 | Ed Clausen M.A
M.A. Audiologist, CCC-A is a licensed Audiologist under the Kansas Department of Health and Environment. He received his CCC-A in 1994 and serves as Company Audiologist for the 18 company offices of Midwest Hearing Aids, Inc. in Kansas. He holds memberships in the American Speech/Language and Hearing Association, the Kansas Speech/Language and Hearing Association, and the Kansas Hearing Aid Association. You may contact Ed at Midwest Hearing Aids corporate office in Wichita at 1 (800) 668-4055 or locally at (316) 264-2411. |
Audiology
2002-11-01 14:20:00
Why two hearing aids?
QUESTION: Why should I use two hearing aids?
ANSWER: There are some types of hearing loss where people do better with one aid; however, most people do better with two aids than with one. When hearing loss is symmetrical, that is, the same degree of loss in both ears, and there are no other complicating factors, chances are that the user will perform better with two aids. There are many reasons why most people do better with two hearing aids than with one. The first reason is that two aids have been shown to improve understanding in background noise over one aid. Since the main problem expressed by hearing aid wearers is difficulty in background noise, wearing two hearing aids will give the wearer more of an advantage than wearing one. Additionally, two aids allow the wearer to localize sound. This is analogous to the way that two eyes allow for depth perception; two ears allow a person to be able to tell where a sound is coming from. Next, individuals wearing two aids report a better sense of balance of sound than those that use one aid. Also, there is a phenomenon where sound is perceived as being louder when heard through two ears versus through one ear. Therefore, more power has to be put in one aid to achieve the same perception of loudness than the user would get with two, slightly less powerful aids. Finally, when one ear has a hearing loss and is not aided, it has been proven that over time, the word discrimination ability of that ear diminishes. This is called the unaided ear effect. When the portion of the brain that processes input from that ear is not used, it loses its ability to resolve the sound into understandable words. Therefore, if the user's hearing diminished further and he/she needs to put an aid in that previously unaided ear, it may be possible that they would face a much longer adjustment period for an aid in that ear, and may not ever realize full benefit from that aid. The brain would have to re-learn to process sounds from that ear. If you have questions as to whether you are more likely to do better with one aid or two aids, consult your hearing healthcare professional.
