How you benefit – better understanding

Nearly 50 years of clinical and field trial research shows that even when hearing loss is more severe in one ear, many hearing impaired people can still benefit from the natural sound-gathering ability of both ears.

What you stand to gain: balance, clarity, comfort, safety

The following benefits of binaural amplification were discovered:

When compared to the wearing of one hearing aid, two hearing aids can significantly increase your ability to distinguish spoken words in normal and noisy listening conditions.
Wearing one aid may seem to be sufficient in a quiet situation, but when noise is present, one aid is usually not enough. Many people try to continually turn up the volume control to make up for the lack of sound, but generally this does not help. Turning up the volume can only make sound louder, not clearer or less distorted. Binaural hearing generally requires less volume, giving a natural sound to voices and music. By wearing two hearing aids you eliminate constantly straining to use only “the good ear”, wearing two hearing aids feels more relaxing. Two ears give you twice the quantity and quality of sound.
Binaural amplification often makes it easier to locate the source of a sound, or decipher in which direction the sound is coming from. Also known as sound localization, this skill is automatic for those people with normal hearing. But it is important for all of us as we need to know in which direction traffic is coming from, in which room the telephone is ringing, or where to find the person calling our name.
A voice barely heard at 10 feet away with one ear can be heard up to 40 feet away with two.

What you stand to lose: ability to understand words clearly

What is auditory deprivation effect and how can I avoid it?

Research has shown that when there is a hearing loss in both ears and only one ear is fitted with a hearing instrument, the auditory nerve in the unaided ear can atrophy, resulting in auditory deprivation effect.
Auditory deprivation effect is a significant decrease in the unaided ear’s ability to recognize speech. Studies have shown hat this can happen in as little as seven months after one ear is fitted with a hearing instrument. That’s because the ear with the hearing instrument tends to do all the work, leaving the unaided ear with nothing to do. It’s a “use it or lose it” proposition.
The good news is, a study in 1995 showed that even after audio deprivation effect develops, many patients can regain their ability to understand speech when they are fitted with a hearing instrument in the affected ear.
The best treatment for auditory deprivation effect is to avoid it in the first place. That’s one of the reasons why, when there is a hearing loss in both ears, your audiologist usually will recommend two hearing instruments.

More than 50% of people with a hearing impairment are affected in both ears. So logically, just as you use both eyes to see clearly, you need two healthy ears to hear clearly. Covering one eye, you can see the limitation you have to appropriately judge depth. When you remove that impairment blocking your vision, you can again see clearly. When you supply the amplification needed to the other ear and remove that impairment, you will again hear more clearly. Nature gave us two ears for a reason. But, if you wish to decide for yourself whether two ears are better than one, begin by trying two hearing aids. Experiment and keep this article handy while comparing the sound you hear through both and then only one hearing aid.