By Cheryl Tanita, M.S., Au.D.
Shohet Ear Associates is the first practice in Orange County to offer the SoundBite™ Hearing System, an innovative approach to treating patients with single-sided deafness. SoundBite is the world’s first removable and non-surgical hearing solution to use the well-established principle of bone conduction to imperceptibly transmit sound via the teeth to the inner ears. It is designed to help people regain their spatial hearing ability and rejoin the conversation of life.
Sound waves travel through either air or bone to arrive at our inner ears. SoundBite takes advantage of a person’s natural tooth structure as the bone conductor to transmit imperceptible noise vibrations to the inner ears and produce clear, high quality sound. Many familiar sounds are heard through bone conduction, such as chattering your teeth, crunching on potato chips or scratching your scalp.
SoundBite Hearing System consists of two user-friendly components. One piece is an easy to insert and remove In-The-Mouth (ITM) hearing device, which is custom made to fit around the upper, left or right back teeth. The other is a small Behind-The-Ear (BTE) microphone unit worn on the impaired ear. SoundBite is nearly invisible when worn. No dental work or modifications to the teeth are required.
In a clinical trial, 95% of SoundBite patients said they would recommend it to a friend who had single-sided deafness. Shohet Ear Associates has been approved and enrolled to participate in the current ongoing clinical study trials of SoundBite. In addition, a recent study was published in Otology & Neurotology that shows very positive outcomes for Soundbite. To learn more about this innovative new device and review the study abstract, click here.