You are driving down a country road. At night, with your headlights on, you can see what’s down the road a bit and what is off to the side of your vehicle. As you’re driving along, your left headlight goes out. You can still see what’s directly in front of your vehicle and what’s off to your right side, but things seem dimmer and less detailed. You can get by with just one headlight, but you can see so much better at night and stay much safer while driving if you have two working headlights.
When an individual has hearing loss in both ears, but only wears one hearing aid, they often have trouble understanding conversations clearly and locating where sounds are coming from. Wearing two hearing aids optimizes overall benefit and hearing ability (just like how driving with two working headlights optimizes your vision at night.)
When talking to patients about the need for hearing aids, we often get asked if one hearing aid would work. This is an honest question and an important concept to understand. We have two ears for a reason and there are many advantages of hearing optimally from both ears.
So, what are the benefits of wearing two hearing aids? We are glad you asked!\
• Better localization of target sounds or speech in complex listening environments
• Improved spatial orientation of sound or “depth perception” of sound
• Reduced listening effort
• Increased listening range
• Improved sound quality
• Optimized hearing ability and performance
If you have hearing loss in both ears but only have one hearing aid, call us at (814) 941-7770 to schedule a hearing aid consultation and discover how clear the voices and the sounds you love to listen to can be while wearing two hearing aids.
