My husband and second our daughter, were born with Treacher Collins Syndrome, which effects the development of facial bones. That can cause problems with one’s ability to breath, eat, and hear.
Somehow our daughter passed her newborn hearing test. But later, we discovered she has no ear drum in her right ear. At that point we did a non-sedated Auditory Brainstem Response (ABR) hearing test, with a 16 month old, but that is another story.
Our Audiologist recommended a Bone Anchored Hearing Aid (BAHA) and loaned the Cochlear Baha BP100 for us to try. She mentioned the Oticon Ponto hearing aid, but I was not interested. My husband has a Cochlear Baha 5, so obviously we would get the same hearing aid for our daughter.
But thank God for Facebook! I joined the Baha Kids group on Facebook. As I browsed, I began to notice a lot of children had the Oticon Ponto hearing aid. I had assumed that Cochlear Baha is the best, because that is what my husband has.
Fortunately I decided to ask questions before making a decision for our daughter.
When I asked about Oticon Ponto vs Cochlear Baha, the answers I received surprised me. In summary, I was told that the Oticon Ponto hearing aid is:
- More durable
- Less issues with feed-back
- Better at filtering out background noise
- Better sound quality, more crisp and clear, less tin sounding
- Better warranty, for lower price
- Oticon replaces the device rather than repair
- Oticon has excellent customer service
After reading what other parents shared about their experiences, I told my husband, “we are getting an Oticon Ponto hearing aid for our daughter.”
My husband and I agreed that the Oticon Ponto does sounds like the best option for our rambunctious toddler. So we asked our Audiologist to try the Ponto. The difference was amazing. So ultimately we ended up purchasing two Oticon Ponto PS3 hearing aids for our daughter.
Now I can hug my daughter without her hearing aid squealing.
I highly recommend trying both brands before deciding which to purchase.
Cochlear’s Baha 5 has some features which my husband loves. Specifically built in blue-tooth. He can stream sound from the TV or his phone, directly into his hearing aid.
My husband also uses his phone to adjust volume on his Cochlear BAHA5 hearing aid. That great for him, but inconvenient since my toddler does not have her own phone yet, and sometimes she is with me, other times with Dada, or a baby sitter.
My husband’s BAHA 5 is a bit smaller than my daughter’s Ponto3. But is also takes a smaller battery, which does not last as long. His needs the battery replaced every 5-6 days, whereas my daughter’s Ponto battery lasts 10-12 days.
My husband is happy with his Cochlear Baha5, but we are glad we chose the Oticon Ponto for our daughter.
Here’s a video of our discussion:
2020 Updated to add…
The new Oticon Ponto4 has Bluetooth! The Ponto4 is much smaller than the Ponto3 (it’s also smaller than Baha5). I found this picture comparing the size of Ponto3 vs Ponto4 (not sure who to give credit for this photo).
