Bone-Anchored Hearing Implants

Traditional hearing aids use what’s known as “air conduction” to send amplified signals from the world around you through the natural pathways to your ears and brain. Some people, however, can’t use hearing aids either because of the shape (the anatomy) of their ears or the nature of their hearing loss.

Bone-anchored hearing implants may help instead. They can improve some kinds of hearing loss. They do this by directing sound vibrations to part of your inner ear called the cochlea. This part of your ear has tiny hair cells. These cells send vibrations to the nerve that helps you hear (auditory nerve). The auditory nerve turns the vibration into electrical signals and sends them to your brain.

Traditionally, these bone-anchored implants (you may hear your provider call them percutaneous, which means that the procedure happens through the skin) have three parts working together to do this:

• A titanium implant that looks like a dental implant and that a surgeon places in the skull bone
• An external connector or abutment, which a provider places through the skin
• A sound processor that generates the amplified signal and connects through the abutment to the implant

Some other options include implants with no abutment that your skin completely covers.

Bone-anchored hearing implants don’t help everyone. That’s why we always start with an evaluation. We consider your age, overall health and type of hearing loss. You may be a candidate for this surgery if you have:

• Conductive hearing loss affecting how sound moves through your outer (ear canal) or middle ear
• Mixed hearing loss affecting your middle or outer ear along with your inner ear
• Single-sided hearing loss affecting only one ear

What to expect during your evaluation

When you come to your evaluation, your providers will review your medical history. They’ll also do hearing tests to confirm what type of hearing loss you have. You’ll have tests to check your speech and language skills, too, and a CT scan to check out the bones in your skull.

Your care team will also talk with you about your treatment preferences. They’ll go over the different types of hearing devices. You’ll get the chance to try an external demo device (nonsurgical bone conduction hearing aid) so you’ll have an idea of what an implant could do for you.

Meet Our Bone-Anchored Hearing Implant Team

You’ll have a team of providers from different specialties guiding you through every step. Your team may have:

• Otolaryngologists (including pediatric otologists)
• Audiologists
• Speech-language pathologists

When you get bone-anchored hearing implants, we’ll make small incisions (cuts) behind your ear and insert the tiny titanium implant. We’ll also place the external connector, which will slightly stick out from your skin. Surgery usually takes no more than an hour.

Initial recovery takes about a week. Then, over one to three months, the bone in your skull will slowly fuse to the implant. You may hear us call this osseointegration.

Once you’ve healed enough for a stable implant, we’ll attach the sound processor to the external connector. We’ll then program and test the processor so you can start picking up sound vibrations. You’ll also learn how to remove and reattach your processor to the connector.

Taking the Next Step

You may want to explore bone-anchored hearing implants if you haven’t been able to use traditional hearing aids. Our compassionate and experienced team is ready to help you start this journey. We’re here to listen to your concerns and answer your questions. We’ll go over all the options with you and make sure you feel ready to move forward with surgery — and a new phase of life.