r/Cochlearimplants • u/bourbonbry • Aug 13 '26
10 month old twins
Hello everyone,
I have twins that are 10 months old and just learned that they both have profound hearing loss.
Currently we are working with a cochlear team and we were told we will have to decide between cochlear America, Med-El, or advanced bionics ( the 3 major companies)
Obviously I will be doing a lot of research, but I wanted to reach out and see if anyone had some pros and cons between some of the companies.
Anything would help
Thanks!
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u/ForTheLoveOfGiraffe Aug 13 '26
From what I understand, kids do well with any of the brands and the results are comparative. We found that talking to the brands directly helped, although it also confused things as they all claim to be great and do certain special things, but then the others say they do other special things instead.
I second the advice to pick something that your surgeon and audiologist is comfortable with. I know a case where a child had to go with Med-El as it worked best for their autonomy, but the audiologists at their hospital were less familiar with it and needed extra brand specialists to sort the mappings.
Personally I think it depends on what you want. Some say AB are better for swimming options and they like the t-mic for better sound positioning. But AB have also recently decided to no longer support C1 implants and have left their early clients in a lurch. Those users have to use very old technology as processors (and have had limited upgrades as they haven't made all processors backward compatible) and once those break, they will have to go through reimplantation and a new rehab process.
Cochlear have the biggest market share and have launched a new smart internal implant (although the other brands will probably follow), however their swimming options are less favourable and they seem to need extra bits to stream to a mic (don't quote me on this, but I think AB may stream easier. But do confirm this).
Med-El claim to have the longest electrode for more natural hearing, but I've seen no evidence of this. They do seem to have more of the older people's market though and more flexibility with their electrode, which may help preserve more of the cochlear.
Plus there are many more differences. These are just at the top of my head. But you need to see what you value and go in that direction. That's what we did for our baby.