One or two hearing aids?
In most cases, binaural (both
ears) fitting is indicated, because patients typically have improved speech
understanding in noisy conditions, and are better at localizing sounds. Studies
have shown that auditory deprivation in the un-aided poorly hearing ear may
result in loss of word-recognition which would not occur if a hearing aid were
present. If the patient decides on a monaural (one ear) fitting for financial
or other reasons, it is usually more beneficial to amplify the ear with better
word recognition ability.
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