Two is better than one

If you experience hearing loss in only one ear, there are products on the market to help people with one-sided hearing loss or single-sided deafness.

Widex have a special hearing aid, called CROS. which is designed to assist people who can hear in one ear. You wear a device on your hearing impaired ear which has a microphone on it, which wireless transmits sound to the amplification hearing aid device on your other ear.

When you can only hear out of one ear, your brain struggles to know which direction that sound is coming from. Imagine it as trying to cross the road and hearing traffic, but not knowing which direction the traffic is coming from. CROS hearing aids help you hear sounds from all directions and allows your brain to distinguish which side it is coming from.

There are many benefits of being able to hear with two ears.

• More natural sound
• Safer – as you can identify which direction a sound is coming from
• Speech & Conversation – it’s twice as easy to hear words that others speak and participate in the conversation
• Keeps your ear active – find out more about why it’s important to exercise your ears
• Share the load – hearing through both ears helps you listen to loud sounds, as well as making hearing less tiring overall
• Hear more – you can hear a voice up to 12 metres away with two ears, whilst only 3 metres away with one ear