ABSTRACT
Hearing loss in infancy and during childhood can significantly impact on communication, language development and education. Hearing loss may be unilateral or bilateral. In most situations, acoustic hearing devices (ACHDs) will provide benefit. Broadly speaking, bone-conduction hearing aids (BCHAs) can be helpful for purely conductive hearing loss, for mixed or mild to moderate sensorineural hearing loss (SNHL), and for single-sided deafness (SSD). This chapter focuses on bone-conduction hearing devices (BCHDs) that aid conductive, mixed or mild to moderate SNHL and SSD. BCHDs should be considered in context with other implantable devices such as middle ear, cochlear and brainstem implants. All these have a role in helping with hearing rehabilitation when acoustic aids are unable to give benefit. BCHDs are generally used for the rehabilitation of hearing loss only when conventional acoustic aids cannot be fitted, or have been trialled and have failed to improve the hearing.
