Dental implants make great hearing aids

China: Researchers at the Tongji University in Shanghai have found a way to turn tooth implants into hearing aids.

In the study published in the Journal of the Acoustical Society of America, the authors said the key lies in sound-vibration electronics embedded in the portion of a dental implant anchored into the jawbone.

Better sound transmission

The researchers believe that the dental implants more effectively transmitted sound to the mastoid bone behind the ear, as compared to previous tooth-based hearing aids designs, which were basically clipped onto molars to receive sound wirelessly from a microphone placed behind the ear.

The dental implant hearing aids also offered better concealment, comfort and improved quality of sound as compared with traditional hearing aids, the researchers claim.

According to the team, the new finding could lead to the development of more discreet alternatives to conventional hearing aids and cochlear implants used by people with hearing loss.

Different wavelengths

According to researcher Tao Jianxiang, the team had to first determine how well dental implants transmit sound compared with natural teeth and the mastoid bone behind the ear, which other types of hearing aids rely on to work.

The team tested a wide range of frequencies on the study volunteers by applying sound tones to the implants, natural teeth and mastoid bones of 38 hearing impaired individuals.

According to the report, the volunteers could hear sounds through implants as well as, or better than, through natural teeth or mastoid bones.

Positional tests and comparisons

They also found that anterior implants tended to work slightly better than dental implants when the hearing device was placed toward the back of the jaw. The researchers believe that could be due to the hardness of jawbone at the front of the mouth as compared to the jawbone at the back.

They found no discernible sound transmission differences between placing the special implant in the upper or lower arch of teeth.