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One Hearing Aid with Binaural Hearing Loss?

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I am 10 days or so into a trial of Phonak Lyric aids for moderate high frequency hearing loss.

The microphone on one of the hearing aids stopped working for some reason and my schedule does not allow me to go back to my audiologist to replace it for a few days. So for now I removed that hearing aid.

Interestingly I am wondering if one hearing aid works better than two. Some of the unusual sounds (such as exaggerated road noise, unnatural sound of toilets/sinks running, difficulty in rooms with multiple speakers simultaneously) are notably improved with only one hearing aid, while it does clearly help with the sounds I was previously unable to hear.

I am pondering if my brain is adjusting to the one Lyric that remains functioning - and will do even better when I replace the malfunctioning one. Or are there people who do better long-term with only one hearing aid even with a binaural hearing deficit?

I think you lose a lot if you are only wearing an aid in one ear and have a bilateral hearing loss. For example locating the source of sounds won’t work as well and you are unlikely to hear wanted noises (eg speech) in noise nearly as well with only one aid.

Another thing is that one hearing aid can’t focus your hearing on wanted sounds or directions, for example in front of you. You need two sets of microphones for the algorithms to work.

Also your brain will miss some sounds from your unaided ear and you will likely find that in the future it would require real hard work to train it again.

So my own opinion is persist with two aids. You should have them adjusted so they both help you.

One of my old time patients said it best: Wearing one hearing aid is like trying to eat a steak with my uppers in and lowers out. I can taste but can’t chew it. With the hearing aids, I can hear it but not understand it".

In reply to @david.hendon

@david.hendon said:

You need two sets of microphones for the algorithms to work.

That makes a lot of sense for digital hearing aids. But what “algorithms” are there with an analog hearing aid like a Lyric? The only algorithm is in my brain, which perhaps benefits from having raw sound from one ear vs. amplified/filtered sound from the other ear. I am certainly not sure it works that way - but it certainly seems as if it might.

Sharing your would help give us an idea of what you’re missing.(Top of page. Click on FORUM and then My Hearing Tests. )

In reply to @rkaplan

Ah yes. I wasn’t familiar with the “unusual” nature of the Lyric. My comments concerned normal hearing aids.

Anyway as @MDB says, you need to post your for anyone to be able to make any meaningful comments about your plan.

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