Why do people need to opt for 2 hearing aids & How much of a necessity is 2 hearing aids? If the loss of hearing is in 1 ear, then 1 hearing aid is enough. If the hearing loss is age-related, then most likely it is a double-sided hearing loss. In such cases, doctors suggest that you must opt for both ears for a better hearing experience.
Using 2 hearing aids can take advantage of how the brain processes sound from 2 devices, also termed Binaural hearing. In a normal ear, the sound signals that come from both ears can be compared in signal strengths. The human brain can pick up certain important signals which are louder & detaches them from background noise automatically. When a person wears 1 hearing aid & when someone talks, it feels like the sound is softer & feels like background noise rather than normal & hence it becomes harder for your brain to give sound preference.
Sound location identification is harder with 1 hearing aid. It becomes difficult for our brains to locate the sound. Generally, brain analyses signal from both ears, check the relative loudness, quality of sound output, depth, distance calculation, the loudness, the frequency of sound & many more parameters by comparing the sounds from both ears. But in people with loss of hearing &, if they are wearing 1 hearing aid, the brain cannot identify the location because one ear gives more sound & the other gives less.
Using both ears make the process of communication with each other better. Because the sound data transfer back & forth between the 2 ears & then is processed rather than relying on 1 hearing aid. Because sound from 1 hearing aid is independent & might not be accurate. 2 hearing aids have the ability to maintain localisation than single aids.
Experts also say that using 2 hearing aids might help in restoring hearing abilities in the weaker ear by stimulating the auditory nerves. That means sound states are picked up from both ears & gets stimulated to make sure hearing stays in the peak levels. Research also says due to ineffective utilisation of the auditory nerves in the weaker ear may cause that part of the brain to weak.
It offers a more natural hearing experience - Our ears are designed to operate in tandem in creating a binaural listening experience. It processes surround sound & with the use of 2 hearing aids richer, fuller sounds are produced. Perceiving everything around you can become difficult with using a hearing aid on a single ear & can become harder to tell where sound is coming from exactly.
One of the biggest issues for those with hearing loss, even those who are only wearing one hearing aid, is the ability to fully process and understand certain sounds, like speech. If you are only using one ear effectively, then it can make it harder for the brain to figure out what people are saying when speaking to you, causing a delay between what you hear and what you actually understand. Wearing two hearing aids means that your brain can process these finer sounds much more quickly.
When wearing one hearing aid, you feel to increase the amplifier to improve the hearing of different voices. But with 2 hearing aids, both ears work in tandem to offer a binaural effect with which your hearing improves without the need for amplification resulting in a decreased urge to increase TV or music volumes. Also, with 2 hearing aids, the brain is more effectively able to reduce unnecessary noise when processing from both ears at once. This means that you're much less prone to experience difficulty with background noise.
One undisputed advantage of wearing two hearing aids is that you can set them at a lower volume than if you wear just one. Soft tones sound louder when the brain is receiving sounds from both ears rather than 1. And lower volume means less feedback. Under this arrangement, you would be fitted with two hearing aids and then, over a period of several weeks, you would decide whether you hear better with two. If not, you should be able to return one of them.
