What types of binaural hearing aids are there?
Everyone should hear with two ears in order to be able to use the binaural hearing functions. There are different ways to achieve this.
With two ears, binaural, people can not only hear and understand speech: With two functioning ears, they can understand speech even when the noise around them is almost twice as loud as the speech. They can determine the direction of the sound source and can hear equally well from any direction. These abilities are known as binaural hearing functions. If you or your child cannot hear well on both sides, the binaural hearing functions can be regained in different ways.
Hearing care in both ears
If hearing is equally impaired on both sides, both sides should also be supported equally - depending on the hearing loss on both sides, bilaterally, with a conventional hearing aid, hearing implant, bone conduction system or cochlear implant.
Hearing care for varying degrees of hearing loss
In the case of asymmetrical hearing loss, hearing ability is significantly different on both sides. In this case, each ear should be supported appropriately - sometimes with a conventional hearing aid on one side and a cochlear implant on the other. This is called bimodal hearing care.
Some candidates for a cochlear implant have similar hearing impairments on both sides, but would like to try out hearing with a cochlear implant on one side first before deciding on a second implant on this second side. They will also receive bimodal treatment for the time being: they will continue to use their conventional hearing aid on the other side for the time being.
Hearing care for unilateral hearing loss
A special form of asymmetrical hearing loss is when one ear is deaf or functionally deaf and the other is completely or almost normally hearing. In the case of such unilateral deafness, the deaf ear is preferably fitted with a cochlear implant, while the ear with normal hearing can remain untreated.
Advantages of hearing on both sides
With all these combinations, those affected can not only hear and communicate audioverbally in a quiet environment, but also use the binaural hearing functions: directional hearing, speech comprehension in noise and spatial hearing equally well from all sides.
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