A Comparison With Eyesight

A long time ago it was common for people to wear monocles, but now it's accepted that both eyes need to be corrected in order to make best use of our eyesight, that's why spectacles have two lenses.

Our hearing works the same way – both ears are designed to work together. If we only use one, we can still hear – but we lose some very significant advantages...

Five Benefits of Using Both Ears

1. 360 degree hearing
   If we only had one ear we’d find it difficult to hear sounds that happened on the opposite side to our ear. That’s partly because of the way our ears catch sound and funnel it in, and partly because our head actually damps down sound coming from the other side. With two ears we can hear what’s happening all around us, which is what connects us to the 'real world'. We also feel balanced.
2. It gives us sharper hearing
   Using both ears together almost doubles the loudness of sounds, making it easier to hear quieter sounds. It also increases our speech perception by around 20%.
3. It's how we locate sound
   Our brains compare the sound coming in from each ear to locate where a sound is coming from. If the sound occurs on our right hand side, the noise will reach our right ear quicker than the left ear, and although the time difference is minuscule, our brain can detect it. Also the sound will be slightly quieter on the left hand side because the sound will have been damped down by hitting our head first.
4. 4. It's easier to hear in background noise & groups
   In background noise our brains need the sound coming into both ears in order to pick the speech out of the background noise. (In fact, when both ears are working together properly we can hear speech even when the background noise is louder than the speech we want to hear!)
5. It's easier to hear in reverberant rooms
   We find it a lot easier to listen to a speaker over a distance when we're using both our ears together. This is especially true if there's an echo; our brains are able to filter out the smearing effect of reverberation.

Should I Wear a Hearing Aid in Both Ears?

The purpose of a hearing instrument is to overcome the deficiency in an ear with hearing loss, so if both of your ears have a hearing loss, both ears should wear a hearing instrument.

Some people have one ear that is better than the other, so it may be tempting just to wear a hearing instrument in the 'bad ear'. But remember: the purpose of a hearing instrument is to make sure each ear is giving the brain the information it needs to do its job properly.

So if the hearing test shows that your better ear has a deficiency, it too needs a hearing instrument to overcome the deficiency.

Very occasionally it may not be possible to use a hearing instrument in both ears. But we can advise you of this once we have completed our assessment of your hearing.

Nine reasons to wear a hearing aid in both ears

1. To give your brain everything it needs to properly make use of sound
2. To balance you up
3. So you can hear things equally well no matter which ear someone speaks to you on
4. To give you extra volume without everything sounding 'too loud'
5. To ensure you hear as well as you can in background noise
6. To give you the best possible speech perception
7. To tire you out less (it takes more concentration with just one ear)
8. To help locate where sounds are coming from
9. So you have a spare aid if one goes wrong

Summary

Our brains are designed to make use of sound coming into both ears. By comparing the sound coming into each of ears, our brain is able to locate sounds, filter out background noise and enhance speech. That's why it's best to use a hearing instrument in both ears (if both ears have a hearing loss). Otherwise we're compromising our brain's amazing sound-processing capabilities.