which CI works the best?

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greenyaz

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hi everybody! i am new to this website. if any of you can help me out which company/model works the best? so far there are three; advanced bionics, cochlear, and med-el. please give me as much information as possible. i've already looked into their website but seems too promising and try to outrank the others. i appreciate the feedback and all! also i have a severe hearing loss in both ears, speech comprehension is really low, rely on hearing aid but very limited to any environments that i'm situated in (telephone, noisy restaurant, loud chatty family gatherings, etc). :fingersx:
 
I suggest you interview surgeons and their CI teams to see if they are a fit for you, and discover what brands the best teams you find use. From there you can learn more and decide which may be best for you.
 
Welcome!

They are all pretty good brands and people of similar backgrounds seem to get similar results. Cochlear has the biggest share of the market, followed by AB and Med El.

I'd say all things being equal, rather than the brand being the most important factor of success with a CI, it's more to do with factors to do with you personally e.g. lip reading skills, speech understanding under good conditions, motivation and other factors that are unique to you.

My personal advice would be to find a CI team/audiologist that you click with and feel comfortable with and then go with the brand that they work the most with. It would mean that if you encountered a brand specific problem, they would likely have experienced it before and have perhaps developed a solution for dealing with it.

As Drew's dad says, sometimes they might make a recommendation of a particular brand based on characteristics of your hearing loss. One poster here had a history of Menieres and his team suggested the Med El because previous clients with a similar background have done well with it. This is not something that we on this board are qualified to do.

Are you about to go through candidacy?
 
i'm still in the middle of process to determine if i am approve or deny for the disability. i dont have insurance but we'll see as time goes by. since i had my last hearing test, the audi said i am candidate (speech comprehension was low, severe hearing loss 90-100 db in both ears, rely on HA) i will post more updates about my journey..:crazy:
 
I agree with Drew's Dad. I would ask your doctor and audie. My audie sent me home with three big kits to research, then she shared the pros and cons about each. I made my choice for advanced bionics based on the research.

Insurance or no insurance it is a long process and hope it works out quickly for you.
 
Hi!! Congratulations on starting your candidacy process. If you are looking for information on each brand, I agree with everyone above me. You can search the forums to read about who has what brand and their experiences with it. But you are going to find that regardless of the brand, most of us are very happy with whatever brand we have. :) The researching part is so much fun! :)
 
Truth be known, it is impossible for anybody to "say" which is best until one tries it out. Unlike HAs, nobody can really can "try" out a CI and then decide to try another one. I do believe I have heard of some individuals (very unusual) that have one brand on one side and another on another side. Most folks that are bilateral stick with the same brand typically.

So as others have said, discuss it with the pros and read the materials/specs and go from there. Any of them should be a winner based on one's decision.
 
I'm sure all 3 brands are really good. You decide which brand you think will be the best one for you, by doing the research and talking to individuals that have CIs and all. A lot of research, a lot of questions and answers, etc. Just look at all 3 implants, compare them, and figure out the pros and cons for each implant, then make your decision on which one you think would be best for your lifestyle.
 
sr171soars said:
Truth be known, it is impossible for anybody to "say" which is best until one tries it out. Unlike HAs, nobody can really can "try" out a CI and then decide to try another one. I do believe I have heard of some individuals (very unusual) that have one brand on one side and another on another side. Most folks that are bilateral stick with the same brand typically.

So as others have said, discuss it with the pros and read the materials/specs and go from there. Any of them should be a winner based on one's decision.
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I think even with bilateral people testing out a different brand on each ear, it's hard to compare. My ears on either side are both quite different and sound different. I've noticed that with my second implant with exactly the same brand and model as the first, the voice perception was much faster and I was able to get to a higher volume quickly. If I'd had another brand implanted and experienced the same results, I might have put it down to the brand, whereas its more complicated than that I believe.
 
R2D2 said:
I think even with bilateral people testing out a different brand on each ear, it's hard to compare. My ears on either side are both quite different and sound different. I've noticed that with my second implant with exactly the same brand and model as the first, the voice perception was much faster and I was able to get to a higher volume quickly. If I'd had another brand implanted and experienced the same results, I might have put it down to the brand, whereas its more complicated than that I believe.
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I totally agree that it is lots more complicated than people can imagine.

It just cracks me up when somebody attempts to get an objective response to a very subjective situation concerning a device that is implanted in a person. It literally depends on the alignment of the sun, moon, and stars and of course whatever else was going on in a person's frame of mind at the time...:whistle:
 
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