Does anyone here have experience with bone anchored hearing systems?

In My Humble Opinion
1

I have significant hearing loss in one of my ears, and one of the options that my doctor suggested was a bone anchored hearing system. It’s an implant that attaches directly to the skull and sends vibrations through it, bypassing the middle ear, which is where my problem is.

It sounds like it would be a good solution for me, but I’d like to know more about them before making any irreversible decision.

Is there anyone here who’s gotten one? If so, what’s it like? Does it work well? Does it feel weird? What kind of problems or difficulties have you had with it?

2

Is there a way to sample what one would sound like before having the procedure done?

3

Have you tried a hearing aid in that ear? If you have, did it help you, or were you still missing a lot?
I have severe hearing loss in my left ear (back when they measured it in % I was told I had 80% hearing loss in my left ear). The newer digital hearing aids actually seem to be worse than the old analog ones, since every hearing aid place has told me if it was “loud enough” for me to hear well, it would damage my ear even further. I have seriously considered getting the implant myself, but I have the same questions as you. I also have 50% loss in my right ear, so I wonder how the 2 types of hearing mechanisms would work together.
So I can’t answer your question, but I would say if a normal hearing aid does not give you enough help with your hearing aid then I would seriously consider getting the implant. I am also very interested in replies from people with implant experience and will subscribe to this thread.
Whatever route you decide to go, I hope it works out for you! :grinning:

4

Can’t speak from personal experience, only from observing a good friend that has had a cochlear implant.
The short answer is, it’s better than it was before surgery.
Prior to surgery he used what were considered top end hearing aids. They helped - he was stone deaf without them - but he was still pretty deaf with them.
He had the surgery on one side. Once that was completed he returned regularly for tweaking. Gradually as things were ironed out the visits to the specialist decreased.
No way does it replace actual hearing, no more than false teeth replaces real teeth. But I notice a large improvement. I no longer have to shout at him. Visits with group settings, such as reastaurants, are no longer as bad for being the loud jumbled mess they once were for him. Still by no means perfect though.
For him it’s been positive. He only had one side done because the expense comes from his own pocket.

5

I have a BAHA!

I’ve had it for about 10 years (read my blog post from when I first had the surgery for the implant here The BAHA – Joseph Ugoretz ). My insurance paid for a new device after five years, and the newer models have better features, so I did get a new one. So I guess I’ve had two.

After 10 years, I’m a bit ambivalent about it, to be honest. It helps, it’s better than nothing, but it definitely does not give back the full experience that i had before losing the hearing in my right ear. Is it worth it overall? It’s really kind of borderline.

When I was going in to the office every day, I used it every day. Since Covid started, working from home every day, I don’t think I’ve worn it even once. But when (someday!) I go back to work, I’m sure I will use it again. It makes meetings and other settings where there is a lot of noise better. Still definitely not great (parties are a nightmare), but better.

One thing–this is NOT a cochlear implant (although the company that makes it is the same company). It’s a totally different technology.

There is a “share the experience rod” (that name cracks me up), that comes with the device, or that your audiologist will have. Using that, you can get some approximation of what it’s like. It attaches to the device and then you can press it against your head. It’s not an exact approximation, because the rod is conducting sound through your scalp and the tissue under it, and then to your skull. The actual implant is conducting the sound directly to your skull. So that’s significantly better.

One other thing that happens, that I don’t know if it’s common or not. Every so often (like every few months) the skin around my abutment decides it’s going to try to grow over it. Then it gets all red and inflamed and painful. A day or two of a steroid cream makes it calm right down again, but my surgeon has never been able to explain why it happens. I think when he did the implant surgery, he tried to remove as little of my scalp and hair follicles as possible, leaving almost no scar tissue/bald spot. I can see how most people would prefer that, but I honestly would have been better off with a bigger bald/dead margin around the abutment. But this is a very small annoyance.

When I’m out and about and dealing with people, I do miss it when I don’t wear it (or when the battery dies, which will definitely happen when you don’t want it to. I always carry extras).

It’s very hard for me to say it’s definitely worth it. But it’s also hard to say it’s not worth it. I’m happy to answer any questions. I’ve got a lot of experience with it by now!

6

I should add…

My hearing loss is totally in my right ear. I had a tumor, treated with radiation, and it left me with almost total deafness in that ear (and constant tinnitus in there, too). My left ear still has excellent to very good hearing. This is really the perfect situation for a BAHA. It doesn’t work so well if you don’t have at least one good ear (except in some very specific situations).

Single-sided deafness makes some things very hard, because we depend on the “stereo” effect of having two ears to locate where sounds are coming from. That’s completely gone for me, and the BAHA doesn’t help with that at all. They said that my brain might adjust so that, while wearing the BAHA, I would have some ability to locate the source of sounds again, but I haven’t noticed any improvement in that. It’s a strange thing. I’m always asking my wife “what’s that sound coming from the dining room? It sounds terrible!” and she will tell me “it’s just a truck idling outside the front window. It’s not coming from the direction of the dining room at all.” (I don’t really always ask her. Usually I can figure it out by thinking for a minute)

But the other thing that having two ears helps us to do, that I didn’t realize until I lost the one ear, is to separate different conversations when there’s a lot of noise or talking going on. This is hard for anyone with any hearing loss, of course. With single-sided deafness, in a big party or meeting (not that I have those anymore these days, but maybe someday we will again), I’m just miserable. I can’t distinguish speech, I can’t concentrate on what anyone is saying because I can’t untangle the sounds. I never really was a social person anyway, but now it’s just awful. I work really hard to try to figure things out, if someone talks to me directly I can read lips to some extent (another thing that the pandemic ruins–can’t read lips with masks). But usually I just have to smile vaguely and nod.

Those situations (parties or crowded restaurants or meetings of lots of people) are something that I really wanted the BAHA to help with. It doesn’t really help with those situations at all. So that was a disappointment.

And one other thing. The BAHA seems to be tuned to mostly pick up sound from in front of you. That makes sense, but there are times when it just doesn’t work. Walking down the street with someone walking next to me, they have to walk on my “good” side. Even with the BAHA, if they walk on my “bad” side and try to talk to me, I can’t figure out what they’re saying at all. So my friends and family have all gotten used to my habitual “do-si-do” as I move over to make sure they walk on my left.