Cochlear implant on one side only?....also are they compatible with iPhones?

Cochlear Implants
#1

After 18 years of wearing progressively more powerful hearing aids my GP (UK) referred me to an ENT Consultant to review my hearing needs. The ENT consultant has referred me to the Cochlear Implant centre in Nottingham.

The gist of the ENT assessment was that my audiogram was bad to enough to meet the Cochlear criteria, but she felt that one of the other criteria, “not getting sufficient benefit from hearing aids” was marginal. She felt I was getting significant benefit. After giving me the speech about cochlear is a long road and not without risk, and irreversible, she left it to me whether I wanted to be referred.

I decided I would like at least to go to the next stage.

Two factors which bother me:

  1. She said in the UK the NHS will only supply Cochlear on one side, unless another disability exists. My experience of hearing aids is that one hearing aid is less than half of two. So the idea of cochlear on one side only really bothers me. Presume I can have conventional HA in the other…how well does that work?

  2. I get considerable benefit from current HA (Resound Enzo Quattro) streaming phone calls straight to my ears, and the Multimic, and TV Unite. Do these work with Cochlear aids.

Any comment?

Thanks

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Anyone here with a Cochlear implant regretted it?
#2

yup they do, they are both compatible. You can do a bimodal configuration. I have nucleus 8 and resound omnia hearing aid., used to have resound’s quattro and n7 before that … they stream to both devices fine with resound streaming accessory and bluetooth…

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#3

Members here on the forum use one CI and one hearing aid with great results.

Getting the CI evaluation is a great way to get educated about all this stuff. Lots of good help here on the forum too.

Good luck

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#4

Thanks @ssa and @Raudrive …just what I needed to hear!

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#5

@boreham I’m bimodal as well, Resound Enzo 3D & Cochlear N7. Soon to be upgraded to N8 if our TGA ever get off their butts and approve it use for upgrades.

Resound aids and Cochlear work beautifully together without the added requirement of phone clip or mini mic. Cochlear work with both iOS and Android/ASHA phones. All your current devices will pair with your new Cochlear.

In spite of all the risks associated with the surgery 99% of us have had excellent results from our implants. Good luck to you as you start this new journey.

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#6

Thanks very much for that first hand experience. Before posting I was feeling very lukewarm about cochlear but yours and the other posts have reassured me.

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