My right hears perfectly fine while my left ear has moderate hearing loss. I’m currently trialling a single hearing aid in my left ear but do not feel like it really provides value. Also, so much of the technological innovation in these days seems based on wearing 2 HAs. I’m tempted to try 2 HAs instead of one but I was wondering if people had thoughts on what the current consensus is on wearing 1 or 2 HAs for single sided hearing loss (not deafness). I’m currently trialling the Signia Pure X and going to trial the Widex Moment and possibly also the Audeo Marvels. The Widex Moment appears to tie most of the advanced features to 2 HAs, I assume this would be the same for the other two.
Posting your would be useful. My current thought would be to try something like an Oticon Opn S 3. If you have normal hearing in the other ear, not sure think I going with 2 hearing aids is a great idea.
The features that you need two hearing aids for aren’t really geared for people with normal hearing on one side. They’re replacing functionality of normal hearing ears and the brain. You will not hear as well through the ear with the hearing aid as you would without the hearing aid if you have normal hearing. Your brain, over time, will adapt to hearing with the hearing aid in the moderate ear and normal hearing ear together. This isn’t something that you can reasonably expect to happen during a couple day/week trial period. You’d be better off sticking with one hearing aid model for a few months.
I wear a Phonak Audeo M50 aid in my left ear and I have near normal hearing in my right ear.
It’s taken a while but I feel like I hear quite well out of my left ear but it’s not as good as my right ear, no hearing aid will allow me to hear normally out of my left ear.
EDIT - I used to wear 2 x before I had surgery on my right ear to repair my middle ear. I found I never used the programs where the HAs work together. I found AutoSense on the Phonak’s to do a good job.
You’re ignoring this member’s posts.
BlackyZürich, CH 2021-now // Berlin, DE 2017-2021 // HR origin
I’m in the same position. Normal hearing on one and really bad hearing on the other one.
Several years ago I started with one . This year I started trials with one HA. But started asking myself the same questions - if whole idea of getting HA in the first place is to hear better in variety of situations, and also to relieve some of the strain we have when listening, why we should keep insisting on aiding only one ear (in case of unilateral loss) and limiting ourselves of options?
I tried two last month and never looked back.
Features that come with 2 HAs like better speech in noise (phonak’s ordinary snr boost and then ultra zoom) definitely gave me better results even with one good ear. Point is that HAs need 4 mics to work things out properly. So you give them 4 mics, and then they give your both ears better input. Also, they send the input to both ears if it’s only on one side (of course, different loudness), eg if I rub my right HA, I’ll hear that in both.
I was asked why I even want HA since I have good ear. Our brains can get a bunch of help for understanding even when we aid bad ear and there’s not much out of it. Google on ‘does bilateral fitting makes sense on bad ear’. Short answer - yes, our brain utilises any signal it receives.
However, the more synchronised they come (be it in speed, loudness, clarity, color/feel), it is easier for brain to process it. That one is my observation.
Yes, your brain might get used to different signals, however if you have other options, I don’t see the benefit of forcing it to stretch itself. Also, it takes a lot of time, think months not days.
My bad ear is really bad, so it just didn’t make sense that when in difficult situation (networking event, restaurants) we say yeah, you need external microphone and then send that improved signal only to bad ear which still cannot get much out of it and push more strain on the brain to process such different signals.
Also, don’t let me start on annoyances about how to make media or call stream to come into both ears
Everything tech wise is set up for two HAs, and I definitely saw the difference. So I’m buying one HA and basically one insanely expensive headset so that they can work together seamlessly.
For my case, they work, I can listen anything and understand and have stereo sounds and voices without watching (in quiet), and in loud it really is better even though I have open domes, and with mics it’s superb experience.
**Now I can relax and be part of the conversation. ** that one for me is worth the money. Without aid is hard, with one aid is hard, with two and full focus I can get a lot, but with two and a mic, it’s awesome since I finally can relax and listen. Yes, it’s not 90+% correct if I don’t concentrate and watch, but being able to stay in the loop and look around while the conversation is going in a somewhat loud restaurant, I didn’t think it was possible for me like ever again. With only one HA or without it I couldn’t follow the convo even with my full focus, watching and asking for repeating, no matter the tech level of that single HA. I would resort to nodding.
If you can afford, test. That way you’ll know best.
However, if you realise that you don’t feel the difference in everyday situations, nor you need additional microphones, and when you stream you do it knowing in advance when it’s going to happen, then there could be some solutions depending on your phone OS and which HA gadgets you buy. Like using splitter from the source and tv streamer for HA plus headphones on the other side, or maybe even just big headphones could work, or bt headphones and bt media stream if your phone can send to two devices (but then there’s latency problem which you’ll probably feel), and so on.
Also, look up here, some gadget is coming on kickstarter or somewhere which could give audio with headphone to good ear and using tcoil to send the audio to bad ear. Forgot the name, check topics from @Zebras she started it and bumped recently.
In order for that to work, you need HAs with ability inside them.
If you can’t afford two HAs now, I’d recommend against testing, because if you like the result, then you’ll be in the problems
I talked a lot with my hubby regarding the financial situation of such decision before I got my hands on the second one, since I’d rather not know then know, like and couldn’t afford it.
Also, it’s rumored that phonak will release new ric, officially they only said ‘at 20 August comes something new’ so until then we won’t know for sure, but maybe they’ll upgrade some connectivity / latency issues which occur when you combine two separate devices.
But, I’m not sure if fitter will provide you with one. Mine did because I explained to him the reasons and I’ve fitted it myself, so he gave me a big discount. Not using and formulas since they’re not meant for normal hearing, but some guesswork and testing what feels right.
First thing I did was to insanely reduce all soft sounds, since I could hear myself breathing no matter how gently I did it (lows) and all static noise in quiet room (highs).
So, I’d recommend some research and having arguments ready, to get the device. In case you’re not doing self programming and buying online (not stolen/lost devices).
