traditional hearing aids vs bonebridge

[jadepedro]

Hello everybody!

 

I'm the father of a 5 years-old that has severe-profound bilateral loss. Finally we've been able to identify it's conductive loss, but due to facial nerve position, no reconstruction is available. He has been wearing BTE hearing aids all this years will quite good results, but now we've been offered to move to bonebridge, that is supposed to give better results for conductive loss.

 

My questions for anybody that has been using "traditional" hearing aids and has moved to bonebridge is:

1. Are you happy with the change?

2. Would you switch back to hearing aids?

3. Is there any situation in which hearing aids perform better than the bonebridge?

4. Whatever other thoughts you may want to share 

 

 

Thanks in advance and best regards!

Javier

 

[sophiea2410]

Good Morning

 

I am 22 with bilateral loss, I started out with glue ear as baby and have never been able to get rid of it. I had 20 grommet/t-tube operations, then wore hearing aids for 3 years before getting my bonebridge. I got my left side done on the 15/7/14 and its the best thing I've ever done, I'm currently waiting to see if I can get funding for the right side, should find out on Tuesday

 

To answer your questions..

 

1. 1000000000% happy! I adore my magic ear as I call it.

2. Never in a million years.

3. I don't personally think so, the BB is also alot clearer than a hearing aid for me.

4. The operation weren't even as painful as I thought

 

Hope this helps happy to answer any more questions xx

[jadepedro]

Hi Sophie!

 

Thanks a lot for your feedback.

 

The surgeon has told us that my son will hear much better with the bonebridge, but you know, nothing like personal experience.

 

And good luck with your fundings.

 

Wish you the best.

Javier

[sophiea2410]

That will be true

 

Has he been offered the bone bridge bilateral?

 

xx

[jadepedro]

Yes, it's bilateral. The operation is so "soft" that he can implant both in a single surgery.

 

Best wishes and thanks again.

 

Javier

[sophiea2410]

I wish I could of had mine done together so that's brilliant.

 

Keep us updated

[Ivana Marinac]

 

Hello everybody!

I'm the father of a 5 years-old that has severe-profound bilateral loss. Finally we've been able to identify it's conductive loss, but due to facial nerve position, no reconstruction is available. He has been wearing BTE hearing aids all this years will quite good results, but now we've been offered to move to bonebridge, that is supposed to give better results for conductive loss.

My questions for anybody that has been using "traditional" hearing aids and has moved to bonebridge is:

1. Are you happy with the change?

2. Would you switch back to hearing aids?

3. Is there any situation in which hearing aids perform better than the bonebridge?

4. Whatever other thoughts you may want to share 

Thanks in advance and best regards!

Javier

 

Hello Javier,

 

Best decision ever which you can do for your son is to get him a Bonebridge vs. conventional hearing aid.

Conductive hearing loss is problematic in a way that transmission failed when conduction is not effective. There is no conventional hearing aid that can override transmission chain and dwell with sound dumping as BAHA and Bonebridge because of their ability to jump over the most problematic hurdle which alter the nature of sound. In that way it is hard to understand what has been told no matter how good your inner ear is.

So:

1. by eternity, it can not be count what kind of difference BB is: my sound spectrum expanded because lot of sounds were too subtle and silent so I didn't notice it.

2.Never in a zillion years. Not even the fact this need operation can not change my level of satisfaction.

3. I can not make up any. Really. No pressure, to me - even battery lasts longer....There is effective protection agains sweat. Unfortunately, still not for water but I expect change really soon.

4. I have been wearing conventional hearing aid, altered so I can use it for my severe conduction hearing loss for 30 years. In just 1 year (I have been implanted July 2013) my life changed drastically.

 

Taking bilateral BB is excellent choice. So go for it! Cheers!

[jadepedro]

Hi Ivana!

 

Thanks for your reply  all your feedback is really, really valuable to me

 

Seems that there is a huge difference on quality of sound. At the beginning, we were having some doubts about going for the BB, as Diego performs extremely well with his current hearing aids. Even at school seems to have a good results, but I want him to have the top of quality he can achieve so he can concentrate his efforts on the content of the class and not just trying to hear what has been said.

 

Some more info about Diego's hearing loss, just in case the discussion can help somebody else in my situation: 

Diego's bone hearing is around 10db -30db, which is 60-70 db better than the air one due to a altered shape and fixation of the stapes bone, and we (the surgeon) tried to rebuild the bone chain with a prothesis, but unfortunately his facial nerve is also displaced from the natural position and don't leave enough free space to the surgeon to work. This huge gap on the bone-air results makes Diego an ideal candidate for the BB.

The diagnostic has took us 5 years to get, as even when the surgeon detected the alteration of the stapes really soon, we needed to wait till Diego's has been mature enough so he can give trustable feedback about his hearing levels.

One clue for parents trying to identify if the hearing loss is conductive or neuro-sensorial. Diego sometimes whispered and when we take off the hearing aids for his bath, we don't need to shout, we just put our mouths in contact with his head and speak normally. This way he is able to understand us. Now we know this is possible due to the conductive hearing loss.

 

If we undergo the surgery, it will probably be around may, so he has the summer vacations to recover.

 

Again thanks A LOT to all of you and I'll keep you informed.

 

[Ivana Marinac]

Hi Javier again,

 

So glad that we helped - you have described your son's clinical status excellent.

From my point of view as ENT resident there is another possible solution - Vibrant Soundbridge which is even better for the hearing thresholds you've described. The only possible question is whether there is enough space to do a little bit more delicate surgery.

If you have access to some medical library, Coletti from Verona and Frenzel from Lubeck wrote about it. Although it was within the topic of aural atresia, major point is ossicle chain and middle ear malformation.

Results are excellent.

[Knickohr]

"Diego's bone hearing is around 10db -30db"

Oh, be carefull !!!  The BB is very good, but it has not much power.

My hearing loss is 0 - 25% bone conductive and I'm not sure if 30 oder more dBs are handled with the BB. It depends on the frequencies. Yes, MedEl specified it for 0-45dB, but double check it.

 

I'm bilateral since a few month, BBs works great. I'm happy with it, becaus I can here "Stereo"

 

Thomas

[Ivana Marinac]

 

"Diego's bone hearing is around 10db -30db"

Oh, be carefull !!!  The BB is very good, but it has not much power.

My hearing loss is 0 - 25% bone conductive and I'm not sure if 30 oder more dBs are handled with the BB. It depends on the frequencies. Yes, MedEl specified it for 0-45dB, but double check it.

 

I'm bilateral since a few month, BBs works great. I'm happy with it, becaus I can here "Stereo"

 

Thomas

 

Dear Thomas,

 

this is the abstract of the article published in Laryngoscope - it is fresh as your morning newspaper probably

However, it was written by the distingueshed Viennese Group from the Department of Otorhinolaryngology, Head and Neck Surgery, Medical University of Vienna:

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/25142577

who have been researching the link between the indication criteria and the outcome of the BB implantation.

They summed up group pf the BB implantee created by 24 individuals both with atresia or Combined Hearing Loss'Radical cavities and Single Sided Deafness. They actually isolated 3 patients who were highly unsatisfied with their BB's because their hearing loss was greater than 45 dB threshold as it was stated by the manufacturer although readers of the article are not indroduced with their full audiogram so it is not possible to understand in what extent is their loss and how it actually influenced on their level of the satisfaction. This was the CHL group - 1 patient was even explanted.

But, there are also 2 atresia patient who were not satisfied, one had ipsilateral BC-threshold of 20 to 30 dB, the other one was in almost ideal zone (-10 to 0 dB). On the other side for understanding these cases we are not even introduced with TA of the rest members of the atresia group who, actually were happy and satisfied with their implants. That is why we can not make consecutive conclusion - about possible difference between the implantees but - it is certainly worth of attention just like you said.

Unfortunately, as I see the article right now - it is not possible to easily differ the implant candidates. Further research is essential.

[bigguns]

Hi!

 

I must agree with Thomas there. There is a lack of power with the BB.

 

I´m born with left side atresia and have been using my BB for 2 years now.

My bone conductive hearing is 10dB. And  I´m very close to  max power now in the reciver. (depending wich program i´ll use)

I´ll hope a new upgraded model will have extended frequence range and more outpot power.

 

/Fredrik

 

[jadepedro]

Fredrik, thanks for your reply.

 

We've been exploring other solutions including a bone prothesis and soundbridge, but BB seems to be the way to go due to aditional malformations of the facial nerve position. Curious that 10db almost reaches the top power. Well, if this doesn't work, fortunately we have the option of coming back to BTE, which have been working relatively well for us.

 

Did you have the chance to test the new samba processor?

 

Again, thanks to all.

 

BTW: I've opened another thread for logging our trip to BB

[Ivana Marinac]

Javier - Samba is much better than Amade.

You have to have in mind that tonal audiograms are not objective than subjective method of testing - this means that errors can be even up to 10dB.

As a bilateral hard of hearing person I was assured that bilateral option was not right for me but - I insisted and proved that I can benefit even with simple rudiment headband hearing aid as it is Apolon. BB can only be much better

[Knickohr]

Yes, Samba is much better. I test it for a couple of weeks. Unfortunately, my health insurance will pay in about 3 years for new hearing aids. I have to wait ...

 

Thomas

[jadepedro]

Great to know!

 

Glad to wait for the samba as our health insurance covers absolutely nothing on hearing aids, implants and so on... 100% financied by the "Myself Bank" (bye bye retirement savings... ).

 

I better start saving again for the next gen...

[Adam]

Where do you live Javier?

[jadepedro]

Spain.

 

We have both private insurance and the national health system. Here, the national health system provides full cost of one or two cochlear implants when they apply or hearing aids partial refunding: you receive 1.500 € each four years as much. Private insurance doesn't cover the material neither, just medical assistance.

 

Best Regards

[Ivana Marinac]

Just to comfort you Javier - in Croatia: 1 CI is covered or cca 400EUR for a hearing aid, other hearing implant - 0 points.

[Adam]

Here in the U.S. Hearing aids are not covered as they are considered a prosthetic device. Actually as far as I know, at least most insurers won't cover ha's for that reason.

It was a huge battle but just in I think the last 15 years or so, CIs had to be covered. Most people will be denied at least once but win the appeal.

[Mary Beth]

Yes, most US health insurance plans do not cover hearing aids- a few do. My health insurance has never covered hearing aids at all. They were always self-pay. The CI surgery and processors are however covered under my health insurance plan. CIs are treated differently than hearing aids. I do not know if BoneBridge, etc would be covered- possibly because they are implanted.

[Adam]

I'm not sure if BB would be covered either. Non of my hearing aids were covered either Mary Beth. I got help with my CI's though. Thank goodness otherwise it wouldn't happen.

[Ivana Marinac]

Unbelievable... As someone would like to have hearing aid for no reason...

[Kara of Canada]

I know. I had to pay out-of-pocket for my last set. $4000. Crazyness

[Ivana Marinac]

4000$... Good Lord...