Contributed by Joy Victory, managing editor, Healthy Hearing
Hearing loss in one ear is known as single-sided deafness (SSD) or unilateral hearing loss. It's a condition in which a person has lost hearing in one ear. When it happens suddenly, it requires prompt treatment. People can also be born with it, or develop hearing loss in one ear as a result of several medical conditions.
We were designed to have two ears for a reason—the brain uses both ears to pinpoint the location of a sound, and to improve hearing quality and range. This is known as binaural hearing.
Losing hearing in one ear presents unique challenges:
If you have unilateral hearing loss, you will likely experience something known as the "head shadow" effect. Due to the way sound waves travel, high-frequency sounds don't "bend" around to the side of the functional ear, meaning a person never hears them.
"The head essentially acts as a shield, blocking sounds from the poorer hearing ear from reaching the better hearing ear," explained Cleveland Clinic audiologist Sarah Sydlowski, in an online discussion with patients.
The end result is that speech can sound muffled, because a person can't hear high-frequency sounds like "s" or "f."
There are a number of potential causes of SSD, including but not limited to:
Sometimes a cause can't be identified, or is due to a combination of factors.
Single-sided deafness can develop quickly—you should always act fast if you or a loved one experiences sudden hearing loss. The quicker you seek treatment, the better your chances are for a full recovery. When hearing can't be fixed with medical treatment, single-sided deafness is often the result, which happens about 15% of the time.
SSD is often permanent, but sometimes treatable with devices worn on your functioning ear. Your audiologist will perform a hearing test, and ask you questions to try and identify the cause of your hearing loss. From there, he or she might recommend a CROS, BiCROS, or bone-anchoerd hearing system:
A CROS system is designed for people with near-total hearing loss in one ear, but normal hearing in the other. A CROS detects the sounds occurring on the deaf ear, and routes them to the good ear. This requires wearing a device on each ear: On the non-functional ear, the person wears a transmitter device, and in the functional ear, the person wears a receiver that processes the sound and delivers it via a microphone. This sound is not amplified beyond normal because the person has relatively normal hearing.
BiCROS hearing aids work the same way, except they're designed for people whose functional ear has moderate-to-severe hearing loss. This means the functional ear not only receives sound from the transmitter on the other ear, it is also receives amplified sound via a typical hearing aid. Several different manufacturers make CROS and BiCROS hearing aids.
It's important for patients to realize these devices re-route sound, but do not "restore" hearing to the deaf ear, according to Erika Woodson, MD, Medical Director of Cleveland Clinic’s Hearing Implant Program, in an online discussion with patients about the devices. "You will not hear in stereo. The benefits of these hearing strategies are to improve awareness of sound from 360 degrees, but you will not be able to localize sound."
Some people do not find CROS hearing aids helpful. An alternative is a bone-anchored hearing system, which requires surgical implantation. These devices, also known as bone-anchored auditory implants, send sound vibration directly to the inner ear through the skull bone, a process known as bone conduction. This can be helpful because middle ear and ear canal problems might prevent sound waves and signals from reaching the inner ear. In those cases, standard hearing aids are ineffective.
Cochlear implants work by directly stimulating the auditory nerve. They are not normally used for single-sided deafness, though the FDA in July 2019 did approve a cochlear implant device from Med-El specifically for single-sided deafness.
If you are interested in learning more about whether you might be a good candidate for a CROS hearing aid or a bone-anchored hearing system, talk to an ENT physician or an audiologist in your area.
Reprinted with permission. Copyright Healthy Hearing (www.healthyhearing.com). Original article: https://www.healthyhearing.com/report/52008-Living-in-the-head-shadow-of-single-sided-deafness