The information I got when I first had an appointment with the hospital here that specializes in Cochlear Implants was quite different from my second visit to meet the surgeon who will eventually be surgically implanting me with one of these bad boys.
What I was told in the beginning is, if you have no tinnitus or have it very mild, the implant has been known to increase tinnitus in many patience. Upon my second visit to meet the surgeon, he informed me that since my tinnitus is severe and always there 24/7, the implant will most likely reduce the amount of tinnitus in that side (ear). It seems there is always some tinnitus with an implant and if yours is really bad, it should bring it down to the NORMAL implant level. If you have none and are getting one simply because you are deaf, it will give you tinnitus at a NORMAL level. I forget how many out of 100 he said it was, but I remember it was a fair number of patience who experienced it.
Now lets chat a bit about other risks with the implant. 4 out of 10 patience who have the implant experience a change in taste along the side of the tongue. Apparently anything you eat, or drink that touches the side of the tongue including water, will taste like metal if your one of the lucky 4 out of 10. Worst case scenario you actually could lose all taste in your tongue however the numbers are very low. When they install the electrode into the Cholera, they mus cut into an area that has 4 main nerves. Two are for the tongue, one is for the feeling in that side of your face, and the other controls eyelid function. They MUST cut one of these nerves! So almost everyone experiences a temporary taste change in the beginning but somehow in 6 out of 10, the other tongue nerve somehow adapts and takes over from the damaged tongue nerve.
Now lets say the surgeon happens to nick the facial nerve or eye lid nerve, you could lose all feeling along one side of your face or have a hard time with the eyelid. No matter what, they HAVE to cut one of these nerves to get into the Cholera.
In my case, the rewards far outweigh the risks. I am now completely deaf in both ears other than "residual" hearing in my right ear, and have the worse tinnitus in both ears imaginable. I am not getting this implant to rid or reduce my tinnitus, but to be able to hear somewhat again. The hearing is not normal like is stated in a post above, but you get used to the new kind of hearing over time. Music wont sound the same, voices will be different, etc, but at least I will understand people, be able to make a phone call again, go to the movies again, watch television without close captioning again, hear the engine in my car again.................... you name it!
Average price for the implant, surgery and 1st year of follow up tuning and therapy is about $60,000 Canadian. Luckily this is covered in my province. However every 4 or 5 years they come out with a new and sometimes improved receiver for the implant and if I wished to upgrade, that comes from my pocket, anywhere from 10-15 grand. You also need to keep the batteries charged or replaced, like a hearing aid, and God forbid you lose the receiver or damage it in water etc. Now if you need one in each ear just to reduce tinnitus, that's $120,000.
Because of our health care system, only one implant is covered. I sure would love to have both ears done but that means much out of pocket expense for the second one. No upgrades are covered so I pay to upgrade the receiver over time.
Not sure I would even consider this just for tinnitus. To many risks and if you can hear normally somewhat, that hearing will change!!
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