Why binaural hearing aids

Initially she was reticent to follow the advice of her audiologist and purchase two hearing aids, thinking she could get by with just one.

At the insistence of her daughter, she ultimately purchased two. Hearing researchers have been investigating the benefits of wearing two hearing aids for years. A recent study replicating real-world conditions found that wearing two hearing aids improved listening performance more than wearing just one. Research studies indicate that wearing two hearing aids can improve speech understanding, localization and sound quality. Wearing two hearing aids can also increase the range or distance you are able to hear.

Studies have shown that individuals who wear two hearing aids can hear up to four times the distance that those wearing just one can. Another advantage of wearing two hearing aids is improved tinnitus suppression. Tinnitus relief was positively influenced by the amount of time two hearing aids were worn by research participants.

A voice that is barely audible with one ear at 10 feet can be easily heard by two ears up to 40 feet away. This is the same reason you should use binaural hearing aids. When you wear two hearing aids, you bolster the range of hearing from degrees from only one aid to a full degrees of hearing. The increased range of hearing offers a superior sense of sound quality and balance. With a single hearing aid, words and noises can quickly start to sound alike.

However, with two ears and two hearing aids, sounds become more distinguishable. The ability to determine the direction of sound is known as localization. In social settings, localization can allow you to quickly determine the direction someone is speaking to you.

In addition, localization will let you know whether your grandchildren are screaming or playing, while empowering you to understand the direction traffic is coming from.

In the end, you will be better equipped to detect the the direction sounds are coming from in virtually any situation.

When you keep both ears active with binaural hearing aids, it could decrease hearing loss deterioration and auditory deprivation.

Most research indicates that when a single hearing aid is worn, the unaided ear tends to lose the ability to understand and hear. This phenomenon is clinically known as the auditory deprivation effect.

Wearing two hearing aids can increase your safety and awareness. The ability to know where sound is coming from depends on hearing with both ears. Everyday examples might be turning in the correct direction when you hear your name called, or knowing where an ambulance or fire truck is when you hear a siren in traffic. Two hearing aids more accurately represent the way things are meant to sound.

For instance, when music, television, movies, and peoples' voices are heard with two ears, we enjoy a sound quality that's rich, balanced and full. Do you feel uncomfortable when you are at a restaurant, in a full train, or in crowded and noisy public places, because you feel you are unable to understand the people with whom you are speaking? We can change that with the help of a binaural hearing system. But if you are sitting at your personal computer and concentrating on the screen, and still want to converse with a person behind you, the older hearing systems will not be of much use.

Modern binaural hearing aids, on the other hand, are able to rotate the microphones in the direction from which the speech signal originates, allowing you to have conversations without having to make eye contact. Effortless hearing is now possible with the latest and advanced hearing devices.

Orientation in a room and problem-free directional hearing essentially requires two healthy ears. The auditory center recognizes the tiniest differences between the incoming signals in the left and right ear, and allocates incoming signals to a position in the room head shadow effect. Binaural signal processing also makes this possible with hearing aids, therefore enabling you to adequately assess direction.

Hearing is also connected with balance so it is important that you wear hearing devices for both ears so your brain is able to understand the surroundings and help you balance.

The cost of hearing devices is hard to approximate as the market has hundreds of different options and the price varies depending on the technology and the features that a particular model has. Such devices cost a little more than the basic devices which just help with hearing loss and can be manual rather than digital.

Binaural hearing aid are advanced level devices but their quick success has meant that different manufacturers have produced different models , giving people a choice of models and prices. First time users feel more comfortable with one aid because they are being exposed to sounds that they were missing out on before and can feel overwhelmed when they start experiencing all the different sounds.

Also their ear can get uncomfortable with wearing hearing aids, this is because they may be wearing small devices but it is still a foreign object that they have to wear throughout the day to ensure they get used to it.