hearing aid for one-sided hearing loss - opinions please

[Teresa]

Has anyone has any experience with a Baha hearing aid for one-sided hearing loss?

How about a CROS (Contralateral Routing Of Signals) hearing aid?

The Baha is surgically implanted with an external 'hearing aid' attached to your head (under your hair - if you have it - grin) - about the size of a standard postage stamp and about 1/4" thick. I think they only come in black.

The CROSS is a behind the earS hearing aid system. One side (the non-hearing side) is a microphone (sophisticated, of course) that picks up sounds from that side of the head and transmits them wirelessly to the other side. Both sides have what appear to be outside the ear hearing aids (on a hook that tucks behind the ear). The aid on the 'good side' is the receiver. This way you're hearing things from both sides of your head with the 'good ear'.

Other than not getting something at all, these are my only true options right now. A 'regular' hearing aid will not help me. So if any of you have any personal experience with either of these I would appreciate hearing about it.

Thanks!

 

[MULTIZ321]

Teresa,

As you are aware, but many Tug readers probably aren't, is that BAHA is an acronym for Bone-Anchored Hearing Aid. BAHA is a semi-implantable device that relies on direct bone-conducted transmission of the vibrations via the skull to the inner ears. An internal titanium fixture is surgically anchored to the mastoid bone behind the hearing-impaired external ear. An external abutment is connected to the implant at the time of surgery. After a relatively short healing time - to allow for osseointegration to occur (the process of titanium-bone bonding) - an external sound processor is snapped onto the abutment. The sound processor is available in two different models - a head-level model and a more powerful body-level processor that is used for patients with more severe hearing loss in the "good" ear.

Since getting a BAHA involves surgery - there are always surgical risks to weigh. The risks are minimal but you should discuss this with your ENT surgeon. If you are seriously considering going the BAHA route, I would also discuss with your Audiologist/ENT team the possibility of using a temporary BAHA device (it's non-implantable and held in place with a headband) to get an idea about derived benefits.

The other option you mentioned is a CROS-type hearing aid. CROS is an acronym for Contralateral Routing of Signal. Technical advances have been made with digital hearing aids and there are some newer model digital hearing aids employing CROS technology. Another potential option, if you wear glasses, is to get an Eyeglass CROS hearing aid with the hearing aid components enclosed in the temple-pieces of the eyeglass frames. A small piece of clear tubing would extend from the frame and go into the "good ear" earcanal. I would discuss these options with your Audiologist.

If you want a second opinion, the Audiology Department of Cleveland Clinic
is an excellent resource.

As you know, if hearing in your "good" ear is normal, in many situations you will do fine without a hearing aid. Your ability to tell where sound is coming from (localization) will be impaired - and probably most noticeable with telling where a emergency vehicle siren is located or someone calling you from behind - are they on your left or right? Also, noisy situations when the speaker is on your bad side will be difficult. If you think that in most situations in your daily activities you hear ok - then I wouldn't do anything.

If you're having a lot of trouble hearing in various situations and want to try to improve your hearing, my preference would be a CROS-type hearing aid.

For more info see The BAHA (Bone-Anchored Hearing Aid)- http://www.american-hearing.org/disorders/hearing/baha.html

Good luck,

Richard

 

[Teresa]

I am currently working with the Cleveland Clinic auditory department already and they have explained most of what you wrote but it certainly is an education for other tuggers. Fascinating stuff - no?

I'm leaning toward the CROS right now as it's not surgery and I'm under the impression that if my hearing in my good ear starts to go (with age or otherwise) then the 'signal' that is sent with the BAHA is going to only be as good as the hearing in my 'good' ear. With the CROS system, if I need a hearing aid for my 'good' ear, the hearing aid will pick up what my 'bad' ear is getting (actually the microphone by my bad ear) and it will be routed through the hearing aid on the 'better' ear. At least that's how I understand it.

In the end, they will cost about the same out-of-pocket. Insurance will pay for the surgery and 'equipment' for the BAHA that is in my head. BUT I have a high deductible on my insurance so the cost of the deductible is about the same as the cost of the CROS system (which insurance will not pay for).

Staying with what I have (nothing) isn't going to work for me very well. Even though my good ear is nearly perfect in the being-able-to-hear category, I miss out on a LOT of stuff because I can't hear with the 'bad' ear. I often have to say 'what?' and when I get tired of that - and/or people get tired of hearing it - then I ended up missing out. I can't tell, sometimes, if someone is asking me a question, they're telling me my daughter is beautiful, or the price of pork chops is good today (obviously, I would be standing by the meat counter for this mix to occur). I can stand there and try to decipher it or say 'what?' - but that gets old really fast. I have often told people I have a hearing problem so please speak into my good ear and that helps. It's hard to imagine that one good ear and one bad ear makes hearing so difficult. One good ear should do it - right? Sadly, it doesn't.

My mother-in-law can't hear very well. She refuses to use hearing aids (she has them). I have seen her shut down while everyone else is having a lively conversation. I don't want to do that.

The CROS system tends to be quite a bit more visible - it appears as two hearing aids hooked onto the ears (one on each side of course). The BAHA is a small 'snap-on' aid that is usually behind your ear in your skull and your hair would cover it up for the most part. The audiologist said that now that alot of people are wearing their phone on their ears all the time, either one would sorta blend in with the culture.

Both can't get wet (Heaven forbid if someone decided to throw you in a pool). Both are operated with hearing aid batteries.

I've read stuff on both of them and they each have advantages with the BAHA having most. But that is the explanation of how they work. I was hoping to 'hear' (grin) from people who have actually used them.

Some of the stuff I've read says that more people who have tried both preferred the BAHA. They've tried both because they started out with the CROS and then went with the BAHA (mostly because of the 'visibility' of the CROS). BUT people don't start with the BAHA and go the other way. The BAHA is pretty permanent! I wonder how happy the BAHA people will be in a few years when their good ear stops being as good as it is. That's my biggest concern. Having a 'permanent solution' that becomes worth less because my hearing in the good ear declines scares me. After all, if you decided to go with something else (because your hearing in the good ear got bad), you'd still have this 'snap' sticking out of your skull. A little Frankenstein-ish for me.

 

[granpabush]

Teresa, I have one good ear but it still requires a hearing aid. To releave some of the tension from being hearing impaird I thought of purchasing "TV ears". I am driving my wife a little batty with the lourd TV sound, in your investigations have you seen any comments on these? Would appreciate knowing if you have.

dick

 

[wackymother]

Teresa, I'm sure you've discussed this with your doctors...my MIL (she has hearing loss in both ears) has fairly new digital hearing aids where one is the "master" and it channels sound to the other hearing aid.

I don't really know how this works, but could you possibly get a set of hearing aids like this and then the master would collect sound in the bad ear and "send" it to the good ear for processing?

 

[granpabush]

Do you know the name of the hearing aid maker?

 

[wackymother]

Do you know the name of the hearing aid maker?

I don't, I'm sorry. I'll try to remember to ask her. She got them at HearEx and it took quite a while to get the master to work properly. It had to go back to the factory a couple of times.

 

[Hophop4]

This is an interesting topic. I have never heard of BAHA. Is this something new. Is it like a Cochlear Implant. My son has been hearing impaired since he was a baby and had a Cochlear Implant done about 4 years ago. He wears the processor on the profound ear and a hearing aid in the severe ear. During surgery they implant a magnet and when he wears the processor, it has a wire that you put on the magnet and it stimulates the sound. Interesting technology.

 

[pedro47]

How much hearing loss is recommend for this device?

 

[MULTIZ321]

I am currently working with the Cleveland Clinic auditory department already and they have explained most of what you wrote but it certainly is an education for other tuggers. Fascinating stuff - no?

Very fascinating. You're in good hands with the Cleveland Clinic Audiology & ENT staff.

I'm leaning toward the CROS right now as it's not surgery and I'm under the impression that if my hearing in my good ear starts to go (with age or otherwise) then the 'signal' that is sent with the BAHA is going to only be as good as the hearing in my 'good' ear. With the CROS system, if I need a hearing aid for my 'good' ear, the hearing aid will pick up what my 'bad' ear is getting (actually the microphone by my bad ear) and it will be routed through the hearing aid on the 'better' ear. At least that's how I understand it.

For clarification - a CROS hearing aid is used when someone has a "dead ear" and a "good ear" which has essentially normal hearing. When the "good ear" has some hearing loss, then a variation-on-a-theme is used - a BICROS hearing aid is recommended. The "dead ear" has the transmitter/microphone unit and the "good ear" has a combination hearing aid/receiver unit. The "good ear" unit is either an in-the-ear style hearing aid which is custom-made or alternatively is a behind-the-ear style hearing aid which is connected to an earmold that is placed in the "good ear". The "dead ear" unit is usually connected to an earmold for retention purposes. Alternatively, sometimes a stem-piece rather than an earmold is used for retention which connects to the ear-hook (elbow) of the behind-the-ear transmitter unit that is worn behind the "dead ear". When a BICROS hearing aid is used, sometimes the user choses just to use the hearing aid monaurally in the "good ear" and at other times use both the hearing aid and transmitter unit together.

Staying with what I have (nothing) isn't going to work for me very well. Even though my good ear is nearly perfect in the being-able-to-hear category, I miss out on a LOT of stuff because I can't hear with the 'bad' ear. I often have to say 'what?' and when I get tired of that - and/or people get tired of hearing it - then I ended up missing out. I can't tell, sometimes, if someone is asking me a question, they're telling me my daughter is beautiful, or the price of pork chops is good today (obviously, I would be standing by the meat counter for this mix to occur). I can stand there and try to decipher it or say 'what?' - but that gets old really fast. I have often told people I have a hearing problem so please speak into my good ear and that helps. It's hard to imagine that one good ear and one bad ear makes hearing so difficult. One good ear should do it - right? Sadly, it doesn't.

I understand your frustrations. As you know, maximum use of environmental adjustments such as putting the speaker on your good side lessens the handicapping impact. Keep in mind whichever choice you make - either BAHA or CROS - normal hearing won't be restored. You will still miss things - only less than without the BAHA or CROS (BICROS) hearing aid. In my experience, many CROS hearing-aid users stopped using the unit or returned the hearing aid for credit because they didn't think the cost involved was worth the derived benefits. Since this is such an individual decision, I think you best initial choice is to pursue the CROS option.

The CROS system tends to be quite a bit more visible - it appears as two hearing aids hooked onto the ears (one on each side of course).

Keep in mind that another option is an Eyeglass CROS hearing aid. Plain lenses can be used if you don't use glasses. The CROS hearing aid components are built into the temple-pieces of the glasses and a piece of clear tubing is attached to the "good ear" temple-piece and is routed into the good earcanal. The Eyeglass option is somewhat more expensive than the ear-level/behind-the-ear CROS option. Cosmetically, some patients prefer the Eyeglass option.

If you decide to pursue the CROS hearing aid option, make sure to ask your
Audiologist what your return privileges are.

I've read stuff on both of them and they each have advantages with the BAHA having most. But that is the explanation of how they work. I was hoping to 'hear' (grin) from people who have actually used them.

Consider giving your Audiologist permission to have some of their BAHA patients contact you (either by phone or email). If you do so, make sure to have some of the BAHA patients have the same condition you do. As you know, BAHA is also implanted for other conditions than profound unilateral sensorineural hearing loss (e.g., chronic ear infection with draining ear) - and you want to compare apples to apples.

Richard

 

[MULTIZ321]

Teresa, I have one good ear but it still requires a hearing aid. To releave some of the tension from being hearing impaird I thought of purchasing "TV ears". I am driving my wife a little batty with the lourd TV sound, in your investigations have you seen any comments on these? Would appreciate knowing if you have.

dick

Granpabush,

I'm not Teresa, but I thought I'd reply with some information. "TV ears" work great. They are also called marriage savers. TV Ears uses 95kHz wireless technology to transmit sound from your TV to your battery-powered headset. You control TV volume, for you, with a headset volume control. If your wife is watching TV along with you, she can control TV volume from the TV with your remote control. Even if she's not watching along with you, the TV volume can be lowered and you adjust volume for comfort from your headset. The headset batteries are rechargeable - usually the infrared transmitter which is connected to your TV set also doubles as a recharger. You have two batteries which you rotate (it can't be overcharged). TV Ears is one of the more popular infrared TV assistive listening devices. There are other manufacturers that make units also.

Be aware that if you have a Plasma-screen Television - TV Ears won't work with that type of TV due to 95kHz interference from the TV module. In that case, you would have to find a TV assistive listening device that uses 2.3 or 2.8MHz in both the transmitter and the receiver.

Good luck,

Richard

 

[MULTIZ321]

Teresa, I'm sure you've discussed this with your doctors...my MIL (she has hearing loss in both ears) has fairly new digital hearing aids where one is the "master" and it channels sound to the other hearing aid.

I don't really know how this works, but could you possibly get a set of hearing aids like this and then the master would collect sound in the bad ear and "send" it to the good ear for processing?

Wackymother,

The type of technology you are describing is different from CROS/BICROS hearing aids and would not be appropriate for Teresa.

I'm sure your MIL is happy it was finally adjusted properly.

Richard

 

[MULTIZ321]

This is an interesting topic. I have never heard of BAHA. Is this something new. Is it like a Cochlear Implant. My son has been hearing impaired since he was a baby and had a Cochlear Implant done about 4 years ago. He wears the processor on the profound ear and a hearing aid in the severe ear. During surgery they implant a magnet and when he wears the processor, it has a wire that you put on the magnet and it stimulates the sound. Interesting technology.

Hi Hophop4,

BAHA is relatively new - being developed over the past 10 years. It's not like a Cochlear Implant at all. Cochlear Implants use tiny electrodes planted within the Cochlea to stimulate the auditory nerve. The BAHA uses bone-conduction (skull vibrations) to stimulate each Cochlea and each Auditory Nerve.

Unlike hearing aids, the cochlear implant does not amplify sound, but works by directly stimulating any functioning auditory nerves inside the cochlea with an electric field. External components of the cochlear implant include a microphone, a speech processor, and an RF transducer or primary headpiece coil. A secondary coil is implanted beneath the skull's skin and inductively coupled to the primary headpiece coil. The headpiece coil has a magnet by which it attaches to another magnet placed on the secondary coil often beside the cochlear implant. The implant relays the incoming signal to the implanted electrodes in the cochlea. The speech processor allows an individual to adjust the sensitivity of the device.

You're right - this is truly amazing technology with fantastic improvements in the newest devices, especially the speech processor.


Best regards,

Richard

 

[MULTIZ321]

How much hearing loss is recommend for this device?

Not sure which device you're referring to.


Richard

 

[Teresa]

Thanks for all the comments

I've been following this thread and appreciate all the advice and opinions.

Just for some background.

I do have a 'dead ear' and a 'good ear'. The dead ear hears in 'Martian' (squeaky and garbled) if a sound/word is very loud. In the hearing test I had, I got 4 words right out of 25 (the tester says the words and I have to repeat back). The good ear is 'nearly perfect'.

I have an acoustic neuroma (benign brain tumor) and it was 'stopped' back in July, 2008 with Gammaknife surgery. It uses 102 'laser beams' targeted at the tumor to stop its growth. Very interesting stuff. I opted for that instead of actual brain surgery. Gammaknife is an outpatient treatment for certain kinds of brain tumors and other 'brain conditions'. Except for the horrendous headache I had for about 3 hours after the procedure from the frame they screwed to my head with four screws, I didn't have any recovery period at all from the 'surgery'. Compare that to actual brain surgery for an acoustic neuroma - opening your skull, snipping your balance nerve (and not putting it back together), removing the tumor (if they can get all of it), putting you back together again and then 3-9 months of recovery time that includes physical therapy and perhaps some occupational therapy. I thought the decision was a 'no-brainer' (GRIN). I am supposed to get yearly follow-up MRIs to make sure the tumor is not growing. So far, so good. I will always have the tumor - it just is not growing anymore. My joke here is that I have an excuse for when I do some 'hare-brained' thing. Hey - brain tumor.

The tumor crushed my 'auditory nerve' (probably not the technical term). The doctor compared it to a copper pipe being run over by a car. The pipe doesn't spring back into shape after it's been crushed but the car is moved off of it - so the nerve won't either.

The not-being-able-to-hear on my left side is frustrating. Topping that is that there is ringing in that ear (a typical symptom of an acoustic neuroma). Sometimes it is a constant buzz. Sometimes there is a pulsing (volume and wave) to it. Sometimes I get an English Police Siren. Hearing aids (even these CROS and BAHA aids) will not make that go away. I sometimes think that if THAT (tinnitus) wasn't going on, my other ear could do a better job for both sides of my head.

I'm a little surprised that there isn't at least one tugger or someone a tugger knows who has one of these two types of hearing aids. The Cleveland Clinic audiologist made it sound a little more 'common' that it might be.

For those of you who would like to see more about the BAHA go here:

http://www.umm.edu/otolaryngology/baha.htm

For CROS information go here:

http://www.nchearingloss.org/bicros.htm?fromncshhh

You can also just do a search on BAHA and CROS (add 'hearing' to narrow it down).

 

[MaryMary]

Hello Teresa,
If your auditory nerve (that is what it is called, also called the 8th cranial nerve) in your poor ear is damaged and the clarity of sound is so adversly effected, you are in fact NOT a candidate for a BAHA. A BAHA is intended for an ear with a conductive hearing loss (ie. a problem with the middle ear) but whose auditory nerve is intact or at least mostly intact.

If your hearing loss is caused by severe damage to the auditory nerve, i would NOT opt for the BAHA as it would be competely useless but rather for the CROS system.
As Richard mentions, if you'd like to see for yourself, you can probably ask your audiologist to let you try out a 'temporary BAHA' or the bone vibrator on the headband.
All the best, Mry

 

[MULTIZ321]

Hello Teresa,
If your auditory nerve (that is what it is called, also called the 8th cranial nerve) in your poor ear is damaged and the clarity of sound is so adversly effected, you are in fact NOT a candidate for a BAHA. A BAHA is intended for an ear with a conductive hearing loss (ie. a problem with the middle ear) but whose auditory nerve is intact or at least mostly intact.

Mary,

That's not accurate. What you stated applies to the previous protocols for BAHA candidacy. Unilateral sensorineural hearing loss is now in the potential candidacy group for BAHA. For more information, see the BAHA link in post #2 of this thread. For further reading, see the Wazen et al. references at the end of the link.

I agree the CROS option is the best choice for Teresa.

Best regards,

Richard

 

[MaryMary]

I apologize for the confusion, RIchard you are correct, i read up on the link you reffered to and in fact the BAHA is recommended for people with single side deafness. With significant success too apparently! In all the years that i have been working with people with hearing loss i have never heard of this as an option, you will forgive my outdated information, i hope. This is a recent developpment i presume (after 2002?). One more question then: Given the greater success of the BAHA over the CROS in the Wazen studies then, why would the CROS still be the preffered choice then? Less invasive?

 

[MULTIZ321]

I apologize for the confusion, RIchard you are correct, i read up on the link you reffered to and in fact the BAHA is recommended for people with single side deafness. With significant success too apparently! In all the years that i have been working with people with hearing loss i have never heard of this as an option, you will forgive my outdated information, i hope. This is a recent developpment i presume (after 2002?). One more question then: Given the greater success of the BAHA over the CROS in the Wazen studies then, why would the CROS still be the preffered choice then? Less invasive?

Mary,

No problem. This is a relatively new development and not everyone agrees that a surgical procedure is the optimal way to go. Either choice has pros and cons. Less invasive would be a big consideration. Cros would be my choice.


Richard