I like convenient technology, but I am not sure how extreme I would go to be able to hear normally without my hearing aids. The Envoy Esteem implant feels like another crutch rather than a cure. Do I really want the machinery I wear behind my ears put in my skull? It just creeps me out. It’s unfortunate because I qualify perfectly for their trials with my hearing loss. However, as much as I like science, I don’t feel like offering myself up for it, especially when I think it is not solving the problem itself.
While it may be years before anything could be done for hearing losses with stem cells, I’d rather deal with an equally invasive procedure that would leave me “healed” instead of going through one that just prolongs actual advancement. Given how functional stem cells are, further research would be beneficial to everyone on the planet.
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Unless you’ve tried everything to no avail (and given your relative youth!), it seems like clinical trials are best avoided. If you can hear fine now I’d definitely wait to see how this new product works out for people. Have you read about the Lyric hearing aid? It’s very new as well (so I don’t know enough to recommend it) but requires no surgery — it sits close to the eardrum but can be removed with a small magnet.
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It’s not a cure, and I’m having a hard time figuring out how this device applies any kind of “dose of energy” to the cochlea without an implanted electrode.
Lyric: that’s one very expensive device. Approximately $3,000 a year (per ear). The battery is non-replaceable, and lasts a few months, so when the battery dies, you have to go back in and have a whole new aid put in. I also understand that it is not really useful for anything more than a moderate hearing loss.
Stem cells: those have been all the buzz for years now, and I’d guess they’re still 5-10 years away from any thought of clinical trials. They’ve been able to get hair cells from several species to grow, but that’s the easy part: Getting stem cells to form new hair cells is one thing, but they still need to get those new cells to make useful connections to the auditory nerve.
Myself, I was just approved to get a cochlear implant this week. I just have to wait for the insurance company now.
I reached a point where I decided that I could keep waiting for technology or treatments to improve, and never do anything, or take advantage of the technology that is available.
Think of it like buying a computer: you can always justify delaying the purchase, because there’s going to always be one just around the corner that’s faster, has more RAM, a better graphics card, and a bigger hard drive, but at some point, you have to make the purchase.
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Good luck with your cochlear implant! I’ll be implanted with the Esteem in a few days, I’m just at a point in my life where I can really benefit from it. I’ve heard that Envoy will soon begin studies on a fully implantable cochlear device, sometime in 2009. Amazing how much technology has advanced over the years. I hope we’ll see a breakthrough in stem cell research and hearing loss soon, my hearing loss is hereditary and I would love to see my kids have their hearing loss cured one day.
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I know this is almost 3 yrs later, so I don’t know if you even come back to this site. I’m in the process of being scheduled for the Esteem Implant. Since you’ve had it awhile, how is it working for you?
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AG
i am interested to know the result of your implant. could you please e-mail it to me?
mehrdad1341@gmail.com
thank u -
Please provide me with your true feelings of either types of implants.
I going to decide which is the best for me. I am an electrical engineer, 40 years old, with 15 years experience.
I would like to go forward in my career, but I feel my nerve deafness blocks me from becoming a supervisor.
Tareq Al-Mulhem, Saudi Aramco.
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Hello
I am one of the first eight to have received the implant Esteem offered by the American Society Envoy Medical, Hospital St. Pierre in Brussels in June 2009.Unfortunately, it involves risk of rejection as any surgical procedure. I started a golden staph and we had to remove the implant.
Still waiting for that one reimplanted the device, because I totally lost the hearing of the ear paired.
You can find all the details on my blog guillaume.rovere.com or by searching by my full name on Google.
I am taking the experiences of other recipients of this equipment.
Sincerely,
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