Wearing two hearing instruments

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.

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 is auditory deprivation effect and how can I avoid it?
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/hearing specialist 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.

Source unknown, I believe it came from an article from the Hearing Review, year unknown.

I delivered a pair of the new Phonak Audeo Yes V’s today to this great lady. She has a steep ski slope hearing loss and about 36% discrimination, so I knew it was going to be a challenge. Upon delivery I found out that she has a care giver with her at all times, which was great because of the carpal tunnel she suffers from made it impossible to insert the new hearing instruments.

When I turned on the hearing instruments her eyes lit up and she started to talk, she couldn’t believe how loud she was talking. She never wore hearing instruments before so this was a big shock to her. She slowly was getting used to it and her care giver started to talk with her. The care giver has a soft spoken voice and she has to speak up a lot so Mrs. M could hear what she was saying. I had the care giver walk around and speak to Mrs. M, from six feet away with her back to her and nine feet after that and then move into the kitchen. She could understand every word the care giver was saying. What got me was that the care giver and I were talking to one another with the care giver behind Mrs. M and I was next to Mrs. M, the care giver was nine feet away. Mrs. M looked at me and said she could understand everything we were saying, I couldn’t believe it because the conversation was not directed towards Mrs. M. I personally wouldn’t think she would be able to understand one word, but she did.

After some adjustments I was able to bring her speech up to about 68%, which was good, because her goal was 36%, so this was a great start. I put her on my rehab exercises schedule and she said she would work diligently on her homework. I really could appreciate this lady because she was saying that she doesn’t like noise but knows that she has to block it out. She says “it is all in the mind and I am in control”, what a lady. Her mind was made up to make this work and she is very strong willed, I believe she will do awesome. It is amazing how in these last two days I have meet some very determined young ladies, it proves that mind over matter is correct. If you want something bad enough you can achieve it, BUT you have to want it.

Hats off to Mrs. M for her tenacity today, I was very proud of her and I think she will prevail in adjusting to her new life of hearing again. I have to say YES to these new little devices, they have the Sound Recover inside which moves the high frequencies over to a better frequency for better understading. I am a huge believer in all of Phonak’s new products, thank you Phonak for making my paitents lives and my life a little easier.

I have been working with this patient for three years, she was originally fit with one hearing instrument. She was always afraid to try two because the numbness in her left hand. She was having typical trouble like what directions sounds were coming from and understanding the precher at church and of coarse her friends. She was feeling like she was becoming more isolated and didn’t want to participate in any activities.

Well one day out of the blue she says ” I want to try wearing two hearing instruments.” I asked her what pushed her to want to finally give this a try. She said she is tired of not being able to hear right and is lost in church and with her friends.

Well, to make this long story short she tried two hearing instruments and she could use her right hand and put in her left hearing instrument with no problem. I was floored! She did really well, she made my day and her kids were thrilled she could do it also. Everyone in her family, herself included was a little scared she would have a problem, but she was determined and it paid off.

The best part is when I saw her today and asked her how she was doing and she said she was doing well. I then asked how about church, I know you have trouble with the preacher when he is giving his sermon. She says to me ” I could follow every word he was saying when he was giving his sermon.” I felt so relieved that she was finally getting what she needs to enjoy her life.

She says how happy she was that she is in on everything that is going on at her retirement community. She says she feels like a real person again and she is a very outgoing 96 years young. After that she went over to her friends and she was engaging in conversations and I personally have witnessed she could have never done before until today.

Amen!