Wearing two brands of CI's...

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Fumasivil

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Just out of interest for those who are wearing different branded cochlear implants notice any different with the implants, i.e. one better than the other or not?

And for those who've had their implant replaced with a different branded CI - has it made any difference?

It's recommended that those having bilateral implant wear same branded CI's but for those who were unilateral and now become bilateral - were you advised to wear the same branded CI on your other ear or was it entirely up to you?
 
Fumasivil said:
Just out of interest for those who are wearing different branded cochlear implants notice any different with the implants, i.e. one better than the other or not?

And for those who've had their implant replaced with a different branded CI - has it made any difference?

It's recommended that those having bilateral implant wear same branded CI's but for those who were unilateral and now become bilateral - were you advised to wear the same branded CI on your other ear or was it entirely up to you?
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I don't think there's any of us that fit that criteria that you mentioned.

I've only heard one story of this happening. One person wanted to see what it was like, so he got one Cochlear Nucleus system on one side, and AB on the other. He prefers the AB. Honestly - I think it has to do with the fact that the AB ear was simulated more, and had better hearing than the Nucleus.

It has been recommended that bilaterals to have the same implant system. I was not advised to wear the same system...but because I knew how well my first implant was doing, it just didn't make sense to have two totally different system with different cords, different batteries, different chargables, etc...that would be too much! Plus - my CI center only does Cochlear, hence why I didn't really have to go through trying to decide between different implants.

I personally feel that all three implants work the same. It's how it's MAPPED makes a huge difference between someone doing well and someone doing not so well.
 
I know a CI user who has an AB CI in one ear and a Cochlear CI in the other. She's quite happy with them. She prefers the sound quality of her AB CI, but that's because she's had it for a longer period of time.

When I went bilateral, my former CI audi advised me to stay with Cochlear for ease of use, not having to worry about different accessories and only having to contact one company for customer service.

I'm glad I took her advice because I'm very, very happy with the service I've received from Cochlear.

I agree with Lady about no CI brand being better than another. They all allow you to hear and what makes the difference in terms of success is how well your CI is mapped.
 
I know of a little boy who was accidently implanted with an AB when he went bilateral when his first side was Cochlear. Mom was PISSED but they had to deal with it. She says they work great together and it has been fine for him, but a little inconvient to relearn the parts and have two sets of accesories, but that they work great together.
 
faire_jour said:
I know of a little boy who was accidently implanted with an AB when he went bilateral when his first side was Cochlear. Mom was PISSED but they had to deal with it. She says they work great together and it has been fine for him, but a little inconvient to relearn the parts and have two sets of accesories, but that they work great together.
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whoa. I would have been pissed too. Did she get compensated for that, since the boy will have to live with it for the rest of his life.
 
faire_jour said:
I know of a little boy who was accidently implanted with an AB when he went bilateral when his first side was Cochlear. Mom was PISSED but they had to deal with it. She says they work great together and it has been fine for him, but a little inconvient to relearn the parts and have two sets of accesories, but that they work great together.
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I would have been extremely angry too. I think the surgeon should have reimplanted him free of charge since it was his mistake. Then again, the boy is doing well, so I guess that's what is most important.
 
Wow... Thats insane, Getting a CI is not like ordering the #5 from your local fast food joint. I would have been flaming pissed off and would probably have seeked legal advice on this matter. That is outrageous.
 
I know of 2 ppl who have diff CI's one has a medel and cochlear and one has a cochlear and an AB ...obvs you can't compare much because they weren't implanted at the same time but the one who has medel and cochlear likes cochlear better and the one with AB and cochlear can't really tell yet as she hasn't had her cochlear one long enough yet
 
I know of one who went bilateral with two different CIs. His first one was with Med-El. His second one was a year plus later with a Cochlear. They really didn't want to do that (let him have a different one) but they finally agreed and did it.

I remember my friend saying that the Med-El was better with environmental sounds but the Cochlear was better with speech. Very interesting.
 
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