Tulsa patient gets high-tech hearing aid that goes in the mouth
June 17, 2014
By Michael Overall
After surgery to remove a tumor near her brain, Donna Martin woke up deaf in her left ear, a side effect that doctors had warned her to expect.
She spent the next 16 years wearing two hearing aids, connected by a discreet cord that wrapped behind her neck to carry sound from the bad ear to the good one. But it was, to say the least, an imperfect solution.
She would sometimes try to read lips and guess what people were saying, hoping she guessed right when she responded, only to be embarrassed later when her husband told her what was really said.
People with poor hearing often withdraw from society, avoid going out of their homes and slip into depression, according to numerous studies.
“It’s devastating,” Martin said, “like losing an arm or a leg. It was an enormous loss for me.”
Last week, she became the first patient in Tulsa to receive an innovative new device — technically not a hearing aid, but considered a prosthesis.
The SoundBite system has two components — a tiny microphone worn behind the impaired ear and a thin wire that wraps around the upper back teeth, converting the microphone’s signal into imperceptible vibrations.
The user can’t feel it, but hears the sound through the inner ear, creating the illusion that it’s actually coming through the ear itself.
“It actually replicates the function of the impaired ear,” said Trent Beagle, a SoundBite consultant for Sonitus Medical in San Mateo, California. Researchers developed the system as an alternative to surgical implants, he said
The system costs $6,800. With insurance coverage, most patients pay about $2,300 out-of-pocket, plus additional charges from the local provider, Beagle said.
After Martin’s fitting, the doctor leaned in close to whisper in her left ear.
“What did you have for breakfast?” he asked.
And Martin answered without hesitation.
“I couldn’t have done that before,” she said. “It was an immediate improvement.”
The mouth piece takes some getting used to, more like wearing braces than a hearing aid, she says. But she can eat with it in and take it out to sleep.
“If my story can help someone else who can’t hear,” she says, “it’s worth it. There’s a better way. You don’t have to live like that anymore.”
Michael Overall 918-581-8383
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