One Hearing Aid, Two Hearing Aids
We often see patients who purchased their hearing aids elsewhere, these patients can come to our office for repairs or reprogramming of their hearing aids or for any reason really. One curious finding is that though they were prescribed and purchased TWO hearing aids, they only wear ONE hearing aid.
Chances are, if you have hearing loss in both ears and you were prescribed TWO hearing aids, you should be wearing two. But for reasons not well understood, their preference is to wear only ONE hearing aid.
The pros of wearing TWO hearing aids are quite simple: There’s a reason we have two ears. Wearing two hearing aids affords better speech reception, lends to better understanding in groups or noisy surroundings. Patients with hearing aids in both ears performed better on standard balance tests when their hearing aids were turned on compared with when they were off. Two hearing aids also helps you localize sound – that is, you can pinpoint where sound is coming from, two hearing aids gives better sound and tone quality and extends the hearing range, and as if you needed another reason: Two hearing aids helps reduce tinnitus in ways that one hearing aid cannot.
Research* shows that hearing aid wearers who consistently used two hearing aids tended to report better real-world outcomes than those who preferred one.
What we don’t understand are the cons of wearing both of your hearing aids. If you were prescribed two hearing aids and only wear one hearing aid, we want to hear from you! Is there something we can help you with with that second hearing aid? We’d certainly love to try! Call to set up an appointment at (519) 961-9285 and we’d be glad to help you hear better using BOTH ears!