- In this video, I'm talking
about the Nucleus 7 cochlear implant Sound Processor
from Cochlear, coming up.
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Hi, guys, Cliff Olson, Doctor of Audiology,
and founder of Applied Hearing Solutions in Anthem, Arizona.
And on this channel,
I cover a bunch of hearing-related information
to help make you a better informed consumer,
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make sure you hit that Subscribe button.
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When your hearing loss has reached the point
that hearing aids are no longer
an effective treatment option for you,
it is likely that you will end up
becoming a cochlear implant candidate.
And if this is you,
you're gonna have to start making decisions
on which cochlear implant manufacturer
has the products that best suit your needs.
Now, if this is the first time
that you've heard about cochlear implants,
let me explain to you how they work.
First, sound is picked up by the microphones
on a sound processor.
The sound processor converts this sound
into a digital signal that is transferred to the coil.
The coil then sends this information
to an implant that is under your skin.
The implant sends this digital signal
through an electrode to the cochlea,
which is your hearing organ.
Your auditory nerve fibers pick up these digital signals
in the form of electrical impulses.
These impulses travel up the nerve to the brain
where your brain interprets the sound
which results in hearing.
While the Nucleus 7 processor
is an impressive piece of technology,
no processor works without the actual implant.
So, let me give you a closeup look
of what the implant actually looks like.
This is what is implanted underneath your scalp
and then is inserted into your cochlea.
You can see the magnet right here
that attaches to the T-coil.
The T-coil is on the outside of your scalp
and this magnet is underneath your scalp.
You can also see the electrode
as it dangles down here by the palm of my hand.
That is actually what gets inserted into your cochlea.
All cochlear implants
from this particular company has 22 electrodes
and they have the thinnest electrodes in the industry
at .3 millimeters at the tip and .6 millimeters at the base.
These implants are extremely reliable.
Meaning that once you get them put in,
they are going to be there for a long time
and they are going to work.
They also have backwards compatibility,
so when new processors come out down the road,
and of course, I'll make videos for those as well,
you will not have to go through an additional surgery
to replace the implant
because it will work with all future processors
that Cochlear develops.
And don't worry, surgery for these are not a big deal.
You go in in the morning
and later on that day, you actually go home.
And some people don't even use very much pain medication
following the surgery.
That's how minimally invasive it is.
But now, on to the exciting part,
the Cochlear Nucleus 7 Sound Processor.
On a side note, there is an off-the-ear processor,
one that does not actually sit on top of your ear.
It is called the Kanso.
I will be making a review video
about that product in the future, but for right now,
let's go over the cool features of this guy.
Cool feature number one has to be Bluetooth connectivity.
The Cochlear Nucleus 7
can directly connect with an Apple device.
That means an iPhone, it means an iPad, it means an iTouch,
and you can stream audio directly from those devices
into the cochlear implant.
You do not need some kind of intermediary device
like a clip that you would clip on to your shirt
or anything that you wear around your neck.
You can take it right from your device
into the cochlear implant.
Here's the other cool thing
about the Bluetooth connectivity.
If you are a bimodal individual,
meaning you have a sound processor and implant on one side
and you have a hearing aid still on the other side,
as long as that hearing aid is a ReSound hearing aid
that is either part of your Squared, 3D, or Quattro lines,
you can stream the audio both into your sound processor
and to your hearing aid at the same time.
This Bluetooth connectivity also lets you directly connect
with other wireless accessories from Cochlear,
including the TV Streamer and the Mini Microphone 2+.
And number two on the list of cool things
about the Nucleus 7 has to be the Nucleus Smart App.
This app lets you adjust the volume of what you're hearing
and it lets you adjust the sensitivity
of your microphones as well.
You can change the programs between SCAN
and whatever programs your audiologist adds
during your programming sessions.
You can adjust your audio sources,
which can include a Mini Microphone,
a TV Streamer, and the Telecoil.
And you can even adjust the streaming volume
for these audio sources separately
from your processor microphone volume,
so you can control exactly what you want
or don't want to hear.
The other things you can find on the app
are a Find My Processor feature,
which helps you locate a lost processor first on a map,
then by using Bluetooth strength
to hone in on its exact location.
And you can even run a diagnostic of your system,
which includes battery life
and the status of your processor.
And the best part is the Nucleus Smart App
is available for both Apple and Android devices.
Number three is the SCAN program which uses SmartSound iQ.
Hearing aids are becoming well-known
for making automatic adjustments
based on the environments that you're in
to put you in program settings
that are best for that particular environment.
This is what the SCAN program does.
SCAN actually stands for scene analysis.
This program uses the Nucleus' dual microphones
to determine which environment that you are in
and automatically classifies you
into the correct environment.
And this program works so well
that it actually improves speech understanding by 28%
when you're in a noisy situation.
And fourth on the list
of cool things about the Nucleus 7 processor
is the Cochlear website
actually lets you build your own Nucleus 7.
After picking the color of your processor and coil,
you can select up to four accessories that you want.
At the time of this recording,
your options include a Mini Microphone 2+,
a Phone Clip, a TV Streamer, Retention accessories,
additional battery and charger options, and an Aqua kit.
This is the waterproofing accessory
that lets you take your sound processor
into a pool or any other environment
that you would have water.
There is a remote control that comes with your processor
and does not count towards one of your accessories.
But perhaps the best accessory is the Plus One Program.
The Plus One Program lets you delay
getting one of your accessories for up to a year.
This way, you have some time
to kind of play with your processor
and see which one of those accessories
you would actually like the best.
Now, as awesome
as the Cochlear Nucleus 7 Sound Processor is,
there are a few things that I would like Cochlear to do,
and the first one is have a CROS option.
Now, depending on how good your hearing is
in your opposite ear,
so I'm talking about the ear that does not have an implant,
it may not make a whole lot of sense
to put a hearing aid on that ear
if you could put a CROS transmitter on that ear.
What that would do is it would collect sound
from that side in that ear
that you don't really use that well
and it routes that sound over to your processor
so you can actually hear it.
This would allow you to do two different things.
It would allow you to understand speech better
from your non-implanted side
and it would also allow you to preserve your cochlea
just in case there are some other
restorative treatment options down the road.
The other thing that I would like to see
is direct streaming capability
from devices other than Apple devices.
And while I have an Apple iPhone, I don't use it.
I use an Android device.
And so, if I ended up getting a Nucleus 7 Sound Processor,
I would have to make an even more difficult decision
of, would I be able to switch over to an iPhone?
Overall, the Nucleus 7 Sound Processor is a fantastic option
for anyone considering cochlear implantation.
However, I do recommend researching all of your options
before ultimately deciding on which company
you're gonna go with.
But if you want a great, reliable implant
with a processor that is loaded
with a bunch of amazing features,
then I highly recommend putting the Nucleus 7
on your list of devices to consider.
That's it for this video.
If you have any questions,
leave them in the comment section below.
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I'll see you next time.
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