I had a bone-anchored hearing aid (BAHA) implanted in 2008, 10 months after suddenly loosing hearing in my left ear. I’ve had the BAHA for over two years now, and though there is a lot I can say about it, I will save that for another post. This post is about the implant surgery.
I was a good candidate for surgery because I’d lost virtually all capacity to hear in my left ear from SSHL, I am young, and I have great hearing in my right ear. The implant is essentially a snap – one side of the snap is installed in the skull behind the bad ear, and one side is mounted to the back of the hearing aid. Once the BAHA piece in your skull is sufficiently healed (approx 3 months), you can snap the hearing aid to your head, and through bone conduction, hear sound from the deaf side of your head in your good ear. What an amazing technology!
The surgery is rather straight forward: The surgeon cuts a flap of skin at the site, removes the small amount of tissue between the skin and skull, drills slightly into your skull, and then drops in the implant. S/he sews the skin back in place and anchors a foam cover with a large plastic peg to the implant to stop the bleeding and start the healing process.
I woke up from surgery with a large plastic cup filled with gauze over the implant site and my left ear. This cup stayed on for the first 24 hours. The foam and peg looked a little grusome after I removed the cup. I was at home for a whole week after surgery taking antibiotics and pain meds, sleeping, and watching movies. I took the plastic cup off during the day, but wore it to bed at night.
At my one-week follow up appointment, my doctor removed the foam and plastic peg revealing the actual implant for the first time. Eight days after surgery, I was back in classes and at work. Healing progressed smoothly from there. The doctors recommend waiting three months to give time for the skull bone and implant to fuse. After the three month waiting period, the audiologist provided me with the BAHA hearing aid and showed me how to use it.
Waking up with an ear cup after surgery
Protective foam attached with plastic peg
7 days after surgery, foam is removed
Healing - 2 weeks after surgery
Healing - 3 weeks after surgery
Healing - 4 weeks after surgery
3 months after surgery
Wearing the BAHA
Wearing the BAHA discretely
Life with Sudden Sensorial Hearing Loss (SSHL) 
6 comments
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November 24, 2015 at 9:15 am
sheetha
I am considering a the surgery would u recommend
November 24, 2015 at 4:26 pm
suddendeafness
Hi Sheetha – thank you for your message. I summarize a few of my thoughts about the BAHA in two posts on “Would I recommend the BAHA?” and “Would I recommend the BAHA? – Part 2″. Feel free to ping me if you have any questions. Best! Dana
January 2, 2016 at 11:26 pm
Lindsey
Hello, I am 30ish yr old. I have had ear problems since I was young. You know that poor girl on the posters at the ENTs office, yup that is me. Lol
I am thinking of getting the Cochlear BAHA attract. I am squmish about a button out of my head. Anyone have this Attract system?
I have low frequency hearing loss. I also had a surgical procedure to create a permanent hole in my eardrum. So I am considering a BAHA or a normal hearing aid. Worried about a normal hearing aid due to ear infections since I have a major permanent hole in my eardrum.
Hole was put in because my ear couldn’t equalize pressure and “banned” from ever setting foot in an airplane until we could get it fixed. The extreme negative pressure corrupted the bones in my ear and can have surgery to remove the bones and replace with surgical steel or titanium but it’s not guaranteed to work and the surgeon doesn’t recommend it. So my options are BAHA or hearing aids. Hoping that someone else has this that can tell me how well they like it.
Thanks!!
January 3, 2016 at 11:46 am
suddendeafness
Hi Lindsey – Happy New Year! I am also eager to learn about attract, a magnetic bone anchored hearing aid, but I unfortunately don’t know more than you. I have the “normal” abutment system, which I use infrequently and find to be annoying because the abutment gets oozy regularly. I shared a few of my annoyances here with the “normal” BAHA. It seems that the attract BAHA would overcome these annoyances. If users say the sound quality is decent, it seems like it would be a better option than the normal BAHA. Keep us posted with your decision. Curious to hear other thoughts/experiences.
July 20, 2016 at 5:04 am
Piero
Thank you very much for your post it will help me and others to make a better decision on Gering or not a Baha . . I am SSD on left side and at present time I am using a Cros Widex hearing aids, but is not rrally helping me much in noisy situation so I can’t say much about the BAHA but tomorrow I have my first consultation for it . I’ll let you know more as I will learn
July 20, 2016 at 5:00 am
Piero
Thank you very much for your post it will help me and others to make a better decision on Gering or not a Baha .