Question
Who can benefit from a Ponto 3 SuperPower?
Answer
Everyone using a bone anchored hearing system deserves the best sound quality. Ponto 3 SuperPower is beneficial for bone anchored hearing system candidates with conductive hearing losses, mixed hearing losses, single-sided deafness (SSD), and for those using a Softband.
For patients with conductive or mixed hearing loss, the higher output of Ponto 3 SuperPower provides an increased dynamic range so it correctly reproduces more sounds without distortion. The benefit is natural hearing and a better sound quality.
With a Softband fitting, Ponto 3 SuperPower provides higher gain to account for skin attenuation to help make the signal audible. And, Ponto 3 SuperPower has a wider dynamic range so that the patient can listen and hear more naturally without distortion.
Patients with SSD will experience a better loudness match between their two ears when using a Ponto 3 SuperPower device. As you can imagine, with a normal hearing ear on one side, and a device on the other ear that saturates at high levels or moderate-high levels, they have a mismatch of sounds coming from the two sides. With Ponto 3 SuperPower, patients with SSD report a better spatial awareness because the loudness of the signal coming from the device now better matches the loudness they hear from the normal hearing ear.
Thank you for your question! For more information about fitting Ponto 3 SuperPower, view the Oticon Medical continuing education course, BrainHearing and Bone Anchored Devices: Why More Output Matters to All Users. More information is also available on the Oticon Medical Partner Page on AudiologyOnline, and at www.oticonmedical.com/us
