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Welcome to the USAIS Device Choice Resource!
This website will help you to explore which cochlear implant device will work best for you.
| Advanced Bionics (AB) | Cochlear | MED-EL | ||
| Naída CI Q90 | Neptune | Nucleus 6 CP910 | SONNET | RONDO |
There are five important points you need to be aware of when you are making your choice:
What do we offer?
At USAIS, we offer the top of the range devices made by the three main cochlear implant manufacturers (AB, Cochlear and MED-EL). Some of the manufacturers offer more than one style of speech processor (external part). We have complete confidence in all the manufacturers. We’ve not found any one of the devices to be better than the others, although they all have subtly different features. We offer you the choice of devices because, in our view, they are essentially all the same. It doesn’t make any difference to us which one you choose or why, only that you might find some of the features of one of the devices more appropriate to you and your lifestyle. If you choose your processor because you like the colour, that’s just as good a reason as any other.
Which is the best device?
If one of the devices provided significantly better listening opportunities than the others, that would be the only one we would offer. Our experience over more than 25 years of offering the range of devices is that although outcomes & results vary from person to person, across the board, none of the devices is better for listening than any of the others. We have approximately the same number of patients using devices from each of the 3 manufacturers. Although each of the manufacturers has, at different times, had hitches with equipment, overall none of the devices or internal parts is more robust or reliable than the others. Outcomes are essentially the same for all devices. There is no “wrong” choice.
Accessories
Whichever manufacturer you pick, you can only use their external equipment. The three manufacturers all work hard to produce exciting and innovative developments in their products, and so sometimes one manufacturer brings a specific feature or accessory to the market before the others do. The three manufacturers are all very keen that you should choose their device. They often put together attractive offers and kits with different accessories and options to encourage you to pick them. We think that’s great: our patients get the best possible deal! Not all the options and accessories come as standard, so you will need to check the What’s In The Kit pages to see what you will get if you pick a device, and what parts you might have to buy separately.
Surgeons’ Recommendations
In very rare cases – for example, if the scans were to show that the shape of your inner ear (cochlea) was very unusually shaped – the surgeon might recommend a specific device which he felt might be easiest to implant in your ear. If this is the case, the surgeon will discuss it with you in person after your scan results have come back.
Before you decide…
DON’T CHOOSE YET! There is absolutely no rush to decide which device you want to have. After we have completed assessment, we will be in a position to let you know whether or not a cochlear implant is the best choice for you at this stage. If we’re confident that we can help you hear better with a cochlear implant than you are hearing right now, we will ask you to decide whether you want to go ahead. Once you have decided to have a cochlear implant, we will arrange a 1:1 session to let you try on all the devices and ask any final questions before you decide which one device you would prefer. Choosing your device will not be finalised until after the assessment is completed.
Click here to start thinking about which cochlear implant device you might like to choose.
PLEASE NOTE: When we talk about the three manufacturers, we will put them in alphabetical order to make it easy. It does not mean that we think one manufacturer is better than another. Images are provided as guidance only and are not to scale. You will be able to test each device at your one-to-one Choosing My Device session.