There’s a thread going on concerning the new Whisper HA. I have an Osia BAHA, as well as regular HA’s. I thought that I’d mention BAHA as a not so new alternative to normal aids and speak a little about my experience.
I have conductive loss from my early years due to cholesteatoma issues that required rebuilding my hammer anvil and stirrup. I also have eustachian tube dysfunction. A bone assisted hearing aid bypasses the middle ear, where my sound conducting issues occur, and sends sound vibrations (exactly like a normal hearing aid) through the mastoid bone to the cochlear nerve. This also bypasses issues I might be having from clogged eustachian tubes.
Most BAHAs have a post sticking a little bit out of the skull that attaches the processor to the mastoid bone beneath the skin. The Osia is an implant; so no post. Instead, the external processor is held in place by a magnet. Piezel (sp.?) technology is able to send signals through the skin with no loss of energy or quality. The Osia works really well–better than I’d imagined. I have one on my right side only. It really boosts sound amplification. It took my huge ski slope loss from middle registers through the high decibels and restored that hearing to almost normal range. A traditional aid can’t do this because, if one has conductive loss, no amount of amplification will get through to the cochlear nerve in those registers with high loss. But most impressive is voice amplification. I hear speech really well with the Osia, and from a long way off.
The BAHA uses the mastoid bone instead of the middle ear bones to conduct sound to the cochlea, as I said. Interestingly, altho I only have an implant on my right side, the mastoid vibrates all around my skull, so I get some input in my left ear too.
However, the current iteration of the Osia doesn’t have as rich a quality of sound for playing music as traditional aids. I happily use the Osia alone when out and about. But I like to use a trad aid along with the Osia (turned way down) when I play or listen to music. This is a wonderful combination. The Osia boosts the higher decibels and the Signia Ax7s fill in and warm up the music. I don’t know if the lesser quality sound is because the mastoid bone doesn’t conduct as well as the middle ear bones, or if the microphones on the Osia are simply designed for speech and not as good for music. I don’t notice a loss in quality for speech with the Osia, or anyway not enough that I care.
so there you have it. Those interested in the Whisper aid and who have conductive rather than nerve loss might look into this.