This is one of the coolest things I've read about in dentistry for quite a while. In the past I've read that the military uses speakers that attach the the zygoma or the mastoid process that conduct sound through bones in the skull. They refer to them as "bone phones" which is obviously a play on the term headphones.
What I'm going to tell you about is pretty fascinating. It seems that researchers are working on a way to use dental implants to function as an adjunct to ear place hearing aids. Since implant are actually connected to the bone of the maxilla or mandible, the theory is that sound could be transmitted through them that would then be picked up by the inner ear.
I wold think that the maxilla would be preferred since the mandible is only connected to the body via soft tissue which would impede the conduction, but the idea is a fascinating one.
The official scientific paper is behind a pay wall, so all you can read is the abstract, but the good news is that Medscape has a pretty good summation of the paper. You can read the Medscape article here.
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