Whats the best and most expensive CI?

I wanna know what is the best CI with good quility.

ravensteve, there are 3 implants available in the USA. Every professional will tell you that there is no better or worse implant. The 3 function equally well. What you should focus on is on the equipment--which ones appeal to you more? When you are done with evaluations from a CI team, they will show you the 3 devices for you to look at and answer your questions. It's neat to look at the internal and external equipment.

There really isn't a best or worst implant. If there were, then everyone would be getting one implant. The one thing we know is that most people choose Nucleus Esprit 3G. It's been around longer in the USA, so that's probably why. The Clarion's been around 1995. Med-El is originally from Austria, so most people in Europe and other countries use Med-El more.

Nucleus came from Australian, I believe.

You can request information packets from each company if you go to their websites and e-mail a request. They will even send you a video. I am not sure if Medel has a video, but I know Cochlear (nucleus) and Advanced Bionics(clarion) have them.

Here are the websites:

Http://www.cochlear.com
Http://www.bionicear.com
Http://www.medel.com

They equally work well, focus on what you think will fit your lifestyle better and what your instinct tells you to go with.

I missed when you asked about which one is the most expensive. There really isn't more expensive or least expensive. They are equally priced. It's normally around 50,000 dollars, but that includes surgery, anesthesia, etc. I suggest you get under Medicaid. That will help a lot especially with the mappings you will have to do to best fit your hearing as you adjust to it.

Well, Theres an old saying my father told me. When you buy cheap thats whats gonna get is cheap! When you buy a litte expensive item you get a little more or a whole lot more quility than cheap. Just like japanese made cars. Theyre cheap cause theyre made cheap and they dont last beyond 7 years. When you buy american made car youll get quility and performance in them. Thats what i want in CI quility and performance or better than my old widex hearing aid.

RavenSteve. Well, you don't have to worry about such thing with the CI. My brother worked and will work with cars engineering and he prefers and have seen that japanese cars are way better lasting if you also take the time to maintain them regularly. He says Jaguars are crap, Fords are crap because he sees them with more problems when he worked than Toyota's and Honda's : ).

Really, there's no such thing as expensive or cheap CI. It doesn't even compare to cars or product brands. I know from research that they are equally the same. The rest of it is up to your regular going to mappings and maybe therapies if you need it. The CI is only 10 percent of the work. The rest is you keeping up with your appointments, patient getting used to it or in other cases parent's work with their CI child.

I had someone send me an e-mail from various hospitals across the nation. NONE have said anything about better CI brands. None, zippo. There's no such thing about cheap or expensive CI. It's all about which one you're drawn to based on your reading the material, talking to people and the CI's look. I did the research until I felt I was done--almost 2 to 3 years. I have found nothing regarding betterness in these brands. There have been research where some people are implanted with a different brand in each ear. There's no fact of better because it all lies in your ear and how it process sounds. There was someone who had implants in both ears and this person heard better in the poorest unstimulated ear than the other ear stimulated with HA's. There's nothing you will find in the best in each of these implants. Go with your guts, talk to people and read the material. That's the best way to be prepared. I am not lying or leaving anything out. That's the blunt truth.

if i were you i would choose the 2 brands...

the Nucleus
and the clairon

the med-el looks ugly to me :-x my audi agrees with me

DeafSCUBA98 said:

if i were you i would choose the 2 brands...

the Nucleus
and the clairon

the med-el looks ugly to me :-x my audi agrees with me

Click to expand...

Actually, I thought it was weird looking at first, but when I saw this on people who had it, it wasn't as ugly as I thought originally. I have never heard complaints from Med-El. They seem to have less problems mechanically than Clarion and Nucleus, but Clarion and Nucleu's problems are not impossible to fix. Med-El's battery life last longer than the other devices, and Med-El usually use one programming while Clarion and Med-El you have to try about 3 different ones to see which one's best for you. That's why I advice to speak to as many people as you can talking about their devices, so you can feel which one you would be happy with because each has its own "life" but nothing better or worse than each other.

It varies, I encourage you to see this device on someone wearing them because I now do not think it's as bad as it look on pictures.

I would refrain from telling people to reject looking at Med-El because I have heard people really happy with them, and the fact is that we have 3 devices altogether...it wouldn't be fair. Med-El's been around a long time, even longer than Clarion, so they are reliable as the other 2.

Damn,, See the CI is new to me, My ENT never discuss a CI with me when i was wearing a hearing aid. Long time ago my old ENT predicted id lose my hearing around when im 25. Thats when i was 10 years old. Boy he was wrong. My hearing lasted till now in 43 years old. He said then theres no cure for hearing loss but now theres hope. Even well beyond a CI your hearing can be restored. I suggest yall read this article.
Read here!!

Well, doctors didn't know much about CI back then, so we didn't hear much of it. Now, I hear more people are aware of the CI. I hear weird stories about hearing loss. When you research the CI, you will learn rapidly all about it. May I ask what was the cause of your hearing loss?

TiaraPrincess said:

May I ask what was the cause of your hearing loss?

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Sure,,When i was 4 or 5 i had the mumps and then mom start to pay attention why i did hear her. Then i could hear the TV i started turn it up louder and mom thought i was just playing with the TV. Then i couldnt hear the radio i turned it up loud. Then mom took me to my doctor then doc told mom it could be a hearing loss. Then doc took me to ENT guy and test my hearing then fitted me with a power BIE aid. Then i heard loud and then i didnt turn the TV up so loud.
And now i heard fine 2 months ago. My hearing sounded clogged up faded back and forth and normal for 2 days then faded clooged again this went on for one month, Then my hearing dropped all the way down i could hear nothing when i woke up from sleeping. Then after a month my hearing clooged up so bad then i went my ENT and he sent me to an audiologist tested my hearing i lost 80% of my hearing at that time and now i lost 90-95% of my hearing as it stands,I found out my blood pressure meds were the cause of my sudden deafness because my ENT warned my doctor about a year ago about taking( Lisinopril) cause its causing my clooginess. Well my doctor ignored it and that could cause my deafness. Im still waiting to get an MRI and im still looking towards an CI.

raven, why don't you go thru past threads in this section, you will see lot of links.. this url is one of them: http://www.geocities.com/cicentral/

all ci's are expensive... none cheap... speech processor itself may cost over $5K while internal implant and surgery could amount to $60K to $100K this is why most of those CI surgery/mapping/therapy are covered by insurance since they pay the premiums..

also be sure to visit this site about reimbursement: http://www.cochlear.org/ (not a CI company but reimbursement info page)

and other useful site is: http://www.listen-up.org/ then click "webmap" and scroll down to "The Device"

have a good weekend..

American vechiles do not last as long as imports does.

I've been around imports longer than anything. And tell me why are there so many ford's for resale?

Fine, find me a 97 toyota Landcruiser for sale. Compare that with a 97 explorer, blazer even.

Fortunately my health insurance covered 100 percent of my CI procedures. Man, it is expensive so Im grateful to have that opportunity.