Transear experience when deafness is not total in poor ear

[ceepee]

Advice please - I have had an acoustic neuroma treated by Gamma Knife 3 years ago.  I am 77 years old and my hearing in the good ear is good for my age with only deterioration in the high frequencies.  I have some hearing left in my poor ear hence I am not totally single sided deaf.  Having tried both a Cros aid and a digital aid previously in my poor ear - I find that neither gives me an improvement (after two months of trying) significant to warrant continuing use of them.  I have heard of 'Transear' developed in the USA which uses bone conduction (without using BAHA surgery) to transmit hearing from the poor side to the good ear, giving improvement in some circumstances.  It is expensive in the UK and my Audiologist is not certain that this would be an improvement over a top of the range digital hearing aid (she has only fitted one Transear unit to a fully single sided deaf patient).

I am in the UK and there are few audiologists here with experience of the Transear aid which is marketed as a single sided hearing aid. How well has Transear been accepted by those with some residual hearing in the USA?  The agents in the UK emphasise the single side aspect of the aid and will not comment on the aids usefulness when there is some residual hearing.
  Looking forward to seeing your opinions. 

[Jim Scott]

Ceepee ~

Here is a link to the U.S. TransEar® website which is chock full of information that I hope can help answer your questions.  http://www.transear.com/?BISKIT=4285210414&CONTEXT=cat&cat=22

Jim

[Esperanza]

It is available in the UK I am glad to say but there is limited experience of fitting as it's not available on the NHS as yet
and is quite expensive...  word is slowly getting around though  
Interesting concept ceepee, I am totally SSD though and am in the process of getting deciding where to go to get one fitted.
By contacting agents do you mean Puretone directly?
Just in case here is their link

http://www.puretone.net/contact_us.html

[ceepee]

Hi Esperanza
I have spoken to Puretone, and indeed tried E-mailing Transear direct, but they have not answered me directly and refer me back to Puretone who have not got the spread of experience that is available in the USA, or indeed audiologists with the experience of fitting Transear
I have spoken to an AN sufferer with total SSD who has had a Transear fitted in the UK who finds it very successful. Privately the going cost appears to be £2900 to £3500, with no guarantee of success! NHS don' want to know at present
Ceepee

[TransEarXpert]

Dear ceepee:

It is difficult for us to directly respond to your inquiry, as there are important regulatory reasons why we have distributors in other countries such as the UK. Having said that, we have fit a number of individuals who have some residual hearing in the bad ear, especially if the residual hearing is in low frequencies (which it almost always is). There are several things we do on the manufacturing side, such as adding a more open vent to the transfer unit and of course choosing our 380-HT oscillator. Although I can't directly intervene, you might be able to carry this information back to your UK provider - who can in turn offer it to Puretone.

Best regards,

Rick Gilbert

[ceepee]

Rick
Many thanks for your very prompt response. It so happened that this evening I also saw on the Transear web page, one of your testimonials dated Nov 4 2006 from JMM of St Louis, which indicated that Transear helped him greatly and he had residual hearing in his poor ear. Your comments and this testimonial will be forwraded to my provider, I will see whether I satisfy other requirements for trying out one of these units
Thank you
Ceepee

[jazzfunkanne]

ceepee i know a lady in the uk who has the transear do you want her email and she could give you details