“Should I use 1 or 2 hearing aids?” This is a rather common question originating from the fact that hearing aids are a significant financial investment.The advice given by nearly all audiologists and hearing industry professionals is going to be that the advantages of using 2 hearing aids outweigh the difference in cost, but let’s begin with a few cases in which this might not be true.
To begin with, if your hearing is fully normal in one ear, you obviously do not need a second hearing aid for that ear. Conversely, if you are totally 100 percent deaf in one ear, there is no point in having a second hearing aid. If you are prone to recurring ear infections, wearing hearing aids can potentially make the situation worse, so wearing a single aid might be an advantage. Or, if you have a specific form of hearing loss where the speech is heard garbled, a hearing aid in that ear may make your comprehension worse by amplifying the garbled speech. Outside of these four situations, the arguments for using two hearing aids are fairly strong and backed up by numerous consumer satisfaction surveys among hearing aid users. Two hearing aids greatly enhance your ability to perceive the source of the sounds you hear, and provides a more realistically balanced sound. Research studies have demonstrated that two hearing aids also improve your ability to understand speech – especially in noisy environments. If you have hearing loss in both ears, wearing two hearing aids will enable you to keep stimulating both ears, whereas wearing only one can allow the other ear to deteriorate further from lack of use. If you suffer from tinnitus or a ringing in both ears, wearing only one aid will allow the ringing in the other ear to continue. Not surprisingly, consumer research studies have shown that wearing two hearing aids is less mentally tiring than wearing one.
So the arguments for wearing two hearing aids seem to outweigh those for wearing only one. But if you still have your doubts, test it for yourself by making an appointment to see us. You will be able to hear the difference for yourself between one hearing aid and two. Our many years of experience lead us to believe that when you make your decision, you’ll agree with us that two are better than one.