Bone Anchored Hearing Aids

A BAHA is a type of hearing aid based on bone conduction.  It is primarily suited for people who have conductive hearing losses, unilateral hearing loss, single-sided deafness and people with mixed hearing losses who cannot otherwise wear ‘in the ear’ or ‘behind the ear’ hearing aids.

Bone-anchored hearing aids use a surgically implanted to transmit sound by direct conduction through bone to the inner ear, bypassing the external auditory canal and middle ear. A titanium prosthesis is surgically embedded into the skull with a small abutment exposed outside the skin. A sound processor sits on this abutment and transmits sound vibrations to the titanium implant. The implant vibrates the skull and inner ear, which stimulate the nerve fibers of the inner ear, allowing hearing.

The surgery is often performed as an outpatient procedure.

Benefit

By bypassing the outer or middle ear, BAHA can increase hearing in noisy situations and help localize sounds. In addition to improved speech understanding, it results in a natural sound with less distortion and feedback compared with conventional hearing aids.  The ear canal is left open for comfort, and helps to reduce any problems caused by chronic ear infections or allergies. In patients with single-sided sensorineural deafness, BAHA sends the sound by the skull bone from the deaf side to the inner ear of the hearing side. This transfer of sound gives a 360° sound awareness.

The ADHEAR system is a non-surgical alternative to the traditional bone anchored hearing systems. In lieu of an implanted abutment, it uses an adhesive to attach the audio processor to the skull (just behind the ear). The microphone picks up the sounds around you and, using bone vibration, sends the acoustic signal directly to your unimpaired hearing organ. The ADHEAR is quite visibly discreet.

The Oticon Ponto and the Cochlear BAHA are traditional bone-anchored hearing systems which uses a surgically implanted abutment. They pick up sounds around you and sends the signals directly to your hearing organ (bypassing your impaired outer or middle ear). If you suffer from single-sided deafness, these devices can also be used to transmit sound to your hearing ear. Since the abutment is surgically implanted into your mastoid (the bone behind your ear), it streamlines the signal allowing for a very clear and crisp sound.

To book a candidacy assessment, please contact our clinic at (236) 420-0294.