For patients with hearing loss, when fitting hearing aids in hearing clinics, the fitter usually performs binaural audition for the user. You may have doubts about this, why should patients wear two?
This is because in the condition of binaural listening, we have better sound source localization, binaural integration and binaural noise reduction.
When we use both ears to listen to the sound from the same sound source, due to the occlusion of the head and the difference in the distance between the ears and the sound source, the sound intensity when the sound propagates to the two ears is different - the intensity difference, The time it takes for the sound to travel to the two ears is also different - the time difference allows us to know where the source of the sound is with our eyes closed.
When two ears listen to the same sound, the loudness will be increased by 6~10dB compared with that of one ear, and the performance of the hearing threshold will also be reduced by 3dB (such as 60dB for one ear and 57dB for both ears). It can help some users with severe hearing loss or loudness needs to obtain a more satisfactory hearing aid effect.
The ambient noise around us is generally above forty to fifty decibels, but why can't we detect it? This is because under binaural hearing, our auditory center will automatically reduce noise, which also improves the signal-to-noise ratio to a certain extent. The clearer it is, the clearer it is to hear.
If both ears have hearing loss and only one ear is fitted, it may lead to hearing deprivation in the unintervened ear, and the hearing discrimination ability of this ear will gradually decline after 4 to 5 years. If hearing deprivation occurs, it will greatly affect the hearing aid effect of the ear in the future, that is, the sound can be heard, but it is more difficult to hear clearly than before the hearing deprivation occurs. So the best advice is to fit hearing aids in both ears when wearing hearing aids.
The fitting of hearing aids is to expect hearing-impaired patients to obtain hearing conditions that are close to normal, so binaural fitting is the first choice. But if the hearing loss patient has financial difficulties, our rechargeable BTE hearing aids (Cadenza H series) and rechargeable ITC hearing aids (Cadenza Q series) are very affordable hearing aids that can be flexibly fitted.