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zeezai

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hello everyone!

i've been deaf on my left ear for the last 20 years without using hearing aids. it wasn't until a year ago that i got tested because that was when i was really having trouble understanding people especially in a noisy environment. that was when i found out that my hearing loss was soooo bad already -- profound.

soooo... i've been using a HA for 6 months now and my doctor informed me that i am qualified for Med-el's Bonebridge (abutment-free baha).

i was just wondering. since i've been hearing nothing for soooo long on my left, do you think it will affect how much i would hear once i get the bonebridge?? i'm just worried that it might not give the results that i wanted -- like being able to use the telephone on my dead side and appreciating surround sound in the cinemas.

it's also a very expensive implant so i have these doubts if it's going to be worth it or not.
 
Translate "abutment free" - I studied/researched BAHA

I looked into BAHA (not abutment free and azzzume that means the titanium anchor doesn't stick out from your head?) within the last 12 years. In 2008, I was tested and the specialist in NYC came in with my audiology results and pronounced me as a BAHA candidate. I pointed out the bone conduction results in the audiogram and said I was not because when my bone conduction results grew worse, as they would w/in a short period of time, the surgery would render itself worthless. Argh. I was right and the dude wanted the money.

BAHA itself is a reinvented to sell surgery for a procedure first introduced in the 1970s. I asked an audiologist about surgeons to who performed it prior to going to Neil Sperling in NYC. She gave me two ENT names. I asked her to tell me who would be realistic and not try to market it falsely. One name came off the list. I didn't go to the other guy. I just found Sperling some years later.

I was born (too many years ago) with a hearing impairment but diagnosed by my father who bought a BTE from Sears. My grades in elem. school skyrocketed. So, I tend to be a little more knowledgeable than your average Joe and more realistic than faulty stats you may find on the internet.

Last story. Worked in a Fortune 500 company and had a guy work for me. He had two in-the-ears and I told him he needed new hearing aids - his hearing wasn't good. He got them but when I saw his audiogram and looked at the specs, I told him (all nicely and politically correctly done) to take them back because he had been hooked by a false ad. He was fitted with aids finally that worked for him.
 
Sorry, one more question

Can you tell me what your bone conductive scores look like at say 500, 1000, 2000, and 4000 mgH (frequencies)? You're profoundly deaf - I get that. But BAHA itself was made for people with reasonable bone conduction scores. Just want to make sure you're not being sold a bill of goods.

The bone conduction hearing aid was really cool (I was in my early 30s). I heard stuff other co-workers didn't and in noisy environments. I eavesdropped for the first time in my life. I felt bad and joyful at the same time. But it was the headband and aid jig, so my head felt like it was in a vise and, therefore, useless for anything but momentarily use.
 
First post didn't make it. What's the abutment - no bone anchored titanium? You're right to be careful. I turned down a well-known and respected NYC ENT who said I was a BAHA candidate. I showed him my bone conduction scores and said when my loss gets slightly worse, it will render BAHA useless. I was right. I've been hearing impaired since birth. Wore aids all my life but have a profound loss now.
 
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