Single Sided Deafness

Single sided deafness (SSD), or significant hearing loss in one ear, affects 60,000 people each year in the United States alone

What is Single Sided Deafness? 

Single Sided Deafness (SSD) involves significant damage to hearing in one ear. People with SSD can have trouble understanding speech because they can’t separate background noise from the noise they want to hear and they can’t hear from one side – making it difficult to locate sounds.

Is there a cure for Single Sided Deafness?

While there is no cure for SSD, there are options available to help those who suffer from it.

Here are three common solutions:

CROS: Widex CROS systems wirelessly transmit sound from the deaf ear to the better ear via a transmitter, which is placed behind the deaf ear. The transmitter picks up sound and wirelessly transmits it to a receiver hearing aid on the normal-hearing ear. This solution is discreet and requires a non-invasive fitting procedure.

BiCROS: BiCROS is similar to CROS, but is made for those who are deaf in one ear and hearing impaired in the other ear.  Here, the receiver hearing aid also amplifies sound on the better ear, so that it matches the degree of hearing loss in this ear.

BAHA: The BAHA system is a semi-implantable bone-anchored hearing device.This is installed via a surgical procedure and is more visible than wireless CROS or BiCROS systems.

How do CROS and BiCROS systems help people with Single Sided Deafness?

CROS and BiCROS system help people with SSD to better locate sounds and distinguish in background noise. In a recent Widex study, researchers found that the specific situations in which the test subjects rated the improvement with CROS to be the most significant when following a conversation in the presence of background noise, when having a conversation while driving a car and when participating in a group conversation.