Bone Anchored Awareness Day, which occurs on May 3, marks the second annual event also known as Good Vibrations Day, according to an announcement from Oticon Medical. Bone Anchored Awareness Day was established in 2021 as a non-branded day to raise awareness, celebrate bone anchored hearing as a treatment, and give voice to users around the globe.
The May 3rd date was specifically chosen because it is the birthday of Per-Ingvar Brånemark, a Swedish physician and research professor known as the father of osseointegration and the godfather of bone anchored hearing. His discoveries enabled development of today’s bone conduction hearing devices.
Last year, users joined the company to share their pictures and stories of living with a bone anchored hearing system (BAHS). One user, Lyn Wild, shared her joy after being fitted with her bone anchored hearing device.
“The best sounds I hear with my technology most recently are those made by my granddaughter as she plays with making verbal noises and chatting to me. So very grateful,” she said.
Bone anchored hearing systems bypass problems in the outer or middle ear by sending vibrations via the skull bone directly to the inner ear where they can be processed by the brain as sound. Today, more than 250,000 people around the world use some form of BAHS. Bone Anchored Awareness/Good Vibrations Day celebrates them and the treatment regardless of brand.
René Govaerts, general manager of BAHS at Oticon Medical, shared his wishes for a happy and vibrant Good Vibrations Day. “At Oticon Medical, we recognize the importance of sound for well-being, for development, even for general health,” said Govaerts. “So, of course we are passionate about providing as many people as possible with the best sound imaginable. That also means creating more awareness, not just for the product, but for the treatment itself. We hear much too often that a person didn’t know their hearing loss could be alleviated, and therefore went years unaided. Bone Anchored Awareness/Good Vibrations Day is our contribution to keeping the conversation about hearing alive.”
This year, Oticon Medical will be celebrating on May 3 all over the world with various events, information, contests, and fun and games in different countries. As a non-branded awareness day, the company invites other bone anchored brands to join the festivities by sharing social media content and organizing celebrations of their own. The focus of this day is to raise awareness about hearing loss and bone conduction treatment—not products.
Good Vibrations posts, stories, tweets, videos, and more can be shared by all using the #goodvibrations and #boneanchoredhearing hashtags and on the Good Vibrations Facebook page: www.facebook.com/boneanchoredhearing.
Source: Oticon Medical
Image: Oticon Medical