SBIR-STTR Award

Tooth Phone(R) Auditory Device - TPAD ABSTRACT The Tooth Phone(R) Auditory Device - TPAD is new alternative device to the only direct bone conduction hearing aid currently accepted by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for the treatment of certain specific types of hearing loss. Unlike the precedent FDA approved device that uses an osseointegrated implant as the site for skull stimulation, the TPAD uses a natural tooth. Compared to the precedent device, the TPAD has many important advantages such as cost, safety, longevity, fidelity, and cosmetics. In the TPAD system, ambient speech and sound is picked-up by a microphone and radio transmitted to a removable orthodontic-like retainer worn on the palate. An audio processor and novel transducer (actuator) embedded in the retainer then transmits the speech vibrations via the bone conduction pathway to the cochlea. Numerous prior studies have been performed on the TPAD during development of a related voice communication device for the US military. The objective of Phase 1 is to show that the teeth are equivalently sensitive to sound input when compared to a dental implant within the same subject. To help demonstrate this objective, a new methodology is proposed in which a novel accelerometer (sensor) is attached to the teeth. The sensor records skull vibrations from different input devices and skull stimulation sites. This methodology can provide valuable insights into the bio-physics of bone conduction transmission. Through frequency analysis of skull vibrations, the sensor can demonstrate the nature of skull harmonic overtones, and potentially help solve the question of how and why individuals with single- sided deafness can localize sound. The objective of Phase 2 is to build and test an auditory device that can pass FDA 510-K equivalence requirements.

Public Health Relevance:
This project will provide an auditory device alternative to the widely accepted Bone Anchored Hearing Aid or Baha(R) . It also introduces a novel tooth sensor instrument that can be used for the direct measurement of within-subject bone vibratory patterns and frequency responses.

Public Health Relevance Statement:
PROJECT NARRATIVE This project will provide an auditory device alternative to the widely accepted Bone Anchored Hearing Aid or Baha(R) . It also introduces a novel tooth sensor instrument that can be used for the direct measurement of within-subject bone vibratory patterns and frequency responses.

Project Terms:
Acceleration; Achievement; Achievement Attainment; Acoustic; Acoustics; Americas; Armed Forces Personnel; Auditory; Auditory Localization; Auditory Ossicles; Australia; Baltimore; Bone; Bone Conduction; Bone and Bones; Bone of the Tympanum; Bone structure of cranium; Bones and Bone Tissue; Buccal Cavity; Businesses; Cadaver; Cavitas Oris; Cell Communication and Signaling; Cell Signaling; Clinic; Cochlea; Cochlear Organ; Cochlear structure; Communication; Communication Aids for Disabled; Communication Aids for Handicapped; Companions; Cosmetics; Coupling; Cranium; Critiques; Custom; Deaf; Deafness; Dental; Dental Implants; Development; Development and Research; Devices; Diagnosis, Ultrasound; Ear; Ear Ossicles; Ear ossicle structure; Ear structure; Eating; Echography; Echotomography; Electronics; Environment; FDA; Female; Food Intake; Food and Drug Administration; Food and Drug Administration (U.S.); Frequencies (time pattern); Frequency; Goals; Hard of Hearing Persons; Head; Head and Neck, Buccal Cavity; Health Benefit; Health Insurance for Aged and Disabled, Title 18; Health Insurance for Aged, Title 18; Health Insurance for Disabled Title 18; Hearing; Hearing Aids; Hearing Impaired Persons; Hearing Loss; Hertzian Waves; Housing; Human; Human, General; Hypoacuses; Hypoacusis; Implant; Individual; Inferior Maxillary Bone; Intracellular Communication and Signaling; Knowledge; Laryngeal Prosthesis; Laryngectomy; Larynx, Artificial; Length of Life; Ligaments; Location; Longevity; Man (Taxonomy); Man, Modern; Mandible; Marketing; Maryland; Mastoid; Mastoid process; Maxilla; Measurement; Medical Imaging, Ultrasound; Medicare; Method LOINC Axis 6; Methodology; Methods; Military; Military Personnel; Molar tooth; Mouth; Nature; Neurotol; Noise; Oral cavity; Orthodontic Retainers; Output; Palate; Pathway interactions; Patients; Pattern; Persons; Persons With Hearing Impairments; Phase; Phone; Physics; Price; Process Mastoideus; Property; Property, LOINC Axis 2; Prosthesis; Prosthetic device; Prosthetics; Public Health; R & D; R&D; Radio; Radio Waves; Records; Recruitment Activity; Regression Analyses; Regression Analysis; Regression Diagnostics; Relative; Relative (related person); Research; Role; Safety; Side; Signal Transduction; Signal Transduction Systems; Signaling; Site; Skull; Slide; Sound; Sound - physical agent; Sound Localization; Source; Speech; Speech Sound; Statistical Regression; Structure; System; System, LOINC Axis 4; Telephone; Temporal Bone; Temporal bone structure; Testing; Title 18; Tooth; Tooth structure; Trademark; Transducers; Transmission; Travel; USFDA; Ultrasonic Imaging; Ultrasonogram; Ultrasonography; Ultrasound Test; Ultrasound, Medical; United States Food and Drug Administration; Universities; Vibration; Vibration - physical agent; Voice; Wireless Technology; Work; abstracting; base; biological signal transduction; bone; bone conduction hearing; communication device; communication disorder aid; cosmetic product; cost; design; designing; diagnostic ultrasound; experiment; experimental research; experimental study; harmonic distortion; health insurance for disabled; hearing impairment; hearing perception; in vivo; input device; insight; instrument; life span; lifespan; male; mandibular; maxillary; middle ear; molar (dental); novel; pathway; pricing; public health medicine (field); public health relevance; radiowave radiation; recruit; research and development; research study; response; sensor; social role; sonogram; sonography; sound; sound frequency; sound measurement; sound perception; teeth; transmission process; ultrasound; ultrasound imaging; ultrasound scanning; vibration; wireless