Hear the Whole Story

By Maria Lundquist, AuD

Preferred Audiology

. http://preferredaudiology.com

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Hear the Whole Story

Take a moment to think how it would be to go through your daily routine using only one hand. You would probably be able to accomplish some tasks with a little difficulty, while other tasks would be virtually impossible. Imagine how tired you'd feel by the end of the day. Obviously, using two hands would make performance of routine tasks easier. Your ears work on the same theory. The brain is able to process sounds easier and faster with both ears.
We don't hear with our ears, we hear with our brain. Our ears are the open windows that allow sounds to enter into the processing center in the brain. If the processing center of the brain does not receive equal or balanced input signals, an incomplete sound picture is generated, which is perceived as missed and unclear speech. Even a mild hearing loss in one or both ears can send uneven or muffled signals to the brain.
There are many benefits to binaural hearinghearing with both ears. It's apparent that nature intended us to hear with two ears. Have you noticed that all mammals have two ears? Hearing with one ear is like seeing the world through one eye. It's a very ineffective way to go through life. Although sound travels all around us, there are tiny differences in sound intensity that are picked up by each ear and processed by the brain. These tiny intensity differences in the sound tell us which direction the sound is coming from. Hearing through only one ear does not allow the brain to hear these differences; therefore making it difficult or impossible to locate sound properly and personal safety is compromised.
One of the main reasons people wear hearing aids is to hear and understand better, especially in the presence of background noise. The brain is able to decipher speech from background noise more effectively with equal input from both ears. Hearing with both ears helps the brain better select the message we want to hear. Binaural hearing requires less volume to hear, giving a more natural and comfortable sound to voices and the sounds around us. Wearing hearing aids becomes more enjoyable and beneficial when the amplified sounds sound natural.
Wearing two hearing aids helps restore the “stereo system” that was lost through the hearing loss. The sound quality is fuller, richer and more natural with stereophonic sound as compared to monophonic sound. Listening to the radio through two speakers is more enjoyable than listening through only one speaker.
More importantly, when a person who is hearing impaired in both ears wears a hearing aid on only one ear, the uncorrected ear tends to lose its ability to hear and understand. The gradual loss of this ability may become permanent if not corrected in time.