I have known people who have hearing in only one ear or have a severe hearing loss in one ear that leaves them with no understanding of speech on that side.
People with hearing in only one ear can’t hear in noisy situations, meetings, in the car and restaurants when people are not positioned on the side of their good ear.
It’s very frustrating for both you and the people trying to talk to you!
CROS and BiCROS that can help can help in these cases. Let me explain how it works.
CROS hearing aids
A CROS, short for “contralateral routing of signals”, is used for people who have one ear with no hearing and normal hearing in the other ear.
Two small behind-the-ear hearing aids are worn. On the ear with poor or no hearing, you wear a transmitter. The transmitter sends sounds from that side to the normal hearing side.
What that means is, when someone comes up to your poor side and whispers to you, you will hear it through the hearing aid on your good ear!
The sounds won’t be too loud, because the CROS doesn’t amplify the sounds and voices, it just transfers sound from the poor side to the good side.
BiCROS hearing aids
It’s the same thing as a CROS but is used if one ear has no hearing and there is hearing loss in the better ear. As with the CROS, you will wear two small hearing aids, one which transmits sound from the poor ear to the better ear. The hearing aid on the better ear now acts as both a receiver of sound from the poor side and a hearing aid.
You will be able to localize sound so well, with both CROS and BiCROS that you’ll feel that you are now hearing on both sides.
I’ve been fitting both CROS and BiCROS for over 30 years, and I’m still thrilled at how people love these hearing aids!
My team at Audicus programs both CROS and BiCROS hearing aids. Please let us know if you would like more information, we’ll be more than glad to tell you all about it.