Hello,
Have anyone had any experience with BiCros hearing aids?
How helpful are they in case the hearing in one ear is very poor while the hearing loss in the other ear is partial?
Thank you!
I have been using BiCROS hearing aids for about 5 years (have hearing loss in both ears; right ear is diseased/missing parts from mastoidectomy, right ear has sensorineural impairment).
On the plus side, it is no longer a strain on my left side, which processes most of the sound. Additionally, I no longer have that discrepancy between lack of power/clarity in my right ear and volume/clarity in my left ear, although I would miss some high frequency sounds. The trouble is, I am sensitive to high frequency sound, which makes it very tricky to fine tune. I was warned that I would have trouble distinguishing which side the sound was coming from. In general, that doesn’t bother me; I don’t notice that problem except in extreme situations, and then it becomes funny. For example, I was sitting next to my friend in a workshop, and I kept hearing the cracking, popping sound and kept looking to my left, unable to detect the source. I looked to my right, and it was my friend squeezing the plastic water bottle.
The disadvantages are that it increases my sensory overload and inability to discriminate speech and, ironically enough, I still don’t hear speech clearly or loudly from sources to the right of me; sound, yes, that’s amplified, but speech, I still tend to turn my head to hear.
1 Like
Thanks for sharing your experience!
Would normal hearing aids work better in your case? What about a cochlear implant? Are you qualified for it?
1 Like
I’ve used a bicros since about 2015 and have found it to need lots of adjustments up until now but that maybe because i started off as a wearer of only a single hearing aid so it took me awhile to adjust. I now find i can’t handle certain situations without the use of my bicros . I’ve been told that my left ear is not suitable for cochlear implant or Baha due to my bone conduction being to low and my cochlear nerve is dead so if @feltham_denise has a diseased ear with missing parts from a mastoidectomy it maybe that normal hearing aids / cochlear implant won’t work well. I have always been told that telling what side sound was coming from would be a struggle and have over time adjusted so now i am albe to get a vague idea where a sound is coming from by looking around me when out or at home to determine what is going on.
2 Likes
@Zeeza You are quite welcome. I had normal hearing aids since my late 20’s/early thirties. I started with just one for the right ear; my hearing loss in neither left (my good ear) nor left (my diseased ear) was as advanced at that time, and I would only used it in specific circumstances/environments. However, when the hearing loss progressed, I found it a strain to discriminate speech with just the left hearing aid, so an audiologist recommended a hearing aid for the right ear. Based on feedback from prior audiologists/hearing aid specialists, this move was counterintuitive, which proved to be the case. There were two problems with having a hearing aid for a normal functioning ear (minus the hearing loss) and one for an ear without the anvil/hammer/stirrup, the mastoid, and part of the eardrum, which was patched due to a hole in it when I was 9 years old. At the same time, I think I developed sensorineural damage in the same ear. This discrepancy caused distortion from the right hearing aid and an inability to reach full capacity of same, while causing problems with integration of a higher functioning left ear/hearing aid and lack of power/clarity from the right hearing aid. It also caused problems with draining, which is continuous despite suctioning of the mastoid cavity every six months or so. Then I ended up with a bad flu in my 40’s and lost almost all my hearing in both ears. Luckily, some came back but my hearing was significantly reduced. That’s when another hearing aid specialist recommended a biCROS aid. Because I don’t have total hearing loss in either ear (although I could never rely on my right ear to detect sound/speech), I do not qualify for a cochlear implant.
1 Like
@feltham_denise Thank you so much for sharing your experience with hearing aids!
I’d like to give Bicros a try, as well as to know if I’m qualified for a cochlear implant but all of that need time and money! I hope I can find a suitable solution that helps me hear and understand speech better in different contexts.
1 Like