AshJagla
New Member
- Joined
- Sep 15, 2012
- Messages
- 95
- Reaction score
- 1
Not trying to start brand war by any means!
I am simply trying to gather more and more information in order to choose which CI to get my 16 month old daughter after she finishes the evaluation. She's only just getting fitted for her HAs but her audiogram showed no hearing at 128db, so we're fairly certain CIs will be the only device that she can benefit from, and I was told that I should start researching and preparing myself for it now. Here are my likes and dislike of each brand, please feel free to share which brand your child has and what your favorite things are about it and what you could do without.
Cochlear - Most established, seemingly reliable, always upgrading their mics, great marketing, 50% of CI users have this brand because it was the first to do the implants in the US. However, doesn't seem like the part that is implanted has much room for improvement left, which leaves me concerned.
Med-El - Seems like the underdog, very straight forward, transparent about everything so I don't have to sort through lots of marketing to get facts, small processor, lists their failures right on their site instead of hiding them. Feels the least established to me for some reason, maybe this is just a side effect of their lack of marketing hype.
Advance Bionics - Waterproof Neptune (of course), room for upgrades in the implanted part, seems cutting edge to me, merged with Sonova and sister of Phonak. But the Neptune currently does not have a BTE feature and the implanted part is the harshest of the 3 and most likely to damage residual hearing.
They all seem great, but they all have their drawbacks. Why does the one that you got for your child work for your family? Do you think it's just picking from apples, are they all equal?
((PS we are actively teaching her ASL and plan to continue ASL with her as her primary to back up spoken language while she's at home. We plan to put her in a local communications school until she is "caught up" if that is possible for her, at that time we will let her decide to go to School for the Deaf or mainstream))
I am simply trying to gather more and more information in order to choose which CI to get my 16 month old daughter after she finishes the evaluation. She's only just getting fitted for her HAs but her audiogram showed no hearing at 128db, so we're fairly certain CIs will be the only device that she can benefit from, and I was told that I should start researching and preparing myself for it now. Here are my likes and dislike of each brand, please feel free to share which brand your child has and what your favorite things are about it and what you could do without.
Cochlear - Most established, seemingly reliable, always upgrading their mics, great marketing, 50% of CI users have this brand because it was the first to do the implants in the US. However, doesn't seem like the part that is implanted has much room for improvement left, which leaves me concerned.
Med-El - Seems like the underdog, very straight forward, transparent about everything so I don't have to sort through lots of marketing to get facts, small processor, lists their failures right on their site instead of hiding them. Feels the least established to me for some reason, maybe this is just a side effect of their lack of marketing hype.
Advance Bionics - Waterproof Neptune (of course), room for upgrades in the implanted part, seems cutting edge to me, merged with Sonova and sister of Phonak. But the Neptune currently does not have a BTE feature and the implanted part is the harshest of the 3 and most likely to damage residual hearing.
They all seem great, but they all have their drawbacks. Why does the one that you got for your child work for your family? Do you think it's just picking from apples, are they all equal?
((PS we are actively teaching her ASL and plan to continue ASL with her as her primary to back up spoken language while she's at home. We plan to put her in a local communications school until she is "caught up" if that is possible for her, at that time we will let her decide to go to School for the Deaf or mainstream))