When many people think of wearing a hearing aid they think about one hearing aid in one ear. It’s possible, and also quite common, to lose your hearing in both ears. Wearing a hearing aid is the best way to restore your hearing and your quality of life but do you need two hearing aids or only one. A good, professional audiologist like Clarisound can advise you and help you find, fit and maintain a suitable hearing aid, or hearing aids.

If you decide to start wearing two hearing aids, it can help your brain to process sounds better. This is called binaural hearing. With normal hearing sound signals from both ears are comparable in strength and your brain picks out the impor­tant signals. This makes it much easier to hear voices in loud background noise. If you are wearing just one hearing aid and someone talks into your other ear in a noisy situation the voice may sound softer than the background noise. This makes the job your brain needs to do harder and also more difficult to identify the location of particular sounds. Your brain adapts to this by comparing the relative loudness, frequencies, and the time it takes them to travel through your ears. Your brain won’t be able to locate a sound as well if the sound signals are always louder through one ear.

According to research at Harvard University if you have hearing loss in only one ear and normal, or nearly normal, hearing in the other ear, then one hearing aid is all you need. Most people have hearing loss in both ears, especially if your hearing loss is age-related. Multiple scientific studies have found a relationship between hearing loss and increased risk of falls and loss of balance, but it is still unclear whether this applies to people with hearing loss in one ear. So if you really want to balance your hearing for maximum benefits and personal safety then wearing two hearing aids could be right for you, or your loved ones. Wearing two hearing aids will also double your spend on good hearing care so the best thing you can do to restore your hearing and your quality of life is to consult a good, professional audiologist, like Clarisound.

At Clarisound our team of friendly, professional audiologists will check your hearing for FREE then suggest one, or two hearing aids that are suitable for your hearing loss, lifestyle and budget too. Whether you have hearing loss in one, or both ears, please don’t hesitate to book an appointment at Clarisound. We will help you restore your hearing and your quality of life.