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How do we select which brand of cochlear implant?

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Hi I live in Ontario, I am 70 years old and just qualified for a cochlear implant for my left ear. The reason is that I have meniers.

My hearing is constantly in flux. Volume, tone and clarity change, daily, hourly, even minutely.
Word recognition in my left ear is poor as it sounds distorted, like a broken speaker.

There are three cochlear implants available to me. , advance bionics cochlear corporation. The surgeon seemed to favour medel because he said something about they have different sizes compared to advanced bionic which only has one size.

Unlike hearing aids, we are not able to try these out. And select which cochlear implant sounds the best for me.

My question is how do we select which brand of cochlear implant? Of the three Which one sounds more natural ?
Which of the three gives better word recognition?
Which of the three works well with the oticon hearing aid that I will be using in my right ear?
Which of the three works with hearing aid apps to control both hearing aid and cochlear implant at the same time?

11 people in this conversation9 min readJump to latest
@Tony3 said:

The surgeon seemed to favour medel because he said something about they have different sizes compared to advanced bionic which only has one size.

This comment needs to be explained better or it is just incorrect.
All three brands of are good. Each has little differences that might be important to you.

@Tony3 said:

Of the three Which one sounds more natural ?

From reading many experiences from many CI people all three are basically the same.

@Tony3 said:

Which of the three gives better word recognition?

All three the same.

@Tony3 said:

Which of the three works well with the oticon hearing aid that I will be using in my right ear?

This i believe the MedEl would be best but you have to have an intermediate device with you to use it. This you can also do with the other brands with an intermediate device. is hand in hand with Phonak and Cochlear is hand in hand with Resound. Both of these do not need an intermediate device to use compatible phones.

@Tony3 said:

Which of the three works with hearing aid apps to control both hearing aid and cochlear implant at the same time?

I know AB does this with one app and Cochlear does it with one app in the USA.

MedEl and Cochlear both have off the ear and on the ear processors. AB only has the on the ear processor, no off the ear.

I agree with @Raudrive and his analysis of your questions. The only thing I can add is :-

@Tony3 said:

Which of the three gives better word recognition?

All 3 companies you can get the same result. Sometimes can depend upon how much rehab you do or don’t do. IMO rehab is very important to your progress.

tony:
i just had my external part installed on left ear tuesday, 8/13. i chose AD as they also made the hearing aid i wear. It took the two minutes to link both devices. both devices also use bluetooth so I can link my phone. good luck
scott

Yes my concern is that they give you a marvel hearing aid for my other ear. It’s so outdated. My right ear needs a hearing aid. I don’t understand why they don’t give you the latest phonack hearing aids. Basically I would be improving my left ear with ci. And my right ear would be compromised with a hearing aid that is many generations behind the current and up to date models

I recommend reading my two posts:

Phonak Naida L50-SP - programming issues
It’s worth the effort. Many implanted people regret to not be implanted earlier. Hearing aids probably don’t give you over that 68%. The only way to elevate WRS score is cochlear implant. My decision about my left ear was easy because it hears totally zero. Your left ear is quite unusable to hear speech so you also have almost nothing to lose with surgery. Concededly, I have CI from Cochlear company, but if you plan use Naida on right ear consider Advanced Bionics because of bilateral coopera…

And:

Phonak Naida L50-SP - programming issues
@younguy69, there are other useful topics: Any major reservations regarding Advanced Bionics brand? - Cochlear Implants - Hearing Aid Forum - Active Hearing Loss Community (hearingtracker.com) Anyone here with a Cochlear implant regretted it? - Cochlear Implants - Hearing Aid Forum - Active Hearing Loss Community (hearingtracker.com) Advanced Bionics CI Activation a Success - Cochlear Implants - Hearing Aid Forum - Active Hearing Loss Community (hearingtracker.com) On this forum @joanhawsey i…

In reply to @Tony3

@Tony3 that’s not so in my case. I have a N8 and an extremely old platform from Resound - an
Enzo 3D and it’s only a few months old. It’s level of technology is the lowest available in the Enzo 3D line. I think it’s level 5.

In hearing I hear perfectly well. I stream, answer the phone and communicate well and participate in meetings. So I don’t agree with your comment you need the best top level technology available, that’s just not correct. If you look at my you will see how severe profound my L ear is and I do well with this hearing aid.

In reply to @Deaf_piper

@Tony3 said:

Which of the three gives better word recognition?

@Deaf_piper said:

All 3 companies you can get the same result. Sometimes WRS can depend upon how much rehab you do or don’t do. IMO rehab is very important to your progress.

Rehab is also very important but it also depends on how well your brain hears as well.

My friends (twins) have Naida Marvel plus a Naida Link Aid and they have to lipread and use sign as their brains don’t hear very well.

They were both re-implanted and it’s made no difference what so ever. Their inside implant was the first generation AB and now they have a much better internal implant but they still don’t hear very well.

In reply to @Tony3

@Tony3 said:

Basically I would be improving my left ear with ci. And my right ear would be compromised with a hearing aid that is many generations behind the current and up to date models

I wore Phonak aids exclusively before going . My decision to go with Cochlear was very simple, my surgeon said they have the best support hands down where I live.
Which brand has the best support where you live?
Is your current Phonak compatible with the processor? It takes a special Phonak aid to be compatible. This might be an expense you had not expected.

All three CI brands work equally well. The CI evaluation should clear the air for your ability to use one properly with good rehabilitation. There will always be random cases the candidate does not do as well as expected but typically most candidates do much better than expected as far as word understanding goes. CI has changed my life for the better in so many ways.

Good luck with your decision.

I would go with cochlear they are the absolute leader in this cathegory

In reply to @Raudrive

purely speculative, world wide Cochlear has what is it 60% market share. Even big companies like demand couldn’t sucessfully compete with them. It makes sense as part as the divesting strategy
they could make Oticon hearing aids compatible with their (time will tell)

@user246 said:

they could make Oticon hearing aids compatible with their CI (time will tell)

That would be very nice. Cochlear did buy out the Oticon business. I don’t know how that could tie to Oticon hearing aids but it sure might. Cochlear users would have two compatible hearing aid choices. A great idea.

Oticon do have a strong desire to increase share of market in the pediatric segment.

having an arrangement with cochlear do make sense as part of an agreement for sale.

that could explain why, they have delay so much @ power instruments.

Time will tell

I am planning to get .

Currently inclined to Advanced Bionics due to Phonak’s reputation.

However, Kenso 2 and Rando 3, like sound processors, are really appealing due to the comfort of wear.

What should I do? I see ’s maximum simulation rate is 83000 PPS while Cochlear has 32000 PPS and has 51000 PPS.

PPS rate is the number of updates per second the implant is capable of.

Channel-wise, it is 16, 22, and 12, respectively. On that - Electrodes and Channels | cochlear implant HELP20

Don’t just rely on Phonaks reputation. has had several recalls of internal parts. Where the recipient had to go through another procedure to be reimplanted.

Cochlear has the greater market share and are more reliable devices.

Do your research on each company.
Speak to the company representatives.
Talk to your audiologist, what one does she/he recommend.
Find a Cochlear audiologist near you talk to them, and arrange an evaluation for yourself.
Think about your work life, which type of device would be more suitable on or off the ear.
Think about how far you have to travel for mappings? Which company is the closest audiologist to where you live or work. A Ci audiologist is different to a audiologist.

Good luck.

@Dipak_P, what @Deaf_piper has written is absolutely true. Despite my tendency to now, in 2013, when I had surgery, my place had no support from that company, so I got a Cochlear company implant.I don’t regret it, except maybe that I couldn’t get it earlier.

The 3 brands all can produce great results if you work at the rehab. There might be some differences I’m don’t know about when it comes to Meniers. Only your surgeon and audi can address how that part will effect the choice.

Reading https://cochlearimplanthelp.com/86 helped me a lot when I was deciding. It is an impartial source of info. I also contacted the reps from Cochlear America and . You can also join each brand’s facebook group and ask questions.

I choose Advanced Bionics partly for the seamless integration with the Link , bluetooth without a device and the compatible internal magnet. There is a replaceable battery compartment for emergencies. I also liked that if my second ear gets worse, I can try using a link HA before I jump to a second .

I just passed my 1 year anniversary of being activated and have no complaints. My word discrimination at one month with both CI and HA went from 36% to 100%. With just the CI, it went from 16% to 80%.

@db4art, do you hear when bilateral features kick in?

I mean the ones described in my post here:

Phonak Naida L50-SP - programming issues
It’s worth the effort. Many implanted people regret to not be implanted earlier. Hearing aids probably don’t give you over that 68%. The only way to elevate WRS score is cochlear implant. My decision about my left ear was easy because it hears totally zero. Your left ear is quite unusable to hear speech so you also have almost nothing to lose with surgery. Concededly, I have CI from Cochlear company, but if you plan use Naida on right ear consider Advanced Bionics because of bilateral coopera…

I am with the in my right ear and the Link in my left. I’m not bilateral which means a CI in both ears. So I’m not sure what you’re asking.

The CI and HA work together perfectly. Speech and sounds seem as if they are coming from a single source in my brain. Neither is as good alone as they are together.

I know about the differences between bilateral and (see and click my nickname). I simply used brachylogy due to the subheading in that article:

Screenshot_20240805_173800_Chrome

Source:

Advanced Bionics Naída CI M90 Review9

David Ryan and Howard Samuels Naída M90 First Impressions The Naída CI M90 is the first Advanced Bionics processor to be produced entirely under the Sonova umbrella from concept on through produ…

However, thank for describing your experiences with Naida Link with CI.

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