Saand alBar Org

Hearing Loss in One Ear & Not in the Other Ear?

July 18th, 2009

Many people have hearing loss in one ear and not in the other, or profound loss in one and partial loss in the other. For these situations, special hearing aids are available, called “CROS” or “Bi-CROS” hearing aids.

The principal behind the CROS ear hearing aid is simple. The acronym stands for “contralateral routing of signal (or sound)” and just means sending sound from one side around to the other. The idea is that the sound available to, but unheard by, the deaf ear is picked up by a microphone and transmitted over to the good ear. Transmission is by cord or radio wave. The hearing in the good ear is not amplified. Feedback or distortion is not a problem because no hearing aid is being worn in the good ear.

A Bi-CROS hearing aid uses the same idea, but is designed for people who are deaf in one ear and hard of hearing in the other. The hearing aid in the deaf ear is a microphone and transmitter to send sound to the less-affected ear, just as in the CROS system. With B-CROS, the transmission is received in the better ear, but the user also has a regular hearing aid in that ear for additional amplification.

These hearing aids are beneficial for those whose hearing is inconsistently affected. It prevents the user, for example, from having to have people sit on their “good side” and enables the wearer to much more clearly decipher speech even in the presence of background noise. The CROS system, particularly now that most of them use radio waves for transmission, provides sound solutions for variable hearing loss.

Entry Filed under: Health