How to match hearing aids if one ear hearing is not good

Unilateral hearing loss is a special case of hearing loss. There are some noteworthy points in the selection of hearing aids for patients with unilateral hearing loss!

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1. Unilateral suppurative otitis media:

Suppurative otitis media is usually caused by a cold or other respiratory tract infection through the eustachian tube into the middle ear cavity. The disease may be acute (severe but short duration) or chronic (long duration).

One ear suffered from suppurative otitis media, which led to serious hearing loss. At first, it was a simple conductive hearing loss, but with the progress of the disease, after the inflammation involving the cochlea, it gradually appeared the sensorineural changes, and finally it may develop into severe or even very severe mixed hearing loss.

Due to the asymmetry of hearing in both ears and the bone gas conduction difference in the affected ears, it is necessary to conduct the air bone conduction masking in pure tone audiometry. For the more serious condition, we should pay attention to avoid excessive masking.

Usually suppurative otitis media try to avoid wearing hearing aids. However, if the ears are basically dry after surgery and drug treatment, we should consider the selection of hearing aids as early as possible to establish the balance of hearing function of both ears.

It is emphasized that during the period of wearing hearing aid, we must often go to the hospital to follow up the condition of middle ear, and if necessary, carry out preventive dripping to keep dry ear.

2. Unilateral sensorineural hearing loss:

Unilateral sensorineural hearing loss is serious and lasts for a long time (up to several decades). There are many causes, such as mumps or sudden deafness in childhood. Most patients find that they can’t hear a sound in one ear only when they use a telephone or earphone.

Poor ear hearing ability is poor, listening almost entirely depends on the better ear, so the better ear appears excessive fatigue due to long-term listening, resulting in secondary sensorineural hearing loss. These patients often have tinnitus before hearing loss and hearing loss after tinnitus for a long time.

3. Asymmetric sensorineural hearing loss:

This kind of patients may initially suffer from unilateral sensorineural hearing loss, but they did not wear hearing aids in time, so they decided to have hearing loss in good ears when hearing aids were tested; or they may have been suffering from bilateral hearing loss, with serious hearing loss in one ear for a long time, and slight hearing loss in the other ear for a short time.

In the face of this kind of hearing loss, the match maker often chooses to match a better hearing aid for ear test. The initial listening effect is good, and the match success rate is also high. However, after follow-up, it is found that the hearing of the ear wearing the hearing aid is not stable, and tinnitus often occurs, the hearing function of both ears is seriously unbalanced, and even the hearing of the good ear is getting worse and worse.

This may be due to the increase of the hearing burden of the better ear after wearing the hearing aid, which makes it overworked and leads to hearing loss.

If a poor ear is equipped with a hearing aid, the initial listening effect may be very poor, and there will be a situation of “hearing but not hearing clearly”. However, after wearing for a period of time, the tinnitus of the better ear will weaken or even disappear. Adhere to long-term wearing and rehabilitation training, the hearing of both ears will have different degrees of recovery, and the speech resolution will be significantly improved.

In a word, the balance of hearing function of both ears must be established as soon as possible. Early fitting of hearing aids for patients with unilateral hearing loss can avoid or slow down the hearing loss of the better ears. At the same time, the worse ears can also be exercised after moderate sound stimulation, which to a certain extent restores the potential hearing function.

Jinghao hearing aid reminder: hearing aid wearing requires professional “matching”, so it is very important to choose a professional hearing aid matching center and a hearing aid tester! If you have any hearing problems, you can call Jinghao for consultation, or come to the matching center for experience. Hearing aid free consultation Tel.: + 86-18566295705