Hearing with both ears

The importance of hearing with both ears

Ears work as a team, and the brain needs both to process speech and locate sound direction.¹ Hearing with both ears is known as binaural hearing. If you can only hear in one ear (unilateral hearing) it’s difficult to perform the tasks listed below.

Understand speech in noise

If you can only hear in one ear it makes it more difficult to pick up on quiet speech in a noisy environment.

Hearing with both ears also makes it easier for your brain to practice selective listening. This means you can focus on the conversations you want to hear.²

Locate sound²

Not being able to tell where sound is coming from may cause problems.

For children, it can be hard to understand the teacher in class or the coach on the sports field.

For adults, driving through traffic may be difficult.

Even crossing a busy road may prove dangerous.

Avoid the head shadow effect

When you can only hear with one ear, sounds that come from your 'bad side' fall in the shadow of your head.

Sounds have to travel around your head so your 'good ear' can send them to the brain. As a result, sounds can be difficult to hear and understand clearly, especially in noise.¹ This is particularily true for higher-frequency sounds.¹

Enjoy music

People who have lost hearing in one ear say they enjoy music less and describe it as sounding unpleasant, indistinct or unnatural, compared to how it sounded with both ears.³

Binaural hearing and speech development in children

Hearing with both ears may help children better understand speech and language. This is important for children’s learning and development.⁴

What is bimodal hearing?

Bimodal hearing combines the benefits of a hearing aid in one ear and a hearing implant in the other ear. You may find sounds are easier to hear and speech is easier to understand.^4-6

The result may provide some of the following benefits:

• improved speech understanding, especially in noise^5,6

• better determination where sounds are coming from⁷

• enjoy music more with better sound appreciation.⁸

Studies show a big leap in hearing performance with a bimodal hearing solution compared to hearing aids alone.

Bilateral hearing: two hearing implants

If you have a bimodal solution but still struggle to understand speech, bilateral hearing implants may improve speech comprehension, which may help you to communicate more effectively.

Your hearing health professional can advise you on bimodal or bilateral hearing treatment options for you or your loved one.

Do you have one ear with a Cochlear™ implant or Baha® device?

Ever thought about getting your other side implanted? If you answered YES to three or more of these questions, an implant in your opposite ear could be right for you:

• Did you have your worst/more deaf ear implanted originally?

• Do you often take off your opposite side hearing aid, as it’s not really helping that much?

• Do you find you need to position people on your implant side to hear? e.g at the dinner table Do you have significant problems hearing in noise?

• Have you been ‘saving’ your non-implanted ear for future technology?