When One Ear Has More Hearing than the Other

Do you have more hearing in one ear than the other ear?

Do you find listening to speech or sounds on your side with less hearing really difficult?

Do you have difficulty locating or finding where sounds are coming from?

Do you feel background noise makes it really hard to hear the person you are trying to listen to?

     You are not alone in having these difficulties if one ear has more hearing than the other ear. This is called “unilateral” hearing loss. We need two ears that are even or balanced to be able to localize sounds (to know where they are coming from) and to help with hearing when there is background noise. For many people, they can wear a hearing aid in the ear with less hearing which helps with some of the difficulties just mentioned. 

     For some people, the hearing loss is so significant that even wearing a hearing aid in that ear will not be very helpful. For these people, the hearing aid may not make make speech clearer or when it gets loud enough to hear, it also gets uncomfortably loud. Or even at the loudest volume, sounds are not really understood in that ear.

     Often your audiologist or teachers will ask that you sit in a place where it is easier for you to hear (e.g. closer to the teacher or the speaker, with the ear with more hearing towards the speaker). Typically, your audiologist has waited until you started school to see if an FM system will be helpful (e.g. the teacher wears a microphone and the voice is heard in your ear with more hearing via a receiver in that ear or through a sound field system in your class). Hopefully your audiologist has discussed a CROS hearing aid system where a microphone placed on your ear with less hearing sends sounds to your ear with more hearing. An FM system can also be tried with a CROS hearing aid system. Though the CROS system will help pick up sounds from the ear with less hearing, it often doesn’t help with understanding in noise or localizing sounds as you still are really only hearing with one ear. It will, though, help you hear sounds on your side with less hearing and it should help you feel more comfortable or confident listening in more tricky listening environments.