I have a good friend that has had an implant since about19 or 20 years old. Helicopter crash in Vietnam took his hearing out and almost took him out. I just saw him recently and he had gotten an updated implant. Of course from all those years technology has improved greatly. His new one is blue tooth and he said that was a game changer. Phone calls had always been challenging particularly with certain voices. Now with blue tooth tied to his phone no problem. He is impressed with the improvements from 40 years ago. When scuba diving with him he would say "going silent" when he unhooked from the implant as he could not dive or swim with the device plugged in.