Key Takeaways:
- If you struggle to hear someone seated towards your poorer ear, a CROS device is an option that can help.
- CROS hearing aids work by sending sound from the poorer ear over to the better ear, so that you can more comfortably communicate in the car, at a dinner party, or in other situations that can be otherwise challenging.
- CROS devices are available through prescription care in a local audiology cinic.
CROS Technology for Those With Single-Sided Hearing Loss
Do you have good hearing in one ear and a lot of hearing difficulty in the other ear? Certain types of hearing devices are specifically designed to help those with single-sided deafness (SSD).
Read on to learn more about CROS hearing aids.
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Our full breakdown of single-sided hearing tech below. 👇
Background
Not everyone has hearing loss in both ears. Sometimes hearing loss affects only one ear.
Several different etiologies can cause a sudden hearing loss, for example, a benign tumor on the hearing nerve (vestibular schwannoma), viral infection, or Meniere's disease.
Single-Sided Hearing Loss Challenges
Single-sided deafness (SSD) comes with particular specific challenges. One ear hears normally, while the other ear has significant hearing loss. In quiet situations, understanding isn't a problem. However, a number of other situations can make it difficult to understand. For example, when someone speaks to your bad ear and there is noise coming to the good ear.
The car is one place where single sided hearing loss is noticeable. When you're the driver, it will be hard to converse with the passenger if your good ear is facing the road noise by the window. The same is true in social situations when the speaker is located on the bad-ear side.
This can be even more challenging for those with some hearing loss in the good ear.
Adding in any level of background noise can really change how much of the conversation comes through, understandably.
Additionally, when the hearing loss in the worse ear is significant enough, speech understanding is often quite low with traditional hearing aids. In this situation, putting a conventional hearing aid on an ear with substantial hearing loss and a lack of speech clarity will likely not be helpful.
CROS Hearing Aid Technology
In these cases, a CROS hearing aid system is recommended. CROS devices route the sound from one side of the head to the good ear. Let's take a closer look at a CROS hearing aid and how it works.
Final Thoughts
For those with SSD, a CROS hearing aid can be a great option to help in situations when the speaker is located on the poorer ear side. Use your hearing aid trial period to your advantage to find what works best for your situation.
The products mentioned in this guide are some of the best available and will offer your audiologist lots of customizations to meet your specific needs. We hope this guide has been helpful. If you have more specific questions we'd love to hear from you at hello@soundly.com.
