What is Baha?
Baha refers to a hearing implant system for people who have lost their hearing. The “Baha system” or the “Baha implants” function to aid hearing problems by means of direct bone conduction or “moving sound waves through the bone structures”. This type of hearing implant system is said to have been available to the public since 1977 but only got the nod from the Food and Drugs Administration in 1996. The Baha implants are considered a good choice of hearing device for those people who cannot benefit much from generic hearing aids.

Baha implants consist of three main parts. One part is the “actual” implant and this is usually made of titanium. This part of the Baha system is placed on the bone behind the ear through a process called osseointegration. And from the term itself, the titanium implant literally integrates or fuses with the bone behind the ear. Because of this setup, sound waves are processed directly to the bone to the cochlea part of the ear. The second part of the Baha implant system is the sound processor which is configured on an external device that is worn at the back of the ears. The last part of the implant system is the abutment or connector. This part is responsible for conducting the sound vibrations from the sound processor to the titanium implant that is fused on the bone.

The Baha system is especially helpful to those whose hearing loss is secondary to damage in the middle ear or outer ear. Most conditions that affect these areas result to conductive type of hearing loss and so will truly benefit from the direct sound conduction system of the Baha implants. On the other hand, conventional hearing aids work by amplifying sound waves through air with the help of the external ear. This setup will not fully benefit conductive type of hearing loss. Baha implants are also considered a great choice for one-sided hearing loss.