Does BAHA provide stereo, directional hearing?

[Moosejaw1944]

[Moosejaw1944]

Essentially, the Baha device reroutes auditory information sent to the deaf ear to the hearing ear via bone

conduction. Although this device won’t replace one’s hearing completely, it provides a sense of awareness of

hearing on the deaf side and some direction-sensing ability. (A common complaint in patients with only one hearing

ear is that they can’t tell from which direction sounds are coming.) To date, Baha is the most commonly used

implantable hearing aid. Others exist but are expensive and not commonly used at this time.

[Jackey]

My husband has a BAHA although to be honest he doesn't use it very much. He was single sided deaf for a long time before getting it and I think his brain had become used to the deafness. He finds the BAHA magnifies all sound and his brain just can't cope with it. He has found it useful when in a quiet one to one situation but in the car although it allows him to hear me speak, if we put the radio on or there is a lot of road noise he has to turn it off so he doesn't bother with it. He has found it useful for watching the TV at times and we are looking into a loop system for the living room. We were told that the brain learns that the different sound coming from the BAHA is from a particular direction but Alan never found this to be true.

The other thing that is a downer is that if anything touches the hearing aid when it is switched on it whistles dreadfully (hair, hat or even the wind)

On the other hand I have spoken to many many people who have BAHAs and find them fantastic - it is an individual thing. Good luck if you are thinking of being fitted with one....do let us know how you get on.