Hearing
loss that only affects one ear is known as unilateral hearing loss. Unilateral
hearing loss has been estimated to affect approximately 10% of the general
population. When unilateral hearing loss is severe-to-profound, it’s often
referred to as single-sided deafness (SSD). There’s an effective treatment
option for these candidates. It is a bone conduction hearing system, which uses mechanical vibrations to send
sounds from the deafened side to the hearing cochlea on the other side of the
head.
It is implanted into the bone and
the skin heals completely over it. The implant then vibrates which make the
bones vibrate, sending sound signals to the cochlea. This offers a natural
sound quality with only one hearing cochlea, and effectively eliminates the head shadow effect. The head shadow effect involves the head, which is a natural
barrier between the ears that muffles higher frequencies (1000 Hz and up) by as
much as 20 dB when sounds arriving from the opposite side travel around the
head to reach the ear.
Without
an implant, sounds on the deafened side are very difficult to hear. With BONEBRIDGE,
patients can hear sounds coming from any direction. This offers many benefits,
which include: improved speech understanding, easier listening in challenging
environments, no head shadow effect, and improved quality of life. Here are five reasons why BONEBRIDGE might
be right for you:
BONEBRIDGE gives you
great sound quality-Imagine you’re in an empty room and
you’re talking to someone. You can hear quite clearly what they’re saying. Then
you go into the next room and shut the door and it suddenly becomes a lot
harder. That’s because the sound vibrations now have to pass through the door
to reach the other person.
It’s the same
principle with bone conduction implants. If your bone conduction implant can
transmit vibrations directly to your bone—known as direct sound
transmission—then you will get a clearer sound quality. But if you put a “door”
in the way, then it becomes harder to hear. The BONEBRIDGE
implant uses direct sound transmission to vibrate the bone directly—the
vibrations don’t have to pass through any skin. Without any “doors” in the way,
you can experience great sound quality from your BONEBRIDGE,
and hear your best at all times.
BONEBRIDGE has a smaller
and lighter audio processor-Because the
audio processor for BONEBRIDGE doesn’t need to vibrate, it can be a lot thinner and
lighter. It needs only a battery and a computer chip, which converts sound
vibrations into the wireless electrical signals that are sent to the implant. The
newest BONEBRIDGE audio processor, Samba, is only 10 mm
tall and weighs 9 g with the battery. It’s so tiny that you’ll barely even
notice you’re wearing it.
BONEBRIDGE is good for
your skin-With a regular Baha, the abutment
is left poking out through an open wound in the skin. This makes it very easy
to get skin infections. Studies show that over 70% of children suffer skin
complications with their Baha. Because of this, the magnets of a magnetic Baha
have to put your skin under a lot of pressure—four times as much pressure as
the BONEBRIDGE magnets.
This constant squeezing of the skin between two magnets can
create sore spots and skin irritation for magnetic Baha users making it painful
to wear their audio processor. BONEBRIDGE’s audio
processor doesn’t need to be pressed as tightly on your skin. Your skin won’t
be squeezed and irritated in the same way. This means you can comfortably wear
your audio processor all day long. BONEBRIDGE will
give you great hearing all day long.
BONEBRIDGE is
the most advanced active bone conduction implant-MED-EL
pioneered “under-the-skin” bone conduction implants: the original BONEBRIDGE implant was the first of its type and released way back in
2012. In the time since, we’ve been working with you and your healthcare
professionals to find out what works and what doesn’t. All this experience has
been packed into our latest generation of BONEBRIDGE implants,
and in fact BONEBRIDGE is the only active bone conduction implant already in its
second generation. For you, that means you can benefit from the most advanced
bone conduction technology out there.
BONEBRIDGE is the only
waterproof bone conduction implant-BONEBRIDGE is the only waterproof bone conduction device available
anywhere in the world. That means you can go swimming, spend time on the beach,
or just take a bath, and hear the world at the same time.
You simply
place your Samba audio processor into a waterproof WaterWear cover and then dive right in. Your Samba will stay nice and dry
while you enjoy swimming, diving, or just having fun in the water. Because BONEBRIDGE doesn’t leave you with an open wound, you’re also not
putting yourself at risk of skin infections from the water.
“I like to say that the greatest handicap of
deafness does not lie in the ear, it lies in the mind. I hope that through my example,
such as my role on 'The West Wing,' I can help change attitudes on deafness and
prove we can really do everything except hear.” (Marlee Matlin) [i]
[i] Sources used:
·
“5 Reasons to Get A BONEBRIDGE Bone Conduction
Implant” by Med-El
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