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Binaural Hearing: Do I Need Two
Hearing Aids?
Basically, if you have two ears with hearing loss that could
benefit from hearing aids,
you need two hearing aids.
It is important to realize there are no "normal"
animals born with only one ear. Simply stated, you have two
ears because you need two ears. If we try to amplify sound
in only one ear, you cannot expect to do very well. Even the
best hearing aid will sound
"flat" or "dull" when worn in only one
ear.
Assuming you have two ears that hear about the same, you can
do a little experiment at home to better understand how important
binaural hearing is:
First, gently close just one ear, by simply pressing the little
fleshy part in the front of your ear canal (the tragus) into
your ear canal -- a little. Do not apply pressure, do not
hurt yourself. Just close the ear canal to eliminate sound
from entering the ear. The idea is to close that ear for about
ten minutes while you watch TV or listen to the radio, or
speak with your spouse. Then, after a full ten minutes, remove
your finger. What an amazing difference!
There are many advantages associated with binaural (two ear)
listening and importantly, there are problems associated with
wearing only one hearing aid
-- if you are indeed a candidate for binaural amplification.
Localization (knowing where the sound came from) is only possible
with two ears, and just about impossible with one ear. Localization
is not just a sound quality issue; it may also be a safety
issue. Think about how important it is to know where warning
and safety sounds (sirens, screams, babies crying, etc) are
coming from. Using both ears together also impacts how well
you hear in noise because binaural hearing permits you to
selectively attend to the desired signal, while "squelching"
or paying less attention to undesired sounds such as background
noise.
Binaural hearing allows a quality of "spaciousness"
or "high fidelity" to sounds, which cannot occur
with monaural (one ear) listening. Understanding speech clearly,
particularly in challenging and noisy situations, is easier
while using both ears. Additionally, using two
hearing aids allows people to speak with you from either
side of your head - not just your "good" side!
People cannot hear well using only one ear. There are studies
in the research literature that show that children with one
normal ear and one "deaf" ear are ten times more
likely to repeat a grade as compared to children with two
normally hearing ears. Additionally, we know that if you have
two ears with hearing impairment, and you wear only one
hearing aid, the unaided ear is likely to lose word recognition
ability more quickly than the ear wearing the hearing
aid.
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