Hearing Aid Apparatus and Method
AssigneeAudiodontics, LLC
InventorBarry L. Mersky
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
An apparatus for imparting low amplitude vibrations to at least one tooth in a human head having a cochlea to facilitate hearing via a dental bone conduction pathway includes an extraoral transmitter, a band at least substantially surrounding and adhesively secured to at least one tooth, and a receiver assembly. The transmitter is configured to detect ambient sounds, and to generate and wirelessly transmit audio signals corresponding to the detected ambient sounds. The receiver assembly is removably coupleable to the band and configured to receive the audio signals from the transmitter, and to transduce the audio signals into vibrations that are conducted to the cochlea via the dental bone conduction pathway.
Claims25
An apparatus for imparting low amplitude vibrations to at least one tooth in a human head having a cochlea to facilitate hearing via a dental bone conduction pathway, the apparatus comprising:
- an extraoral transmitter configured to detect ambient sounds, and to generate and wirelessly transmit audio signals corresponding to the detected ambient sounds;
- a band at least substantially surrounding at least one tooth, the band affixed to the at least one tooth by an adhesive;
- a receiver assembly removably coupleable to the band and configured to receive the audio signals from the transmitter, and to transduce the audio signals into vibrations that are conducted to the cochlea via the dental bone conduction pathway.
A method for imparting low amplitude vibrations to at least one tooth in a human head having a cochlea to facilitate hearing via a dental bone conduction pathway, comprising the steps of:
- a) securing an extraoral transmitter unit to a user, the transmitter unit configured to detect ambient sounds, and to generate and wirelessly transmit audio signals corresponding to the detected ambient sounds;
- b) providing a receiver assembly configured to receive the audio signals from the transmitter unit, and to transduce the audio signals into vibrations;
- c) adhesively securing a band around at least one tooth in a mouth of the user;
- and
- d) releasably securing the receiver assembly to the band so that the transduced vibrations are conducted to the cochlea via the dental bone conduction pathway.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.