It’s not uncommon for someone who has suffered a major stroke to be left with paralysis on one side of their body.
But none of us would have the audacity to say to that person, “Why can’t you function normally? After all, half of your body still works just fine.”
We may chuckle a bit at the sheer ridiculousness of such a suggestion because we understand that if one half of the body is broken, it directly affects the other healthy half.
The same goes for our hearing.
Just because you happen to be deaf in one ear while maintaining perfect hearing in the other doesn’t mean you aren’t experiencing major hindrances in your day to day life.
In fact, you may be one of the 60,000 Americans who are suffering from what is known as 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 sounds they want to hear, and they can’t hear from one side – making it difficult to locate sounds.
And as you might expect, SSD can lead to problems at work and at home.
One study revealed that 24 percent of people with SSD had to give up work while many others reported feelings of social isolation and exclusion.
And while there is no cure for SSD, there are options available to help those who suffer from it.
One of those potential solutions is called a CROS hearing aid. CROS is an acronym, which stand for Contralateral Routing of Offside Signals.
The CROS system wirelessly transmits 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.
With the increased demands on communication skills in modern society, many everyday communication situations are made easier with a CROS.
This allows the user to participate in a conversation without the concern of missing out on anything.
So, if you are struggling with Single Sided Deafness, don’t wait another day. Come in and see if we might be able to help change your life in a way you didn’t know was possible.
We refuse to settle for less than the best and we hope you will do the same.
