Unilateral high frequency loss, to aid or not to aid

Hearing Aids
#1

Brief story - I was recently diagnosed with mild-moderate right sided high frequency hearing loss with normal hearing on the left (right side is 15-20 dB through 1000 hz and then drops to 30 dB at 2000 hz and then 40 at 4000 and 50 at 6000, back to 45 at 8000), WRS score is 92% at 60 dB on right. This actually came as a bit of a surprise to me - although in hindsight, I have had right sided tinnitus for about 10 years and had actually noticed a slight difference in hearing (mainly noticed when flipping sides lying in bed but thought it was just positional).
About 6 weeks ago I started having 30 minute episodes 1-2 times per day of significantly worse hearing on the right (felt muffled/full like on airplane) but it kept resolving so I didn’t think much of it until one day a month ago it was sustained for 3 hours and then I made ENT appt and was seen the next day. I am a physician and had steroids at home already and started them immediately (day before the appt). By the next day I felt back to my normal baseline which I felt was pretty normal. He told me to continue the steroids just in case it had brought the hearing back and I did. However, I think both he and I were surprised when we got the audiogram results. They were repeated a week later and a month later with no change so ENT feels like this is likely chronic given my symptoms of tinnitus and possibly noticing hearing loss for years. I do have an MRI scheduled in a week and a half.

I’m now waiting for audiology appt for hearing aid fitting and, of course, have been doing a ton of reading on unilateral loss, esp. with only mild-moderate and especially when I didn’t really perceive it as a problem before the testing. So I’m conflicted about it.
I have for as long as I can recall avoided crowded/loud situations/places but always chalked that up to being introverted or just my personality. I now wonder if it was in part due to hearing issues though. I also do definitely perceive mental fatigue from crowds which again I thought was because I’m introverted.
In reading, it seems the vast majority of people with my loss wouldn’t use a hearing aid but then I read about things like auditory deprivation and worry that if my hearing worsens and I want to amplify later I might have lost some of the assoc. brain function/pathways and not be as successful - is that correct reasoning?
So, I’m wondering if anyone has thoughts, advice, personal experience with unilateral loss they can share. And in particular hearing aid brand/model.

ETA - I have already spent hours reading on here and am so grateful for all the useful information!

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#2

From experience I know that it’s much harder to understand a conversation in a noisy place if you only have one ear functional, or even if one ear is not contributing much in the way of intelligence rather than just environmental and positional clues.

If you have the cash available then I would definitely say give it a try and do try long enough to give it a proper chance. I think the loss of pathways and brain function on a bad ear is real. I had one ear that was not working well and the hearing aid in that side was contributing little.

Then I had a stapedotomy operation that gave me 30dB back on that side and initially I was very disappointed that I couldn’t really understand much speech on that side even though I could now hear the noises and had had the hearing aid adjusted to reflect my new audiogram. I reckon it took me a full year to get to the situation where I could listen on just my weaker ear and understand reasonably well.

Anyway good luck! And do let us know how you get on!

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#3

I have unilateral mild low frequency loss that is likely congenital, and therefore, is not something I noticed prior. It took me 10 years to decide (and put pieces together - after knowing, I gradually realized things I had trouble with which I had attributed to my personality or just me being weird) to try a hearing aid because the mass majority of people, including medical professionals, literally laugh at the thought of someone like me even trying one.

During the first week of trying a hearing aid, I cried at all the things I could now hear/understand. Everyone is different in their sensitivity, perception, and enjoyment; I am a musician and sound is extremely important to me. The trigger for me was also the consideration of cognitive function (though I don’t know how it works for congenital loss); I have severe long covid which is severely impacting my cognition so I can use all the help I can get.

If possible, I would try one for a period of time and decide for yourself.

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#4

Thank you both for your responses.
@PianoJoy - what hearing aid are you using? I realize our losses are essentially opposite with mine normal (15-20) to 1000 hz then sloping to 30-50 dB at 2000-8000 but I’m curious.
Also, I assume you only wear one aid and your good ear is unaided. I admit one big concern I have with wearing an aid on my bad ear is that the sound will be completely different from my good (unaided) ear and that will be frustrating.
Do you have any advice on this?

#5

You might wait on committing to the costs of hearing aid until the MRI results are in because that may change your prescription in the long term.

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#6

@user715 Thanks. Yes I’m definitely not putting down any $$ until I rule out tumor or anything that would require surgery. I have another week til MRI is scheduled. My husband actually has an acoustic neuroma that has been watched for 9 years and his hearing is still normal by audiogram (although he perceives fullness and discomfort at times). So I’m quite familiar with all this - it’s just crazy that now I have a classic audiogram for AN and being ruled out. Statistics would say it’s nearly impossible that two unrelated people in same household would both have one!

#7

I am actually still trialing a hearing aid. It’s been 7 months. I seem to have very different problems compared to others. My issues have been the physical fit. My selection of hearing aid has more to do with use considerations such as glasses, mask wearing, needing to remove for playing one instrument, etc. I am trialing Oticon Own ITEs.

I do not have any issues regarding the fact that it’s only one sided. I also wear one earplug when I play the violin - so I have experience in adding gain to one ear, and dampening in only one ear (same ear). In both scenarios, my ear/brain very quickly adjusts and I cannot tell only one side is affected or any distortion, only volume is louder/softer. After a short adjustment period, the sound is very natural.

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#8

Oh yeah, statistically that is wildly unlikely! Hoping your MRI is clear!

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#9

This post is almost a year old, so you may have decided already what you want to do. My unilateral loss was found in kindergarten, so it may have always been there. The technology to help my loss also wasn’t around when I was growing up, before the digital hearing aids were a thing. When I first tried a hearing aid in 2007, I was amazed at how I could hear some of the soft spoken students that used to be very difficult to hear. However, I didn’t wear the aid once summer came. I continued this on and off pattern for many years.

Now, this year I have some hearing loss in my good ear. It’s very mild, but , since those high tones are nearly deaf on my other side, if I have a mild loss on my good side, it’s really making the whole system my brain had worked out much more difficult to work in challenging environments, with or without an aid in my bad ear. In my case, the aid helps, but it doesn’t fully bring back all those missing tones. I’m also a singer and multilingual so I’m pretty sensitive and picky about what I can hear.
At home it’s still not needed. But, I am getting to a point where if I can have tiny aids that actually allow me to hear better, then I plan to use them at all times. I do still wonder if I’ll use them around my family at home. Knowing me, I will feel like I’m being ridiculous and going overboard. But, I do feel that all the time I have been using that one aid is greatly to my benefit. As my hearing changes, I will be able to keep up and the aids will really work well because my brain is primed for them.

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