Oticon Medical’s first active transcutaneous bone anchored hearing system – the Sentio System – launched in Australia in August 2025. Audiologist KATHRYN DARK and business unit manager TRACEY KING reveal the benefits of the new hearing implant and outline funding options.
More audiologists could present the option of a bone anchored hearing system to patients especially as wider candidacy and sophisticated systems nowadays mean additional patients can benefit.
This is the view of Ms Kathryn Dark and the leading hearing implant manufacturer she works for, Oticon Medical.
“The onus is on audiologists to give people the best options, and not just offer hearing aids or cochlear implants,” says Dark, Oticon Medical’s clinical sales specialist for Queensland and South Australia. “Bone conduction implants can be life changing for these patients.”
Despite the benefits, increased patient awareness and education are needed among Australian hearing practitioners and the public, she says.
Ms Tracey King, Oticon Medical’s business unit manager ANZ, believes offering comprehensive solutions can attract more patients to audiology clinics. Apart from financial benefits of increased patronage are positive recommendations about a practitioner who goes the extra mile to offer everything.
“If you want a practice that makes a point of difference, it’s all about providing good service and all options,” she says. “Every audiologist should know about these solutions, the difference they make to people’s lives and be offering them to the right candidates because they can be a game-changer.”
Try before decide
One great advantage of bone anchored hearing systems or BAHS is that potential clients get to try before they decide. Wearing a soft headband with a sound processor indicates beforehand what their hearing would be like if they had implant surgery.
It’s quick and easy for audiologists to set up using a demonstration device that Oticon Medical provides for the pre-operative trial, says Dark.
“While giving patients a good indication of what their hearing would be like with an implant, it also forms part of the candidacy assessment,” she says. “Candidates who go on to have surgery experience greater improvements in sound compared to the softband trial because the system transmits vibrations directly to the bone.”
Oticon Medical has always made this option available to patients considering implants, and to those people who prefer utilising the softband only. Now the company is providing even more choice through its revolutionary new Sentio System.
The Sentio is a transcutaneous active bone conduction implant system with the implant fully implanted below the skin. The only external part is the sound processor.
“Sentio delivers the proven benefits of our Ponto System, but in a transcutaneous option,” explains Dark.
“The Ponto is a percutaneous implant system that uses a small implant and connecting abutment for leading or transmitting vibration to the bone.”
While the sound processor clips onto the Ponto’s external abutment, the Sentio sound processor is magnetically attached behind the ear. Both vibrate the temporal bone, which stimulates movement of fluid in the cochlea, facilitating hearing.
Industry leading features
Key features of the Sentio System include the Sentio Ti implant which is placed under the skin. Oticon Medical says it is the smallest transcutaneous implant available, being 28% smaller than alternatives.
It combines with the Sentio 1 Mini – the slimmest, smallest and lightest transcutaneous sound processor which the company says is 26% lighter and 12% smaller than alternative devices available on the market today.
The Sentio has the same very wide frequency bandwidth as the Ponto, from 200 Hz up to 9,500 Hz, making it the widest bandwidth for any transcutaneous implant, Dark adds. It also has a 360-degree sound experience.
“Wider bandwidth means better sound quality, especially for music appreciation and speech discrimination in noise,” Dark says.
The sound processor is held over the implant by a magnet, and its light weight means the processor is more likely to stay in place even in active situations. There’s also less pressure against underlying skin.
The processor has a 60-hour average battery life, can connect through Bluetooth to mobile phones and is compatible with a range of wireless devices, Oticon Medical says.
The Sentio 1 Mini provides as close to natural hearing as possible including high frequency sounds, the company adds. It uses innovative noise reduction technology – OpenSound Navigator – to deliver “remarkable sound quality and speech understanding”, adapting to the environment. Additionally, the OpenSound Optimizer stops audible feedback before it occurs, Oticon Medical says.
Dark says feedback has been positive from audiologists and ENT surgeons who attended roadshow launches across Australia.
“Everybody was rather excited by it as soon as they saw it. The big point of difference is the size of the implant – it’s much smaller and thinner,” she says.
“This gives surgeons greater flexibility in placement so they’re more likely to place the implant in the ideal position. This means the external sound processor is also in the
ideal position behind the ear. ” Additionally, microphones are in the ideal position, producing the best sound quality, she adds.
The size and weight of the sound processor is not only aesthetically pleasing, Dark says, but aids comfort.
Candidacy has broadened
She believes the Sentio will revolutionise hearing implants. “One system does not replace the other, but certain people might be better candidates for Ponto while others are better candidates for Sentio,” she says.
BAHS is suitable for patients with conductive or mixed hearing loss, single-sided deafness, or sensorineural hearing loss. It’s also an option for those with medical contraindications to air conduction hearing aids such as those with allergies to device materials, skin issues including psoriasis or eczema in the ear, ear canal stenosis or ear infections.
In particular, Sentio is suitable for candidates with thinner bones, poorer osseointegration or thinner skin. Ponto has the largest fitting range of any bone anchored hearing system.
Dark says more awareness and education are needed for Australian hearing practitioners and the public about this option.
“We have a way to go in Australia, with awareness around bone conduction devices and implants, and how easy it is to work with bone conduction devices,” she adds. “If an audiologist can fit a hearing aid, they can fit a bone conduction device.
“They’ve come a long way in the past 15 years, thanks to innovation from Oticon Medical. They have sophisticated sound processors like hearing aids and for patients who really struggle with air conduction aids, they can be a better option.”
It’s also important to demystify bone conduction surgery and highlight its minimally invasive nature, Dark adds. Ponto surgery can be done under local anaesthetic if people cannot tolerate general anaesthesia in as little as 15 minutes, and Sentio surgery is typically done in under an hour, she says.
Audiologist roles
Audiologists play a key part in candidacy assessment by presenting options and helping patients choose an implant. This is based on communication and lifestyle goals and clinical suitability in discussion with the ENT surgeon.
Fitting the sound processor post-surgery is less intense than for a cochlear implant, Dark adds, and more akin to fitting an air conduction hearing aid. Patients require yearly checkups for follow-up and adjustment.
“To use a bone conduction implant system the inner ear hearing must be quite good, so speech testing is needed to confirm this,” Dark says. “Speech testing by an audiologist indicates whether a patient would be a bone conduction implant candidate.”
Audiologists can contact their local implant clinic or Oticon Medical to help explore if their patient is a good candidate.
Funding options
King says the team is working to get Sentio on the prescribed list for private health funding in 2026. Private health insurance covers the cost of the system if it’s on the prescribed list although other hospital fees may be out of pocket, she says. Health insurance can also cover sound processor upgrades – important for new technology.
In the interim, patients with the right level of health insurance can access the system through ex gratia applications. The Oticon Medical team can provide support in this application process, King says.
Oticon Medical has also been working with Hearing Australia to achieve support for Sentio sound processors for public patients who are eligible. “The Ponto is on the prescribed list and is supported by Hearing Australia which fits Pontos largely on a soft band for its clients. But it only funds sound processors, not implants,” King says.
Some public hospitals may fund the implant while Hearing Australia funds the sound processor for eligible patients, and other public hospitals may fund both, she adds.
For public patients, it depends on each state and its support and funding in public hospitals for bone anchored hearing systems, King says.
“Some states have no dedicated public funding for bone anchored hearing systems,” she says. “It just depends on the state, the hospital, surgeons and audiologists who work in public hospitals to be able to motivate for why they need it.”
Public hospitals may require paperwork and applications, Dark adds, and while the NDIS provides funding towards sound processors, the process is complex.
Help with paperwork
The business unit and the Oticon Medical clinical team, which has good success with private hospitals and health funds, help audiologists with the trial process and paperwork. The unit also supports ENT surgeons, operating room teams, hospital central sterilising departments and teachers.
“We can provide the product to trial, be there for the trial, train audiologists on the software which is simple to use, and support them getting comfortable with bone anchored hearing if they haven’t worked in that sphere,” King says.
Sentio launched in New Zealand, the US and Europe in 2024 where it has had very good traction, Dark says.
“For patients who are candidates, bone anchored solutions make a world of difference,” King adds. “You just have to hear some of the patients’ stories – they truly change people’s lives.”
For more information, visit oticonmedical.com/au.
