One day in 2006, stuck in
bumper-to-bumper Bay Area traffic, Amir Abolfathi had a eureka moment. Formerly
vice president of R&D for Invisalign, a company known for transparent
dental braces, he had recently been chatting with a friend who was working on
hearing aids. Abolfathi knew that bone was a good sound conductor. What if he could
somehow make a removable oral hearing aid—one that could channel sound from
wearers’ teeth to their ear through the bones in their head?
That moment of freeway inspiration
gave rise to the SoundBite, a device designed for sufferers of single-sided
deafness, which strikes about 50,000 people every year in the U.S. After his
friend, Michael Benninger, an otolaryngologist at the Cleveland Clinic in Ohio,
told him it could really help to solve the problem, Abolfathi set about turning
his idea into reality. The biggest challenge was miniaturization, so he opted
for a piezoelectric actuator, which needs very little power to generate the
vibrations that travel through bone. That allowed him to use a much smaller
battery, making the entire insert compact enough to fit comfortably in the
mouth.
Invention: SoundBite
Inventor: Amir Abolfathi
Cost: $19 million
Time: 4 years
Is It Ready Yet? 1 2 3 4 5
Inventor: Amir Abolfathi
Cost: $19 million
Time: 4 years
Is It Ready Yet? 1 2 3 4 5
Made of acrylic, SoundBite snaps
onto a user’s molars. A tiny microphone worn in the deaf ear wirelessly beams
incoming sound to an electronic receiver in the molar insert, which transmits
sound waves from the teeth through the bones in the jaw to the cochlea, the
part of the ear that processes sound. (Traditional hearing aids only amplify
sound, so they don’t work for people with non-functioning cochlea.) The battery
lasts for six to eight hours at a time and can be recharged in a wall outlet.
How SoundBite Works: A microphone in
the deaf ear beams incoming sound to a receiver on the acrylic tooth insert
(placed on either side), which transmits it through the jaw to the cochlea. Paul
Wootton
The best remedy for single-sided deafness currently on the market is a bone-anchored hearing aid (BAHA), which, like the SoundBite, uses direct bone conduction to deliver sound to the cochlea. But BAHA installation involves surgically implanting a titanium post into the base of the skull. Other noninvasive tooth-based systems have been attempted, but none was ever fully developed and brought to market.
The SoundBite restores hearing just as effectively as a BAHA but requires no surgery. Instead it can be popped in and out of the mouth like a retainer. In clinical trials that wrapped up in February, patients typically reported that it restored from 80 to 100 percent of their hearing in the deaf ear and that they scarcely noticed they were wearing it. Lawrence Lustig, the director of the University of California at San Francisco Cochlear Implant Center, is so impressed with the SoundBite that he says he’ll recommend it to people who would otherwise have to undergo surgery.
If the device secures FDA approval
as anticipated, it will hit the market this summer for around $6,000. (Surgery
for a BAHA can run well over $10,000.) Abolfathi’s company, Sonitus Medical,
plans to negotiate with insurance providers to reimburse patients for at least
part of the cost. Abolfathi is also investigating other applications for the
technology, including wireless, water-safe MP3 players and stealth
communication for intelligence personnel. But even if those don’t pan out, he’s
satisfied to know that he’s already improved people’s lives. “One patient just
e-mailed and told me, ‘I saw Avatar, and it was great. I hadn’t been to
a movie in years.’”
Dr. Caroline Wallace DDS
Complete Dental Care
Salem , Virginia