March 19, 2025
Living with single-sided hearing loss creates unique listening challenges that can affect everything from your daily conversations to your personal safety. When someone has normal hearing in one ear but significant hearing loss in the other, simple tasks like determining where sounds are coming from or participating in group conversations become difficult. Single-sided hearing loss can occur from various medical conditions including sudden hearing loss, acoustic neuroma, Meniere's disease, or head trauma. Left untreated, it can lead to increased listening fatigue, social isolation, and reduced quality of life.
At Anywhere Audiology, we bring advanced solutions for single-sided hearing loss directly to your home, allowing you to explore and experience treatment options in the environment where you spend most of your time.
Single-sided hearing loss affects daily communication and safety in several ways. Our brain naturally processes sound from both ears in a sophisticated way, using timing and intensity differences between them to create a complete auditory picture. This process, known as binaural hearing, helps us locate sounds and filter out background noise. When we lose hearing in one ear, this natural system is disrupted.
Think about trying to listen to someone at a restaurant. With two working ears, your brain can focus on the person speaking while reducing the clatter of dishes and other conversations. With single-sided hearing loss, this becomes much more difficult. The brain no longer receives balanced input from both ears, making it harder to separate speech from background noise.
The challenges of single-sided hearing loss extend beyond just hearing difficulty. In social settings, you might miss parts of conversations when someone speaks from your affected side. During meetings or group dinners, following multiple speakers becomes exhausting as your brain works harder to process sound with just one ear. Even walking down a busy street can feel less secure when you can't tell which direction traffic sounds are coming from.
Common daily challenges include:
These challenges often lead people to withdraw from social situations or avoid certain activities. However, with proper treatment and support, many of these difficulties can be effectively managed. Our mobile audiology service allows us to evaluate these challenges in your actual living and working environments, leading to more targeted and effective solutions.
Today's technology offers several effective solutions for managing single-sided hearing loss. Here are the primary treatment options we offer:
The Contralateral Routing of Signal (CROS) system is designed specifically for people with single-sided hearing loss. A CROS system consists of two devices - a transmitter worn on the non-hearing ear and a receiver worn on the hearing ear. The transmitter picks up sounds from the non-hearing side and sends them wirelessly to the receiver, allowing the person to hear sounds from both sides using their good ear.
The Phonak Infinio CROS represents the latest advancement in CROS technology. This system offers:
For individuals who have profound hearing loss in one ear and some degree of hearing loss in their better ear, a BiCROS system might be more appropriate. Similar to a CROS system, BiCROS also amplifies sounds for the better-hearing ear while routing sounds from the non-hearing side.
Bone conduction devices work by transmitting sound through the skull bone directly to the inner ear of the hearing side. These devices can be:
This option might be particularly suitable for those who cannot wear traditional hearing aids or prefer not to have devices in their ears.
Managing single-sided hearing loss requires more than just selecting a device - it demands expert guidance and ongoing support tailored to your specific needs. Our mobile audiology service transforms the traditional hearing care experience by bringing professional expertise directly to your home.
Instead of testing your hearing in an artificially quiet clinic booth, we evaluate your hearing in the place where it matters most - your home. This unique approach allows us to understand exactly how single-sided hearing loss impacts your daily life. We can test how well you hear in your living room, kitchen, or home office, providing insights that simply aren't possible in a traditional clinic setting.
Our audiologists take time to understand your unique listening needs by observing your actual living space and daily routines. We consider:
Every hearing solution we offer comes with a 45-day trial period. Unlike traditional clinics where you might only test devices briefly in an office, you can experience how your CROS system or other hearing solution performs in real situations:
Our mobile service eliminates the need to travel for adjustments or maintenance. We provide comprehensive support including:
For example, if you notice your CROS system isn't performing optimally during dinner conversations, we can visit and adjust the settings while you sit at your actual dining table. This real-world approach to hearing care ensures your devices work perfectly in the situations that matter most to you.
Early intervention for single-sided hearing loss can help prevent associated complications such as:
The journey to better hearing begins with a comprehensive evaluation. Our mobile audiology service makes this first step convenient and comfortable. We bring our expertise directly to your home, where we can:
If you or a loved one is experiencing single-sided hearing loss, we encourage you to schedule an in-home consultation with one of our experienced audiologists. Our team serves communities throughout New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, and Connecticut, bringing professional hearing healthcare directly to your door. Contact us at (201) 731-8828 to schedule your appointment and take the first step toward better hearing.
