As he said a 6 Max, it’s likely to be a Cochlear 6 Max BAHA as that’s there current.
I go to get the molds today. However when there I want to inquire more about the Baha since the hearing seemed so much clearer on the trial……one reservation I have is while wearing the headband I had to go see ENT. While sitting in the Dr chair I was getting feed back noise while the Baha was touching the back of the chair. Is this a common occurrence when you lie you head against pillow, back of chair etc? Thanks.
Someone who goes to my Deaf Centre has a Med El Middle Ear Implant and gets feedback when she leans against a high back chair.
Her implant/processor is placed quite high tho which may be the issue?
Where they place the implant, and so where the processor sits, is somewhat determined by the the thickness of one’s mastoid bone. Most people get an implant or post placed just above and behind the ear. On the side of the head. I have no feedback issues with the Osia. I frequent a forum for folks with BAHAs and this isn’t a common topic…I think! I actually haven’t been there for some time. No issues!
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Saw a good bumper-sticker. …Getting Old Isn’t for Wimps…
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The Osia is Cochlear’s most recent system, I believe. They don’t call it a baha, but it is, essentially. It just uses different means for transferring sound to the implanted processor than an abutment. However looking just now I see they have a magnetic version of the 6. Probably this is better than an abutment, in that many people end up with small recurring infections around the post.
I wear bte aids and no one has noticed them in quite a while . . I also have found that when they do notice the aids they don’t treat differently. It’s when I can’t hear them or misinterpret what they say that things change.
Same here.
When someone did see my blue ear moulds, that I had at the time, she asked me why I had blue tac in my ears!! When I said they were hearing aids, she was very embarrassed.
@jeffrey on the side that you have the cochlear Osia did you have any remaining hearing or that ear dead as i currently wear cros aids and they work quite well but was thinking about maybe it’s time to ask about the Baha. I was thinking about asking about the osia but don’t know if it will work for my left ear so was wondering what your Baha side’s hearing was like before you got the Baha osia if you don’t mind me asking?
Sure. I’ve been to lazy to fish out and reprocuce my audiogram; sorry. I have serious to profound ski slope loss on my right ear; poor across the board but increasing starting about mid way in the decibel range. My left ear is pretty good! What got me the Osia was that I have eustachian tube dysfunction that impairs my overall hearing in the long allergy season. A Baha circumvents this.
With the Osia, my right ear tests at normal or jsut below straight across the audiogram. I mean, it’s remarkable. It makes sense, since my cochlear nerve is fine and my loss is centered, I think, in the hammer anvil and stirrup being poor (damaged and badly replaced due to colesteotoma (sp.)).
by the way, I ‘hear’ through the Osia on my left side, in that the mastoid conducts all around the skull and the input from the right side carries over.
@jeffrey thanks for this information my left ear is completely dead but I hear fine with cros aids and I have a mild to profound high frequency loss in my right ear. I don’t know if the fact that it is dead means the cochlear nerve is affected but I was wondering if maybe it was time to ask about the Baha because I’ve always been prone to infections but since getting my moulds for my cros aids i no longer get infections but in the last few weeks my left ear has been getting very hot in the canal and I had it looked at when I had a routine appointment about a week ago and no sign of infection they reckon it’s just irritation from the mould but they are brand new got them in April and no sign of it being damaged or cracked like my old ones. So thinking maybe my left ear is becoming less tolerable to having the hearing aid in it
Googling tells you the answer. It’s near the bottom of the attachment, the answer.
The Cochlear Osia will provide some amplification for your ear with hearing loss.
The question is whether it can provide enough high frequency gain for your profound loss in the highs. I’m not too sure on that. You’ll be able to find info on Google.
@Zebras thanks for that i was thinking of asking about the Baha for the left ear and then wondered if maybe i would be able to use the nathos nova pr for my right ear. I hope that the Baha osia will provide enough for my left ear but don’t know i have an ent appointment in a couple of months so will ask then and will do some research in the mean time about the osia
The BAHA would go on your left but transfer to the cochlear on your right with the right amount of gain for your right.
You would still be only hearing with your right ear.
I am not 100% if you could wear an Aid for your right and a BAHA as it might damage your cochlear from too much power but please note, I am not an expert.
I wear my BTE aids along with the Osia all the time, when playing or listening to live music. I turn the Osia down, but it still provides good amplification for the high decibels where my loss is worse. So it’s a both-and rather than an either-or. That said, I only use the Osia when just dining out or visiting with friends or going to the store. It’s plenty.
IF your auditory nerve is functional, and IF those little cochlear hairs are (mostly) functioning, then a BAHA should work. If your conductive loss involves the bony structures of the ear, it should work.
I’m not an expert either! I jsut wear the darn thing. But this is my understanding. If you have massive loss of cochlear hair cells, it may not work. Honestly, I’m not entirely sure but I’m pretty certain this last is true. But then, a traditional aid won’t work for those lost freqeuncies either…right?
@jeffrey @Zebras thank you both for the useful information I’ll ask more about the cochlear osia and that at my yearly ent appointment in November and see what they say. I really don’t know if it would work or not at this moment in time because i have no idea on if the nerve is working enough for it to be or some benefit or if the nerve is just dead. I will see what happens in November
You don’t need your dead ear nerve to be working as BAHAs work for SSD.
As you use a hearing aid in your other ear, yes your nerve is working.
@Zebras Ok i know they work by bypassing the middle ear and going straight to the cochlear but i wasn’t sure if that mean’t the cochlear nerve on my dead ear side had to be working in order for it to pick up the sound and that is what I’m not sure about
No as I said earlier. The BAHA goes on your dead side and transfers sound to your hearing / better ear but also amplifies your HOH ear as well.
That’s why it works for SSD.
It works on vibration so vibrates to the other side of your head.
It does mean only 1 x BAHA but I guess you could wear a HA on the other side if your hospital allow it?
@zebras thanks so much for clarifying that i wasn’t really understanding that bit before i hope they would let me wear a hearing aid for my right ear because without i would still struggle even with the Baha osia on my left because the high frequencies on my right side are very hard to pick up unaided i can’t hear birds or anything along that kind of frequency and speech is hard in public