I have an elderly relative who is getting very hard of hearing. We call her mom. Or, MOM! She is being advised by her Doctors to get something called a BICROS. Does anyone here have any opinion about this device? Her hearing is much worse in one ear than another, but pretty bad in both.
It’s a hearing aid that is designed for situations in which only one ear is truly aidable. As you may know, humans hear in stereo, and single-sided loss greatly impacts our ability to separate speech from background noise . The BiCROS has pickups on the off side to improve the experience of hearing on that side without actually using a second aid.
Hopefully someone with personal experience can hop in.
The hearing in my right ear is so bad that it’s considered not-aid able. My left is better, and I use an in-the-canal device. My audiologist discussed wearing something in my right ear that would transmit to the left aide, but she thought it was not a good idea for me. It also greatly increased the cost.
I have BiCross hearing aids, due to being functionally deaf in one ear. They ARE better than not having hearing on that side. Some of the sound from that side does get transmitted to my good ear, so if someone is walking on my bad side, I’ve got a chance of hearing and understanding what they are saying.
I actually like these hearing aids, and I do hear much better with them on.
The down side: They do not really help in noisy environments. All of the sound you hear is still only coming into the one good ear. They also do not help you locate where sounds are coming from.
Given the choice of having them or not having them, however, I’ll choose having them every time.
J.