Two hearing aids rather than one!

HEARING AIDS | 4 MIN READ

Written by Élise Lévesque

Audiologist

You want to buy hearing aids and have many questions about it. Which technology should I turn to? What type of hearing aids suits me the best (1)? Should I buy one or two hearing aids?

The health insurance card (RAMQ) covers, to people who meet a certain criterion, the cost of only one hearing aid. Then, why should it be necessary to buy two?

Binaural hearing benefits

We have two hands, two feet, two eyes… and two ears! Our ears are anatomically made to work together. With two functional ears, it is a lot easier to understand speech in noisy environments, therefore, to have conversation at family meetings and restaurants. Also, listening is more comfortable, because there is a better interaural balance, and the sound quality is improved with two functional ears instead of one. (Try it by blocking one of your ears next time you will watch television!)

Moreover, it is necessary to have two healthy ears to be able to localize sound sources. Localization is important to know when a bike or a car is passing by you and be safe while walking in cities.

Lastly, wearing two hearing aids will help you counter sensory deprivation and its harmful effects.

Sensory deprivation

Because of hearing loss, the brain does not receive as many auditory information from the ears that it used to. When people do not wear hearing aids, their brain slowly forgets how to treat auditory information because it lacks auditory stimulation (2). Thus, few sounds are lost, and speech understanding gets poorer.

The same thing is happening when people are only wearing one hearing aid. The ear’s ability to understand speech declines much faster for the ear without hearing aid than for the ear with hearing aid.

Hence, you should keep both of your ears active by wearing two hearing aids rather than one.

Any question? Feel free to contact an ODYO’s member!