The beauty of BAHAs

Bone anchored hearing aids (BAHAs) have been in use in the UK for around twenty years but are not widely known even among medical professionals. BAHAs conduct sound through the skull bone whereas conventional hearing aids conduct sound through air.

A BAHA can be suitable for a person with conductive (middle ear) hearing loss, for example if they suffer with recurrent ear infections, and can also be of benefit to a person with single-sided sensorineural (inner ear) hearing loss or someone with a combination of the two, known as a mixed hearing loss.

BAHAs are a development from the original bone conduction aid attached to a headband that has been around for fifty years. Today, a thirty minute operation can be undertaken to insert a small titanium implant into the skull bone behind the ear. A process called osseointegration then takes place whereby the titanium fuses with the bone enabling sound to be conducted directly to the inner ear (cochlea). After the site of the operation has healed, the hearing aid or speech processor can then be attached.

Rowena Egan, a BAHA user, shares her experience of them and the benefits they have brought to her life...

"Problems with my ears began when I was two or three years old. I had regular middle ear infections progressing to mastoid infections for which I had surgery. After two operations I was left with moderate hearing loss in both ears.

"I was twelve when I had my first hearing aid, which was the old fashioned body worn type. I didn’t like it much because I could hear my heartbeat. Later, I moved on to a behind-the-ear model, but as I still suffered with middle ear infections this was only in one ear. As a result I found my hearing was limited because it was one sided. It was when I was in Ireland, about 15 years ago now, that a bone anchored hearing aid was suggested to me. After trialling one on a headband, which gives a good idea of what to expect, I had my first operation in 1995. Although there was a problem following this that meant it wasn’t a success, I wasn’t put off. When I returned to England I had the operation again. Then in 2003 I became the first person at the hospital I attended to have a second BAHA.

"My recovery from the operations was very good. Each time I was given headache tablets to take home with me but never needed to take them. Now I can hear so much more. Once I had the second aid fitted, it transformed my life. Up until that point everything I did had to be on one side and I had to make an issue of my hearing loss with everyone I met. But now I don’t need to. BAHAs have given me better sound quality, as without an earmould blocking the ear it doesn’t whistle as much and I also find I don’t get as many outer ear infections.

"The aids themselves are weightless and are hidden by my hair. My biggest problem used to be remembering to take them off when showering, but now I have a routine that includes cleaning around the site of the implant, which is important to prevent infection.

"Recently I have spoken with a little girl who was going to have the BAHA on a headband, called a softband; this is given when a child is too young to have the operation. She asked me if I could hear my own voice and when I said yes she said she had never heard her voice before or the birds singing and she was absolutely overjoyed that she was going to experience this."