Vibrations applied to replacements for lost teeth travel well through jawbones to the inner ear, researchers report in the September Journal of the Acoustical Society of America. The finding could lead to discreet alternatives to conventional hearing aids and cochlear implants that people with hearing impairments often use (SN: 7/7/16).
Previous tooth-based hearing aids designs clipped onto molars and received sound wirelessly from a microphone placed behind the ear. Dental researcher Jianxiang Tao and colleagues want to take the concept a step further, turning tooth implants into hearing aids. The electronics that impart sound vibrations would be built into the portion of a false tooth anchored into the jawbone, says Tao, of Tongji University in Shanghai.
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