A Hearing Aid Inside Your Mouth – Uses Wireless Bone Conduction Via Your Teeth

First question I have here is when can I start chewing with my ear (grin).  The company Sonitus Medical has the product currently in clinical trials.  They also made a model that fits behind your ear.   You can see in the picture below the man putting it in place, he just should have shaved that 5’clock shadow though for a better picture. 

Bone conduction in the future with blue tooth is not out of the question either.  One issue I could see here creating a temporary problem would be a toothache (grin) but I would guess one could have the ear device as a back up, just in case. It appears to adhere pretty solid so there should not be a problem with accidentally swallowing it either.  Clinical trials are in process so if interested go check out the website.  The  mouth could possibly get a little crowded here as you can also have your PHR records contained there as well, but if you don’t need the hearing aid the PHR will have plenty of room. 

I-Denti-Fied – Sink Your PHR Into Your Teeth And Take A Bite Out of Healthcare…

In short today, guess the teeth have it.  BD

From the website:

“SoundBite hearing system is the world's first and only non-surgical and removable hearing solution designed to imperceptibly transmit sound via the teeth to help people who are essentially deaf in one ear regain spatial hearing ability and rejoin the conversation of life. It employs a well-established principle called bone conduction to deliver clear, high quality sound to the inner ear. Nearly invisible when worn, the SoundBite system consists of an easy to insert and remove ITM (in-the-mouth) hearing device – which is custom made to fit around either the upper left or right back teeth – and a small microphone unit worn behind the ear. No modifications to the teeth are required.

This system is currently for investigational use only with clinical trials now underway intended to support an initial filing for FDA 510(k) clearance to treat single sided deafness. Intended future indications include conductive and mixed hearing loss.”

Just as people with sight in only one eye have problems with depth perception, those with impaired hearing in one ear, known as unilateral hearing loss (UHL) or single-sided deafness (SSD), face difficulty in localizing sound. Addressing the problem with a hearing aid worn in the mouth might not sound like a logical solution, but that’s just what medical device company Sonitus Medical is doing with SoundBite - a hearing system that transmits sound to the inner ear via the teeth.

The SoundBite system consists of a small unit worn behind the ear (BTE) and an in-the-mouth (ITM) hearing device that is custom made to fit either the upper left or right back teeth. The BTM unit captures the sound and wirelessly transmits the signals to the ITM device, which sends imperceptible vibrations via the teeth near-simultaneously to both cochleae.

Better hearing via your teeth

Technorati Tags: Sonitus, hearing aides, wireless, teeth, clinical trials, PHR, UHL, SSD, bone conduction, technology, healthcare