I am 72 yr old who was just diagnosed with Bilateral hearing loss. I have been referred to a CI specialist for assessment. I have been reading about the various brands and features. I do not listen to much music but want something that will let me hear well in restaurants, and other noisy places, and in automobiles. Would Cochlear be my best choice to meet my needs. I do not know yet if I will need dual implant or just single in my worst ear.
Hi @TomP, I have a Cochlear N8 and Resound Enzo 3D (bimodal). I had my surgery 5.5 years ago in 2019… The actual CI evaluation lasts for around 2 hours, so take a bottle of water with you. You are thoroughly tested with and without your HA’s. With and without white noise also. I came out from my evaluation “brain dead” from the necessity of concentrating, for the 2 hours.
For me speech and music are great. In noisy situations this is still a bit difficult, here I use the “live listen” feature on my iPhone. I’m not at all IT savvy so I’m glad Cochlear is fairly simple for me to use, I’m older than you are. IMO it doesn’t matter which brand you choose noisy situations are still a bit difficult. An awful lot better than with HA’s, but not perfect by any means.
Contact all 3 companies, Med El, Advanced Bionics and Cochlear, ask to speak to a representative so you can become more informed about your new devise, or set up a face to face appoint If possible. This will help you make the right choice for you.
This journey is definitely not a quick one, it takes a lot of rehab, patience and perseverance as well to reach your end goal. Good luck to you as you progress through this journey.
3 Likes
Thank you for your insight. I will have to have my evaluation to see if there is enough hearing left in my good ear to warrant a hearing aid. Have to play the
wait and see game. Thanks again
Tom
1 Like
Hi Tom,
I am a 78 YO new implantee with implanted L ear and high-powered Phonak HA in R ear. My surgery was Jan 17 at Mayo Clinic in Phoenix with activation Feb 7. I chose Advanced Bionics mostly because of compatibility with iPhones. Without the implant, my L ear is now dead.
BTW, my audiogram is pre-implant.
It takes a while to “train” ones hearing for the implant. Watching video conversations with captions or NY Times articles “read by an automated voice” and listening through only the implant helped considerably with the training.
At first, there was lots of buzzing and I could hear my pulse. The noises have faded. Also at first, I could understand very little speech through the implant but my hearing has improved.
Music still sounds metallic and buzzy but that too is slowly getting better.
Best wishes,
Fred
3 Likes
The CI evaluation should answer most questions and probably more you have not thought of yet. It’s a very helpful and informative process.
As far as implant brand they are all going to help your hearing the same. How well you hear depends on you and the CI audiologist. CI can be frustrating and tiring at first no matter the brand. My opinion is Cochlear and AB are the most up on technology. Both work well with Android and iPhone.
I wore Phonak aids exclusively before implants, I am bilateral. I really wanted to go with AB but my surgeon talked me out of it and I went Cochlear. His experience with Cochlear support was much better. So far Cochlear has been outstanding as far as support from a users standpoint. I deal with Cochlear not my audiologist when I need implant stuff. This has proven excellent for me.
As far as noise and music CI gets better and better with practice. Whatever you have difficulty with hearing is just a sign you need more practice in those areas. It takes time to learn, simple.
Good luck with this. Keep us updated on your progress
3 Likes
I just want to add a cheer for Cochlear support. Actually, cheers to both the tech support people who have patiently guided me thru things like Bluetooth pairings and to their insurance advisors, who always seem to know more about my benefits than the insurance people’s own support team.
2 Likes