Bilateral (Pros and cons)

[krazykatkitty]

At the moment, I am very carefully research on Bilateral Cochlear implant as I am thinking about getting the second one. I would love to hear about your experiences and plus pros & cons please. Thank you so much guys.

 

[Jules]

Hi! go to this link: Cochlear Community Here you can find people who has bilateral CI

 

[deafdyke]

Have you pretty much maxed out your hearing aid? Do you have tintituas or significent recruitment? If so I would totally look into a CI. I do think that the bilateral CI is going to be very indivdual. I also think that people have to be VERY careful with the decision to get another CI. A lot of the pro CI marketing makes it sound like the LATEST "overcomes all downsides of being hoh technology." It can be a good decision....but it will be a very indivdual decision.

 

[faire_jour]

Have you pretty much maxed out your hearing aid? Do you have tintituas or significent recruitment? If so I would totally look into a CI. I do think that the bilateral CI is going to be very indivdual. I also think that people have to be VERY careful with the decision to get another CI. A lot of the pro CI marketing makes it sound like the LATEST "overcomes all downsides of being hoh technology." It can be a good decision....but it will be a very indivdual decision.

What is the down side to having two ears implanted? You would get better localization, and improved hearing in both ears. How is that bad?

 

[natty_4ever]

Wirelessly posted

Have you pretty much maxed out your hearing aid? Do you have tintituas or significent recruitment? If so I would totally look into a CI. I do think that the bilateral CI is going to be very indivdual. I also think that people have to be VERY careful with the decision to get another CI. A lot of the pro CI marketing makes it sound like the LATEST "overcomes all downsides of being hoh technology." It can be a good decision....but it will be a very indivdual decision.

What is the down side to having two ears implanted? You would get better localization, and improved hearing in both ears. How is that bad?

She never said it was bad, only that it depended only each person's needs and wants. I think she meant that the outcome is different for each person, so they should take into consideration how much benefit they might get (or lack thereof). We don't know if this person has never had hearing in that ear, or if she can still hear a little with a HA, etc. Those individual things make a difference as to how advantageous the CI could be for her.

 

[krazykatkitty]

Wirelessly posted



She never said it was bad, only that it depended only each person's needs and wants. I think she meant that the outcome is different for each person, so they should take into consideration how much benefit they might get (or lack thereof). We don't know if this person has never had hearing in that ear, or if she can still hear a little with a HA, etc. Those individual things make a difference as to how advantageous the CI could be for her.

Hey, I forgot to mention about the Hearing Aids. Sorry guys. I can still hear a little bit with a HA on the left side and got a CI on the right side. The HA didn't work so well. Next month I will go back to the audiologist to get upgrade new Hearing aid. If my new hearing aid have no benefit or didn't work so well for me. I might go for bilateral (just depends what my audiologist say) and will ask some questions about it. I am aware that everyone is different with bilateral cochlear implants.

 

[krazykatkitty]

Hi! go to this link: Cochlear Community Here you can find people who has bilateral CI

Thanks I will look at it.

 

[krazykatkitty]

Hi! go to this link: Cochlear Community Here you can find people who has bilateral CI

Sorry I cant Register Cochlear Community because I live outside United States/Canada. I live in NZ. I will look other website anyway. Thanks for trying to help anyway.

 

[faire_jour]

Wirelessly posted



She never said it was bad, only that it depended only each person's needs and wants. I think she meant that the outcome is different for each person, so they should take into consideration how much benefit they might get (or lack thereof). We don't know if this person has never had hearing in that ear, or if she can still hear a little with a HA, etc. Those individual things make a difference as to how advantageous the CI could be for her.

My problem is with her constantly saying that bilaterals should not be covered by insurance, or at least very rarely given, and the idea that bilaterals are being pushed by the CI companies when they provide very little benefit. I disagree completely. I think that every person should have the right to have 2 ears that are amplified as well as possible, and that would mean bilateral implants for those who choose them.

 

[blue_ciborg]

As far as I understand, the biggest advantages to bilateral CIs are directional hearing and more precise detail in sound.

I got my second CI when I was 12 and social situations and school became a lot easier for me. It will be ten years next year, of having two CIs.

Often, out of ease, I will only wear one CI around the house, but find that I actually battle to hear more than one-on-one conversations without two. Your classic plasticity argument.

However, when I'm in situations where both my CIs could get damaged, like walking in the ocean, wearing one is a good sort of insurance.

My favourite con would be the cost of an extra CI's worth of batteries and parts to maintain - I live in South Africa, and here, batteries aren't covered by insurance, or government. Parts, however, are covered by insurance. I'd say, just be aware of those potential costs - though Cochlear and MedEl both have rechargeable batteries - I use rechargeables myself, and they don't disappoint.

Oh, yes, another obvious con is the risks of the second surgery. Relatively off- topic, but my second CI failed (internal failure) after a few years, it was part of a dodgy batch, apparently. I had to have my third CI surgery.

All the best for you

 

[set2]

I just went bilateral this past week. I decided to go bilateral because my hearing aid was no longer very useful to me. My audiologist had brought up the idea of going bilateral a while ago but I took my time because I wanted to make sure it was the right choice for me. I was not ready to give up what little residual hearing I had until recently. So far so good! I am really looking forward two having two ears again.

 

[lovezebras]

If you want to join the cochlear community just use a us or canada postal code or zip code I remember my old MD one was 21742 you could use that lol

 

[Hask12]

What is the down side to having two ears implanted? You would get better localization, and improved hearing in both ears. How is that bad?

I have heard and read that that is not always the case, even with a single implant. Some people benefit from a CI, some don't. Some people take a year to adjust to the implant others sooner. Some people are happy with their implant others are not. As has been stated with the bilateral implants, a single implant is far from being an automatic improvement and a great deal of thinking and research should be done prior to having the surgery and still there are no guarantees.

 

[faire_jour]

I have heard and read that that is not always the case, even with a single implant. Some people benefit from a CI, some don't. Some people take a year to adjust to the implant others sooner. Some people are happy with their implant others are not. As has been stated with the bilateral implants, a single implant is far from being an automatic improvement and a great deal of thinking and research should be done prior to having the surgery and still there are no guarantees.

I believe the rate of improvement is somewhere around 90%. That means that 90% of people hear better with a CI than they did with hearing aids. Ajustment times vary, but a year is unreasonable. Most CI users hear better instantly (though it isn't clear, just much different than hearing aids were) but by 3 months most have a stable MAP and are hearing very well.

 

[deafdyke]

Thank you nattie and Hask!!!! That's exactly what I meant! Krazykat, maybe ask your audi if you could do an in booth trial of super power hearing aids. Some of the newer digital ones are really good!
fair joure, you misunderstand I do not support UNIVERSAL coverage of a second implant. I DO support it in cases like absolutly NO benifit (even enviromental sound benifit) in the second ear or things like tintuas or severe recruitment or even when the first implant only gives something like 60% ish speech perception. I just think that even with the loosened canidacy requiremets, that b/c a CI is so expensive and b/c we are currently going through an extreme healthcare cost crises, that a second CI needs to be reserved for absolute worst cases. Many folks can still benifit from the input from a hearing aid you know....b/c it works together.

 

[Phi4Sius]

If you want to join the cochlear community just use a us or canada postal code or zip code I remember my old MD one was 21742 you could use that lol

Or just Google any city in the US (look it up via Google Maps if need be) + zip code. Voila. So city + Zip Code = zip code listings.

 

[set2]

I agree with Faire Jour that the majority of people who get implants benefit from them and like them. I have talked to a number of others who have implants and have yet to meet anyone who hates their implant.

If we have technology

 

[faire_jour]

Thank you nattie and Hask!!!! That's exactly what I meant! Krazykat, maybe ask your audi if you could do an in booth trial of super power hearing aids. Some of the newer digital ones are really good!
fair joure, you misunderstand I do not support UNIVERSAL coverage of a second implant. I DO support it in cases like absolutly NO benifit (even enviromental sound benifit) in the second ear or things like tintuas or severe recruitment or even when the first implant only gives something like 60% ish speech perception. I just think that even with the loosened canidacy requiremets, that b/c a CI is so expensive and b/c we are currently going through an extreme healthcare cost crises, that a second CI needs to be reserved for absolute worst cases. Many folks can still benifit from the input from a hearing aid you know....b/c it works together.

I think that is complete and total crap. If a person is a canidate in both ears, they should have the right to have two ears that are appropriatly amplified. A CI is the appropriate amplification for someone with a severe or profound hearing loss and word discrimination that is less than 50%, so it shouldn't matter if one already has a CI. How would you feel if people started advocating for children with a moderate loss only being allowed one hearing aid? That would be horrible! Why? Because biaural hearing is the only appropriate fitting. That is why it is the standard of care and has been for many years. CI are exactly the same. If a hearing aid worked for someone, they wouldn't be a CI candidate in the first place.

 

[set2]

......that can help people why not use it!

 

[krazykatkitty]

As far as I understand, the biggest advantages to bilateral CIs are directional hearing and more precise detail in sound.

I got my second CI when I was 12 and social situations and school became a lot easier for me. It will be ten years next year, of having two CIs.

Often, out of ease, I will only wear one CI around the house, but find that I actually battle to hear more than one-on-one conversations without two. Your classic plasticity argument.

However, when I'm in situations where both my CIs could get damaged, like walking in the ocean, wearing one is a good sort of insurance.

My favourite con would be the cost of an extra CI's worth of batteries and parts to maintain - I live in South Africa, and here, batteries aren't covered by insurance, or government. Parts, however, are covered by insurance. I'd say, just be aware of those potential costs - though Cochlear and MedEl both have rechargeable batteries - I use rechargeables myself, and they don't disappoint.

Oh, yes, another obvious con is the risks of the second surgery. Relatively off- topic, but my second CI failed (internal failure) after a few years, it was part of a dodgy batch, apparently. I had to have my third CI surgery.

All the best for you

Thanks for sharing... In NZ aren't covered by insurance or govt so we must be able to pay for the second implant. Yes I am aware about those potential cost.