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What are users' experience with CROS and BiCROS hearing aids?

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Edited

I’m not hearing anything from people who wear hearing aids whether they like them or not.

Unfortunately Costco doesn’t carry them for users that I’ve been told.

I have lost high frequency left ear and audiologist said they only do CROS’s. I think mind are working well as I hear sounds coming from left to right.

Oh, has anyone compared a hearing aid instead of a CROS?

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I have been using a bicros for 5 years now. I had a benign tumor near my right ear canal so hearing on that side is very low and distorted to the point of unrecognizable. The cross works very well for me. Hearing is about the same coming from other side but of course I have absolutely no sense of direction. When I ask my wife the first response is “Here” and my response is “where is here?” I am very happy with the bicros option but if my right ear was in the least correctable I would have preferred that option just for the directional sense.

I had an acoustic neuroma in my left ear treated with Gamma Knife almost three years ago. I still have significant aidable hearing in that ear but the sound is distorted; kind of buzzy or like a car radio where the station doesn’t come in clearly.
I tried bi- and I thought they made the overall sound a bit clearer. But my audi talked me out of getting them because I would probably lose all my remaining hearing in that left ear due to it not being stimulated. I think that that is a big deal. I stayed with regular HAs and I’m glad I did, even with the distortion.

Regarding my last post, I’ve heard using a may deteriorate any hearing from that ear due to no stimulation.
My Audio says no, some say yes. I’ve been wearing a CROS for 7 years. Does anyone (expert) really know what the truth is? Thanks you forum.

Lost my left ear in early 1980s, stapedectomy surgery went bad, no fix.

Over subsequent years I had two wired aids. The very best aid I ever had was a wired Starkey K-amp BICROS . The sound was great and I could talk on the phone (old-fashoned landline phones in those days) like a normal-hearing person, using my left ear - no feedback because no speaker on that side, mic only. The wire was a pain but not enough of a pain to matter.

Note that dajLivermore is exactly correct, “Where is ‘here’ dear?” is the order of the day. Neck muscles get a workout swiveling the head. But in work environment the people on my left side did not fade into nothingness, I could hear them even if it wasn’t obvious where they were.

Costco did not do BICROS when I went there in 2010 but they were so much less expensive than anyone else, and the guy who had fitted the K-amp had retired, so I went back to one-side.

Found out last year that my company’s insurance started covering hearing aids. Went to an Audi (who I actually found on this website) who sold me a Phonak BICROS; I think Audio B is the model. It is sort of a disaster and I should have taken it back and reverted to the Costco Bernafon. Cell phones are not like landline phones, don’t work with cell phones, but it is still good to hear the truck about to run me over from the left, even if I can’t tell where it is without looking for it.

Anyway enough of my incessant rambling. If you’ve had good experience with the aid, and have enough hearing on your left side to have directional sense, you would probably be better off sticking with a CROS aid even though it means no Costco.

devices can difficult to become accustomed to and not everyone likes them. They are much better than they used to be now that they’re wireless but some of my patients are left wanting more help.

In my experience, those who can benefit from 2 hearing aids usually prefer to use 2 hearing aids over a CROS device.

My recommendation is to try using 2 hearing aids and then try using a CROS device- you need to decide for yourself which is more beneficial. Hearing is incredibly individual and what works for your friend, mother, father, brother, sister, aunt, uncle, or a stranger on the internet is not necessarily going to work for you.

I had a patient that came to me wearing a because that’s what his previous practice had recommended. I offered him a trial with 2 hearing aids and he was blown away with how much better he performed with 2 hearing aids. You have to try it for yourself.

Because I have 12% hearing in left ear my Audiologist won’t let me try a hearing aid, he said they only do ’s in my case.

In my opinion- seek another provider. What is the worse that could happen if you try a hearing aid and it doesn’t work out for you? The only way to know what is best is to try your options. Good luck!

In reply to @AlexLee

Could you please explain how it works two hearing aids vs Cros ?
I have left ear hearing lost and my audiologists was fitting with Cross .
What I was told is that the Cros is transmitting not amplify the sound from my bad ear to my god ear where is amplified.
Could you please explain?
Thanks

Edited

So in your case, I recommend you try 1 hearing aid in your Left ear first. It might not work out for you so if you don’t like it- try a system. This allows you to compare.

If you had hearing loss in both ears- I would recommend trying 2 hearing aids first and then a system.

*Edit - you can try the CROS system first too. I recommend trying both solutions to see what works for you best.

You’re right. The system will put a microphone on your Left ear and your Right ear would have a speaker. When sound is picked up by the microphone on the Left - you will be able to hear it through the speaker in your Right ear.

If your hearing is normal on the Right ear, you normally would not get amplification on your Right ear.

Anyone wearing crossover hearing aids and has accessories with the. I have an old pair of phonak crossover hearing aids but would like something that works with a phone and allows for getting phone calls to my hearing aids.

Edited

In reply to @cjpines

@cjpines, I have severe hearing loss in my left ear. When I finally decided to get a hearing aid, the first audiologist I saw told me the same thing, that my only option was a . I didn’t want a CROS; I wanted that ear aided. Even if it didn’t help with speech recognition, I wanted to hear environmental sounds in stereo. I was also hoping it would help with the extremely loud tinnitus in that ear. I went to a different audiologist who was willing to sell me an aid for my left ear only. It did help with tinnitus, and it didn’t help with speech recognition. In a noisy restaurant, I had to turn it off because the noise I was hearing from the aided left ear made understanding speech even harder.

Now I have Phonak Marvels for both ears, even though I don’t really need one for my right ear. The right aid picks up sound from the left one (I don’t know how to describe it in technical terms), so now I can understand speech in noisy restaurants, or my husband talking to me from my left side even when walking on the beach with the noise of the waves crashing to shore. And I hear environmental sounds in stereo better because the right aid sends sound to the left.

Hi have a phonak bicros and up until recent months was wearing all the time and found it really helped to highlight the sounds that i had been missing out on like bird song before that i had a wired cros aid but it kept falling off my ear so didn’t really get any benefit from it. In recent months i have had problems that stem from the dome of the hearing aid causing eczema like changes in my ear which it then rubs against causing ear infections but i have an ent appointment to hopefully sort out a hypoallergenic ear mould if they don’t do it then i will have to go private and get it sorted that way but overall I’ve found the bicros to be great for me

I had an 6 weeks trial of Signia Silk NX 7 BiCros system in mid 2018. I have profound deafness in right ear and severe loss in left ear. Left ear had the normal aid and right ear with the Bicros.

My experience I would say was 50/50. Everything was far too loud. Compression was kicking with the slightest loud noise. I think I had too much gain in the both low and high frequencies. My head would explode with sound as soon I came into large groups especially women voices. I know now from self programming too much gain doesn’t really help. The less the better.

Comfort wise they were awesome. I used open dome click sleeves with a vent. Very comfortable in ear and secure.

Cros/Bicros does require experience in fitting. I was given the full whack when fitted which wasn’t the right thing to do

I have no hearing in my left ear because of an Acoustic Neuroma which was discovered two years ago.
I have been using a Phonak bicros for over a year. Hearing in the better ear only about 50 percent. The bicros works well for me but noisy places are big problem.

In reply to @Kaytee

I wanted the Phonak Marvels but the Audiologist said they do not have for Marvels, so I ended up with Phonak Audeo B90 with CROS. They are only 8 months old and I’m still wondering if I should of gone somewhere else, second opinion. Now I’m stuck.
I have heard Marvels pick up sound from the left or right aid to the other. But, he wouldn’t try them.

I’m still going to try another Audiologist or Costco, what-the-heck why not. Thank you.

I have somewhat recently started using - somewhat similar journey.
I have an acoustic neuroma (vestibular schwannoma more precise) on my left side… right side is normal. My hearing tests showed some promise on the bad side so I wanted to try a regular hearing aid to see if it could be salvaged so I bought a costco membership and had them put me through tests and do a trial walking around the store - in my case the aid didn’t really help at all. I’m now on CROS with the Oticon OPN S and Oticon CROS. Initially my audiologist recommended the Phonak Audeo B CROS solution, but I went with the Oticon for better connectivity with my phone (which I never use it turns out). Overall, the experience has been OK. I find they only help sometimes, but that is often enough for me to keep with them. Taking them out at the end of the day is like ultimate relief. I don’t know how many skiiers we have on this forum, but taking out my aids is a relief similar to taking off ski boots at the end of a day on the mountain.

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