Hi, new here

[Dylan S.]

Hi, I was implanted with the bonebridge about a week ago and I'm awaiting to get the Samba. Back in 2008 I was diagnosed with a cholesteatoma which is the cause of my unilateral hearing loss. Due too the overwhelming frustration of trying to interact and socialize with people in noisy environments, I decided to do something about my hearing loss. I first tried a regular in the ear hearing aid, which worked pretty well and I was satisfied with it until I was diagnosed again with a cholesteatoma in 2014. To remove the disease this time around, the surgeon decided to enlarge my ear canal therefore rendering my hearing aid useless. So, my only two options left were to either continue my life with only one hearing ear, or get a BAHA. My surgeon no longer does the traditional abutment fixture anchored in the skull due to unwanted skin irritation and such. The only bone conduction implant he currently does surgery for is the Bonebridge, so I decided that was the option for me. I still have drainage from my ear but I was assured this was normal. I have two questions I'd like to ask for anyone who has this implant. When I flick my teeth or bite down hard I can hear the sound of the metal part screwed into my skull. I'm assuming this is normal due to bone conduction right? Also, how affectively can you localize sound with the Samba/Bonebridge? Thanks, I'm looking forward to getting my Samba and I'm happy this website exists.

[Kara of Canada]

Welcome to Hearpeers!! Glad to see you here. Ivana is the one who knows the most about bone bridge and is an implantee as well. She lives on tHe other side of the world so she may to chime in here till tomorrow afternoon. Good luck!! I have a CI but I love the journey!!

[Sandy]

Hi Dylan, welcome to Hearpeers. It's nice to see more Canadians on this forum. As Kara says, Ivana will tune in as our expert on Bonebridge. I also have a CI and it was the best decision I made. Keep us posted on your journey and ask all the questions you want; we will find the answer.

[Adam]

Hi Dylan

Welcome to hearpeers!!! I have bilateral CIs so can't answer your question. Just wanted to give you a warm welcome.

I had a Cholesteatoma a few years ago which made a mess of the bones. I have sensorineural hearing loss so have a CI on that side. Looking forward to getting to know you.

Adam

[Ivana Marinac]

Hi, I was implanted with the bonebridge about a week ago and I'm awaiting to get the Samba. Back in 2008 I was diagnosed with a cholesteatoma which is the cause of my unilateral hearing loss. Due too the overwhelming frustration of trying to interact and socialize with people in noisy environments, I decided to do something about my hearing loss. I first tried a regular in the ear hearing aid, which worked pretty well and I was satisfied with it until I was diagnosed again with a cholesteatoma in 2014. To remove the disease this time around, the surgeon decided to enlarge my ear canal therefore rendering my hearing aid useless. So, my only two options left were to either continue my life with only one hearing ear, or get a BAHA. My surgeon no longer does the traditional abutment fixture anchored in the skull due to unwanted skin irritation and such. The only bone conduction implant he currently does surgery for is the Bonebridge, so I decided that was the option for me. I still have drainage from my ear but I was assured this was normal. I have two questions I'd like to ask for anyone who has this implant. When I flick my teeth or bite down hard I can hear the sound of the metal part screwed into my skull. I'm assuming this is normal due to bone conduction right? Also, how affectively can you localize sound with the Samba/Bonebridge? Thanks, I'm looking forward to getting my Samba and I'm happy this website exists.

Hello Dylan,

Girls waked me up by calling to jump into At first - I would like to glad you a warm welcome to the HP. 

 

Further, glad you decided for the Bonebridge so I can help you not just from professional than from individual perspective.

Regarding your questions and observations, today there are bone conduction implants without the abutment, but as this is not topic I shall proceed further. As you stated, your hearing loss is due to the cholesteatoma so I presume that you have a conductive hearing loss, possibly moderate sensorineural but I am not sure because these detail you didn`t give.

Your surgeon widened the ear canal most probable to enable easier way for cleaning ear. Did he make a tympanoplasty or radical mastoidectomy as surgical procedure? Do you have an eardrum? Drainage from your ear is because your chronic ear infection will always be present - the only question is how it shall proceed: a discharge should eventually stop, present discharge is due to the operation and it`s normal.

[Ivana Marinac]

...

Finally - your questions, I believe that`s not a BB that you hear because it is located in the temporal bone which is not connected with mandible otherwise than over temporomandibular joint. However, you could have certain sensations due to your operation in this early phase regarding certain fluid which remained after the procedure. The part which is implanted is made of titanium and other part which is not implanted is coated by sort of plastic masses so it`s hard to have direct metal sensation. Only possibility I would bet on is if the post-operative fluid can distort certain sounds in combination with chewing noises.

You should be able to restore holo-location as it was previous, because implant will stimulate ipsilateral ear as normal ear do. Unfortunatelly, this answer I can not give you from my own experience as I am bilaterally conductive hearing person since my birth; at present I still have one side implanted. 

 

Any further question? 

[Ivana Marinac]

Pardon me - I had to cut my post because screen of my mobile phone is not large enough...

[bluesidae]

Hi Dylan. Welcome ! I am a fellow Canadian who was recently implanted (Bonebridge) and have received my Samba. I had the same sensation when I tapped my teeth. This sensation lasted for about 10 days post op. It is now gone.

 

Sound localization has been a bit of a letdown. I have 4 programs that were setup with my Samba. One of the programs is set to localize voices and is supposed to be unidirectional. I still have difficulty with sound localization.

 

But fear not! I have had the Samba for two weeks and everyday my hearing evolves. My brain seems to filter some sounds that I do not want to hear (background noise, cutlery dropping on the counter) and seems to "focus" on sounds that I want to hear (voices). I am hopeful that this evolution process will continue.

 

-Ross

[Ivana Marinac]

Of course it will continue Ross.

 

Our brains were deprived partialy of sound, in your case unilaterally, but it still has effect. I had almost constant improvements 2 years, month after month although my clinical engineer expected that some of tunings will last for 6 months, I needed a change for a month or two at most.

 

Just - patience, practice and perseverance. 

[Mary Beth]

Welcome Dylan!

[Dylan S.]

Hello Dylan,

Girls waked me up by calling to jump into At first - I would like to glad you a warm welcome to the HP.

Further, glad you decided for the Bonebridge so I can help you not just from professional than from individual perspective.

Regarding your questions and observations, today there are bone conduction implants without the abutment, but as this is not topic I shall proceed further. As you stated, your hearing loss is due to the cholesteatoma so I presume that you have a conductive hearing loss, possibly moderate sensorineural but I am not sure because these detail you didn`t give.

Your surgeon widened the ear canal most probable to enable easier way for cleaning ear. Did he make a tympanoplasty or radical mastoidectomy as surgical procedure? Do you have an eardrum? Drainage from your ear is because your chronic ear infection will always be present - the only question is how it shall proceed: a discharge should eventually stop, present discharge is due to the operation and it`s normal.

[Dylan S.]

Thanks for the reply Ivana, my hearing loss is conductive only so I have normal inner ear function. I do have an eardrum and my last operation was a canal wall down mastoidectomy, leaving me with just one big mastoid cavity as opposed to a regular ear canal. I did not have any drainage before my Bonebridge implant, it has only been present post op.

[Dylan S.]

Thanks everyone for the replies! I will keep you updated on my progress, if anyone has any questions feel free to ask.

[Kara of Canada]

Of course that's what we're here for!! Good luck and feel better!!

[Ivana Marinac]

Thanks for the reply Ivana, my hearing loss is conductive only so I have normal inner ear function. I do have an eardrum and my last operation was a canal wall down mastoidectomy, leaving me with just one big mastoid cavity as opposed to a regular ear canal. I did not have any drainage before my Bonebridge implant, it has only been present post op.

So, it was made a modified radical mastoidectomy - your drainage is expected like your surgeon told you. It seems it was huge enough when he decided to this type of the operation.

We'll wait for your observations - as much you learn from the whole process, we learn from you.

Your situation is little bit different than Ross'es and mine since we have our conductive hearing loss much longer.

[Dylan S.]

So, it was made a modified radical mastoidectomy - your drainage is expected like your surgeon told you. It seems it was huge enough when he decided to this type of the operation.

We'll wait for your observations - as much you learn from the whole process, we learn from you.

Your situation is little bit different than Ross'es and mine since we have our conductive hearing loss much longer.

Yeah I'm assuming since you guys went a longer period of time with conductive hearing loss it can be a little harder for your brain to adapt to being able to hear, an adjust accordingly.

[Adam]

Dylan,

Each person is different. You could have two people with the exact same hearing loss but totally different rates of hearing after activation. The key is your brain and how it reacts and adjusts to the new stimulus or sound it is receiving. Each person is different.

[Ivana Marinac]

Yeah I'm assuming since you guys went a longer period of time with conductive hearing loss it can be a little harder for your brain to adapt to being able to hear, an adjust accordingly.

 

Actually Dylan,

 

My transition went fast and smooth...

Before my implantation I have used bone-conduction hearing aid for 30 years. My non-stimulated ear was implanted because of more favourable anathomy. I had constant changed of speech inteligibility, sound loudness, perception of respective change of sound loudness within certain range in space - for instance, I could never hear people so loud and clear when I was in the coffee shop just few meters away of me. I used to hear mumbling but nothing what I could understand; or now I can hear loudly and clearly pretty silent music or what is spoken in the news.

 

What is left to dwelve is to improve understanding in the loud environment but that also depends of second implant. Than I could say that all of my technological requirements are fulfilled and rest is up to me.

[Dylan S.]

Samba Activation tomorrow!

[Kara of Canada]

Good luck Dylan!! Keep us posted!!

[Ivana Marinac]

Yes - keep us posted but remember, this is the beginning of your path: lots of change can be expected.

[Dylan S.]

Activated today and seems to be working pretty well. I would like some of the lower frequencies louder when I go back, I'm finding that I'm not hearing my own voice as loud as I'd like. There's also some unwanted distortion of sound whenever I hear certain noises, I'm not sure what that's about. But as of now I'm definitely hearing better, I'd like to see if I can perfect the tuning and eliminate the distortion if possible next time around. I also got very sick after having my ear cleaned out at the doctors , it was awful.

[Dylan S.]

I'm also glad they have the hair clip, I'd be to paranoid of it getting knocked if It didn't

[Sandy]

Congratulations, Dylan. I like the security of the hair clip too.

[Ivana Marinac]

Very good Dylan

For a start, you have to get used to it - but, it's not problem at all to raise lower frequiencies.

Just - write your diary with all observations you find so you can discuss with your audiologist. There are many functions and it's hard to make a good tuning from the first attempt.

Ugh... They should stop if you didn't feel well...