirl23, I just registered to this website so I could give you some thoughts on my experience with a CI, and also to refute what this DjJonses has been saying to you. I've been reading posts on this website off and on since 2015 but never registered until now. I have severe-to-profound deafness in both ears and was born that way, and have three other siblings with the same deafness. I have enough residual hearing that I have been able to get by with hearing aids and lip-reading. After years of urging by ENT doctors and audiologists I finally decided to have a CI done, at the age of 54. I can say that the experience with the CI has been almost miraculous. I am now hearing sounds that I've never heard in my life and my understanding of speech has improved so much that I can now talk on the telephone without the need for captioning.
To answer your question on the brand, my understanding is that Cochlear and Advanced Bionics are both excellent choices. I went with Advanced Bionics because I thought the company was more up-to-date with the technology. Also, Phonak owns AB (or vice versa?) and as such the Phonak hearing aid is designed to work directly with the AB processor. I wear a hearing aid in the right ear and have a AB Hi-Res 90K implant in the left ear with a Naida CI Q90 processor. I find that this combination works very well because the CI has some difficulty replicating the lowest frequency sounds, and the hearing aid in the other ear helps to fill in that low-frequency gap.
Your doctor may have an arrangement with Cochlear to use their products, and may possibly refuse to use AB. I'd do research into both of these companies and decide for yourself. Also, I would ask your doctor why he wants to implant the "good" ear. Why not save the good ear for use with a hearing aid or even as a fall-back in the very small chance your CI does not work. My bad ear was implanted with the CI and it is by far the better ear now!
As I mentioned before I use a hearing aid in my good ear and it provides a good balance with the CI.
As far as this "DjJonses", ignore him/her. What he says makes no sense and certainly sounds like scaremongering. I only wish I had had this CI done earlier, and can't say enough about the positive difference it has made for me.
To answer your question on the brand, my understanding is that Cochlear and Advanced Bionics are both excellent choices. I went with Advanced Bionics because I thought the company was more up-to-date with the technology. Also, Phonak owns AB (or vice versa?) and as such the Phonak hearing aid is designed to work directly with the AB processor. I wear a hearing aid in the right ear and have a AB Hi-Res 90K implant in the left ear with a Naida CI Q90 processor. I find that this combination works very well because the CI has some difficulty replicating the lowest frequency sounds, and the hearing aid in the other ear helps to fill in that low-frequency gap.
Your doctor may have an arrangement with Cochlear to use their products, and may possibly refuse to use AB. I'd do research into both of these companies and decide for yourself. Also, I would ask your doctor why he wants to implant the "good" ear. Why not save the good ear for use with a hearing aid or even as a fall-back in the very small chance your CI does not work. My bad ear was implanted with the CI and it is by far the better ear now!
As I mentioned before I use a hearing aid in my good ear and it provides a good balance with the CI.As far as this "DjJonses", ignore him/her. What he says makes no sense and certainly sounds like scaremongering. I only wish I had had this CI done earlier, and can't say enough about the positive difference it has made for me.