Three cochlear implant brands

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refoster723

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Hello

I am new to this fourm and been trying to find different information on AB, Cochlear, and Med-el. I recently became qualified to get CI and right now I'm in the stage of having to choose which brand I want to with. I am leaning toward Med-el and AB, but am not really sure which one. I know it is all based on my own personal choice.

My question here is for those who were in the stages of choosing a brand, what did you look for that convince you that this is the right brand for you? I am staying neutral as possible until I know which I want to go with.

I know all three are good companies and they all seem to make alot of CI implantee happy.
 
I'm sure you'll be happy with whichever one you choose. It's all a matter of preference, what you want out of the implant(s), accessory options, waterproof options, etc. Each brands have their pros and cons. I have a friend that is getting an implant soon (next week) and at first she thought maybe she would go for AB, but then she ended up picking Cochlear. She really wants something off her ears (the Kanso option) as her hearing aids are rubbing on her ears and making them sore, and she thought about her lifestyle and such too. She decided Cochlear would be a better fit for her personally. She looked at MedEl too, not sure exactly what it was about Cochlear that won out for her.

I have Ab and have been happy. AB just always stood out to me, even when I first started researching CIs while I was still in high school (around 2002ish). As I was finally on track to get one CI, I was really excited with what AB had coming out at the time (the Neptune, Clearvoice strategy, the talks of AB and Phonak merging, etc.).

It can be tricky, navigating all the different tech specs and options from the different choices and trying to pick the one you want. But you can't go wrong with whichever one you choose.
 
I chose AB because I was already a Phonak user and had many of the accessories. I also liked their forum (the other two don't seem to have active user forums).
 
Thank you for your replies. I am definitely between AB and Med-el. Now that I think about my lifestyle, I am now down two these two brands based on two things. Waterproof and electrode length. The only drawback I can think for AB is that I'm not sure if the electrode is long enough for me. Med-el is long enough, but I'm not quite sure if they are as "waterproof" as they claim to be. Basically, when I get to have my seminar and discuss with my surgeon and doctors with more details that I will be able to decide which is best for me. Thank you! :)
 
Problem with all three companies: vendor lock-in.

Just like Amazon making their ebooks so you can't read them on anything else but their stuff.
 
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