The Benefit of Wearing Two Hearing Aids
Overview
Even when you have hearing loss in both ears, your ears don't always lose their ability at exactly the same rate. You may feel like you have a "good" ear and a "bad" ear. You may be tempted to get just one hearing aid for the "bad" ear. But for many people, this isn't the best plan. Because while wearing only one hearing aid may improve your hearing, wearing two gives you a much better experience. Let's take a moment to learn why.
Binaural hearing
Your brain is wired to make sense of sounds gathered by two ears. We call this "binaural" hearing. When your brain processes these two separate sound signals, it compares them to each other. Subtle differences help your brain figure out the direction, distance and importance of the things you hear.
Wearing one hearing aid
When you have hearing loss in both ears and choose to wear only one hearing aid, you disrupt this delicate balance. Now, one of your ears hears much better than the other. Your brain has trouble comparing the signals from your ears. You may not be able to pinpoint where sounds are coming from. You may have trouble separating speech from background noise.
Wearing two hearing aids
Wearing two hearing aids fixes this problem. It lets both ears hear as well as they can, which helps your brain process sounds with more accuracy. And as a bonus, when you wear two hearing aids, you can set them to a lower volume and still hear soft tones with more clarity.
Conclusion
For more info about the benefit of two hearing aids, talk to your doctor or hearing specialist.
Please be aware that this information is provided to supplement the care provided by your physician. It is neither intended nor implied to be a substitute for professional medical advice. CALL YOUR HEALTHCARE PROVIDER IMMEDIATELY IF YOU THINK YOU MAY HAVE A MEDICAL EMERGENCY. Always seek the advice of your physician or other qualified health provider prior to starting any new treatment or with any questions you may have regarding a medical condition.