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13.
Is it really necessary to wear two hearing aids, or can I
get by with one?
 There
are four main reasons
why binaural (two eared) listening is superior to monaural
(one eared) listening. They
are:
1.
Better Hearing in Noise:
An individual's hearing in noise can be improved if
the signal reaching each ear arrives at a slightly different
moment in time. This is technically referred to as phase.
When the brain receives slightly different, yet still audible
signals at the two ears, it has the ability to cross correlate
and process the primary signal (usually speech) better than
if the signal is received monaurally.
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2.
Improved
Signal versus Noise Level from Optimizing Position:
Sound loses intensity (loudness) when it travels across the
head. This occurs mostly for the high frequencies which are
the most important for understanding of consonants, such as
/s/, /t/, /f/, and /sh/. If you have a hearing aid on only one
ear, say the left one; and the person you wish to hear is speaking
to you from the right side, the consonants may be decreased
by nearly 20 decibels by the time it gets to your aided ear.
Unfortunately, noise level is not decreased, the speech level
is. Wearing two hearing aids insures that the speech sounds
will not be diminished any more than necessary because of your
position in the room. |
 3.
Improved
Localization Ability: We
determine where a sound is coming from on the basis of 1) the
relative time in which the sound arrives at each ear, 2.) the
relative difference in loudness at the two ears, 3) the relative
difference in the pitch of the sound at the two ears. When there
is a large difference in hearing between two ears (as might
occur when a person with similar hearing in both ears only wears
one hearing aid) the brain cannot make use of these subtle relative
differences and their ability to locate sounds may suffer. |
 4.
Possible
Deterioration of the Unaided Ear:
We hear in our brain, not in our ears, the ultimate goal of
hearing aids is not just to send sound into the ear. It is also
essential to retrain the central auditory system in the brain.
While it is uncertain whether hearing sensitivity (ability to
hear soft sounds) will decrease if your ear is not stimulated
adequately, research now suggests that there can be changes
in the way in which your brain processes sound when it is "e;
starved "e;. Thus, providing stimulation may be important
in preserving your auditory potential. |
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