Getting CI- Confused not sure what to do
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I'm sorry Tousi, I'm new here, don't know what happened to faire_jour's daughter? hope she is OKTouche! What she's witnessed with her daughter......and I was responding to F1885
faire_jour
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Deaffy
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Wish I was getting some cash for letting people know my implant work's. Everything I state about the CI is from personal experience and I am not affiliated with Cochlear corp other than a recipient of their device. The difference between AB & cochlear are many. I don't think it makes entirely too big of a difference which one you decide. I had free choice in both AB and cochlear My audi and dr did not give me any advice on which to choose they said that they both are reliable devices and you cant really go wrong either way. The audi can help tell you the difference between their program's and what they do. I am not to sure about how the hi-res works with AB or any of that. Your Audi is being paid to help you so ask the question'you have for them that we cant easily answer. I sure hope you find what your looking for.
I'm so glad to hear thisWhat "happened to" her? She got bilateral AB implants and is doing great.
Deaffy I would have paid you to just get facts from fictions, thanks for sharing your experience with me and others, I owe you one.
My regular audi told me both brands are same depend on what I like to get more since she knows me I'm more into latest tech, she told me Cochlear is smaller, has a remote control and can work with my bluetooth, she knows that I like smaller HA and thought AB is way too big to my liking. My CI audi was much more on Cochlear americas side I could tell even though she did not say it in words, it may be after she saw me and saw how I communicate and the gadgets I use and based on my tests or ..., I'm not going with any of those recommendation but rather the actual users experience and the reliability of the brand
.Deaffy I would have paid you to just get facts from fictions, thanks for sharing your experience with me and others, I owe you one.
My regular audi told me both brands are same depend on what I like to get more since she knows me I'm more into latest tech, she told me Cochlear is smaller, has a remote control and can work with my bluetooth, she knows that I like smaller HA and thought AB is way too big to my liking. My CI audi was much more on Cochlear americas side I could tell even though she did not say it in words, it may be after she saw me and saw how I communicate and the gadgets I use and based on my tests or ..., I'm not going with any of those recommendation but rather the actual users experience and the reliability of the brand
It is very clear what answer you are looking for even though you say you want unbaised opinions. When someone says they like brand X you say they are unqualified, wrong, etc and when someone say they like brand Y you they are able to state facts.
If you believe that any of the brands (Cochlear, AB, Med-El, Nueralec) support Bluetooth you are sadly mistaken. Bluetooth is a bilateral communication protocol that has too high or power consumption. Some devices support FM systems but not bluetooth.
C1
F1885,
I wore wore hearing aids for 6 years before getting an implant. I continued to wear a hearing aid in the non implanted ear until I went bilateral. I felt it was important to keep both ears stimulated because I wanted to hear as much as possible. I also did not want to give up on the ear with out the implant. I decided after having success with the first implant that I would go bilateral once the ear qualified and no sooner.
As for choosing a brand, I was told by my audi that either of the brands would be a good choice. I chose Cochlear because it felt more comfortable on my ear.
I wore wore hearing aids for 6 years before getting an implant. I continued to wear a hearing aid in the non implanted ear until I went bilateral. I felt it was important to keep both ears stimulated because I wanted to hear as much as possible. I also did not want to give up on the ear with out the implant. I decided after having success with the first implant that I would go bilateral once the ear qualified and no sooner.
As for choosing a brand, I was told by my audi that either of the brands would be a good choice. I chose Cochlear because it felt more comfortable on my ear.
No. I do not have an implant. I believe all three (I will leave out Nueralec) are very similiar in actual patient performance at this point in time. I watch what is happening in hearing market and am speculating that the next major "advancement" in CI technology is a few years off. During 2010 there were two major developments to look at to show you the direction the CI companies are trying to take.
The first development was the acquisition of AB by Phonak. The second is that Cochlear Corp attempted to purchase Siemens’ Hearing Aid division ( StratMed ). I do not believe that a hearing aid company wanting to have an implant company and an implant wanting to have a hearing aid company is a coincidence.
The newest hearing aids are not Class 3 medical devices and therefore have a much faster product development and approval cycle and shorter ROI. This means that HA have more advanced sound processing capabilities than implants. HA have much better features such as directional microphones, noise cancellation, feedback reduction, FM systems, etc. There are some third party solutions to FM systems for implants, for example http://www.phonak.com/content/dam/phonak/b2b/C_M_tools/FM/Coclear_Implant_Brosch.pdf, and http://www.cochlearimplants.com/Shared/pdf/GER/AW2535G_r2.0_FM_net.pdf (sorry this one is in German but go to page 12 and you will see a list of FM systems that are compatible with Med-El products) but as you can see from this example a HA company is providing the solutions. Extraplate what is happening. Do you believe that Phonak will continue to support Cochlear Corp and Med-El implants with FM solutions when Cochlear and Med-El are now a competitors?
The other item that you must sort out is reliability claims. Keep in mind that the three (actually 4) companies are all located in different parts of the world (Austria, USA, Australia). As such only AB is regulated by the FDA for products manufactured in the USA but sold outside of the USA. How to Report a Problem (Medical Devices). The other two companies must file complaints with the FDA about adverse effects for product sold in the USA. It doesn’t seem like much, but it makes it very hard to compare reliability data. In general, I think all the CI have very similar adverse effects. Here is an example of reliability data Advice for Patients With Cochlear Implants: New Information on Meningitis Risk (1st advisory). To understand this, you must read near the bottom:
“The new study followed children from the original study for an additional two years. Six children with positioners developed meningitis after two years. Of these six, three developed meningitis between three and four years after implantation. Children in the study without a positioner did not develop meningitis, but this group of children was so small it is hard to predict the risk of their developing meningitis. The study also concluded there is not enough information now to recommend surgical removal of devices with a positioner.”
What a lot of this points to is that with all the CI implant brands, there in general is a low occurrence of adverse effects. If you search the same with pacemakers, you will find many adverse effects. This means, in general, all the brands are reliable with action taken often prematurely (or one could say cautiously) and with very few actual events occurring before recalls or other actions are taken. If other devices had such conservative action, there wouldn’t be many medical devices sold.
Hope this helps
C1
Going for therapy is optional. I felt it was helpful in my case. That in spite of the "verbal" in "auditory verbal therapy", it's really more auditory training than speech's.
Will it be helpful to you? It partly depends on your history, that if you're a late deafened who had just lost your hearing recently, you may have a better or quicker grasp of the speech sounds than someone who had been profoundly deaf all his or her life.
I really don't know much about the harmony thus can't give you a comparison there.
They made a couple of improvements from the Freedom to N5 upgrade. One is the smaller processor size to put on your ear. And the other is the remote whereas you could change the programming level in your implant without having to take it off. I could see the remote coming in handy when in a noisy place like in noisy restaurants and so forth.
I've also been told by some that some feel they also hear better with the N5 than they did with the Freedom.
nichola
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crazy one- thank u for info.
do u think with the way hearing aids are advancing that it mite be better suited to stick with these than go the ci route?
or are u saying that with ha companies in tow that the ci will get better?
so did siemens and cochlear not form?
surely this wud be good for cochlear , i like the fact that ab went with phonak i cant see any new processor coming out soon but im sure it will be neat when it arrives.
do u think with the way hearing aids are advancing that it mite be better suited to stick with these than go the ci route?
or are u saying that with ha companies in tow that the ci will get better?
so did siemens and cochlear not form?
surely this wud be good for cochlear , i like the fact that ab went with phonak i cant see any new processor coming out soon but im sure it will be neat when it arrives.
deafgal001
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Wirelessly posted
http://web.mit.edu/newsoffice/2010/hearing-mechanism-1110.html
nichola said:
http://web.mit.edu/newsoffice/2010/hearing-mechanism-1110.html
Nichola, I think crazyone was trying to tell you that because HA are not medical devices they can get advances much faster than medical devices that need FDA approval first and this approval takes long time and by the time they get the approval there will be so many new changes that could be applied to the approved thing, no I don't think HA will advance in away to let us (very hard of hearing that is severe to profound) to hear better or more because HA is an amplification device, no matter what they do it will still amplify sound, however CI work differently and is not there to amplify sound.
To wait or not wait is a good question but at the same time I think why would someone waste his time working on IF while they can enjoy the benefit of the CI right away instead of waiting years on IF
Hearing aids (in the USA) are considered Class 2a medical devices. These are "low-medium risk" devices. The implants (CI and MEI) are Class 3 medical devices (high risk which is the same as a pacemaker). The high risk comes from requiring surgery. The approval path for a Class 2a and a Class 3 device are much different and the Class 3 devices typically take 2 to 5 years to get US approval. A "small" change may be able to be implimented in a year.
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jillio
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Hearing aids are limited in power (amplification) based upon how much air can be moved. The smaller they are the more difficult it is move air. If you look at how sound is "spec'ed", it is in SPL for Sound Pressure Level. The HA must move enough air to create pressure. This is why concerts use really big speakers. They move a lot of air and generate large amplitude pressure waves.
Making them small and powerful is difficult.
But, none-the-less HAs have better front end sound processing. So it can be a trade off.
C1
I think your overall question is much harder to answer than specific technical questions. I think Fl885 answered it pretty well.
It is a personal to decide to make the move to be implanted and the decision shouldn't be taken lightly. Make well informed decisions, go with a product and surgeon you feel comfortable with if you decide to. If you feel like there is pressure or a used car salesman is pushing an implant on you, leave.
As for time lines when new stuff will come out. I don't think anyone who knows this will tell you for two reasons. 1) Companies dont like giving competators information about their plans and 2) in the USA that can be considered "making claims" that have not been substantiated by the FDA and that is illegal.
My advice with the best way to "predict" what you will see in the future is to watch what goes on European clinical trials. If you see something in trials in Europe a year or so later it will likely start trials in the USA. If you see a product get CE mark, likely a few laters (if it works as intended) you will see the product in the USA.
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jillio
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Which supply house do you work for?
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