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One hearing aid, in the better ear?

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I am going to need either a divorce or a hearing aid, I guess it will be the latter but I am new to the forum and need some help. I don’t have test results handy but my right ear is worse than my left ear. I heard something that doesn’t make a lot of sense to me, that a single hearing aid should be put into the better ear. Can anyone explain this to me?

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Edited

It’s down to whether your ‘better’ ear has better or poorer auditory resolution than the worst one. Meaning that even though you were amplifying sounds in the worst ear, you would be just providing louder distorted sound to the brain. There are few hard and fast rules on this, but ‘if’ using only using one aid is the only option (not normally the case), my old lecturer used to suggest that the ear nearest to 50dB at 1Khz was likely to yield the best results.

There is one exception to this: if the loss is conductive, then you can drive more power at the worse ear with minimal loss of resolution.

Modern aids and the proper fitting of sets have made this practice less prevalent over more recent years.

@JDM said:

I am going to need either a divorce or a hearing aid, I guess it will be the latter but I am new to the forum and need some help. I don’t have test results handy but my right ear is worse than my left ear. I heard something that doesn’t make a lot of sense to me, that a single hearing aid should be put into the better ear. Can anyone explain this to me?

I tried just one aid at first and they told me it should be in the better ear. One aid helped a lot but, I would definitely get two if you have hearing loss in both ears.

I can’t hear speech out my left side and get very little benefit from my left but when wearing it with my right, I pick up a lot more things then when I’m just wearing my right on its own.

In reply to @Don

Asymmetrical hearing losses are unique to other types of losses.

Generally speaking it is best to have optimal hearing in both ears.

But if your hearing loss is, say 45dB in the right ear and 70dB in the left then most people will label their ears as “good” ear,right ear and “bad” ear,left ear,when in reality neither ear is “good”.

In the above case both ears are contributing to the overall problem ( hearing loss).

If you chose to aid only one ear then you are only solving ( at best ) part of the problem.

So, amplification ( in the above example ) would be the preferred way to go.

If the loss were 30dB in one ear and 60dB in the other than it might make sense to aid the poorer ear since the better ear is “near normal” anyway.

If the loss were 50dB in the better ear and 90dB in the poorer ear,then aiding the better ear would be best ( assuming only one hearing aid will be used ). There is no way you can aid a 90dB loss to approximate what a 50dB loss ( aided) would be.

All of the above examples assume good-excellent speech discrimination in both ears.

Edited

Looking at those results you have a loss in both ears, it’s a little asymmetric, but you need two aids to improve your hearing in noise.

In reply to @Wallen

@Wallen said:

All of the above examples assume good-excellent speech discrimination in both ears.

Hi Wallen,

What if speech discrimination is excellent in one ear but very poor in the other?

My right is 45dB and left is 70dB (the one with very poor speech discrimination) at 1kHz as in your first example (I assume you were referring to 1kHz?). Would you recommend only a hearing aid in the right or both?

I’ve only ever tried them in my left ear and never for long because it was nearly useless. Though after reading an audiological report from my childhood it seems they wanted to try just the right only and then both later but we had an unexpected move and that never happened.

In reply to @JDM

JDM:
Listen up…all you need is one mini aid in your right ear (worse ear) using a slim tube (or ) and a round dome.
This is all you need my friend. The right ear is your worse ear (3000-6000Hz) as I see your scores above. Don’t let someone try and sell you something you probably don’t need. You can always get a second one later if you feel the need.
COSTCO aids are OK but depends on the person adjusting/programming the thing!!!
Open fit left ear only is the choice! Let me know what you decide…always willing to learn
Hears2you.org1

While I wouldn’t go so far as to say “all you need is one in the right ear” I would say that one on the right side would be of more benefit that one on the left…BUT…I have a number of patients who have significantly worse hearing in one ear and a mild loss in the other who much rather prefer hearing aids on both sides due to an improvement in sound quality, clarity, and performance in noise.

This is what I do for people that are on the fence regarding one hearing aid or two. I encourage them to get two, then extend the trial period so that they can wear both for 3-4 weeks and then try just the one…see which one they prefer. That way the wearer can experience both and make an informed/educated decision. I also educate them on the perils/potential side effects of a monaural fitting. 9 times out of 10 they end up keeping both because they sound better. For those that do return the one in the ear they don’t keep, I give a full refund instead of keeping the cancellation fee.

you will get better results with a PAIR of … each RIC can be balanced to level the hearing across both ears.

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