Can Cross-Over Hearing Aides Help?

For those who wear hearing aids; do you use cross-over aides?

My ENT has recommended I get Phonack Cross-over hearing aids. His “theory” is since I have little hearing with very bad word recognition in my left ear, the aides will “cross-over” the sound to the good ear, bypassing my bad ear. The good ear will be amplified and the bad ear will be out if the picture. Most of my Tinnitus is associated with the bad left ear. He feels this will give my bad ear a rest and therefore it might indirectly help the tinnitus. Who knows?

At the very least, I will have better hearing in my right ear & keep the static I do hear in my left ear out of the picture. I hope I explained it correctly or even close. It’s definitely over my head. LOL

 

I have no idea what cross over hearing aids are but I have been trialing hearing aids for about a month and so far they have helped a lot with my tinnitus. Just having more external inupt coming into my ears is helping lessen the intensity of the tinnitus. The tinnitus maskers help as well.

Cross over or not, hearing aids should help most folks with tinnitus + bad hearing loss. If your hearing loss is mild then YMMV and it may not help as much.

Regardless you can trial all hearing aids for 1-2 months prior to purchase so it doesn't hurt to try to see if it helps.

 

@Rio80
I do wear regular bilateral hearing aides with a Tinnitus masker. They do help of course, but I’m looking for a better solution.

Yes! Always a great idea to ask for a trial period with hearing aides. In my area (I have tried 4 hearing aids establishments so far) they generally give a 30-60 day trial period but if you return them, you do NOT get your 10% refund back. For instance on a pair of $4000 aides, that’s $400. Not the worst thing, but still stings.

I thought I described “Cross-Over” technology just perfectly. LOL .. just kidding.

I think it only works when one ear is substantially worse than the other & the good ear has a certain maximum hearing loss. In my case I have 30 % loss in my good ear so I qualify. I also have good word recognition in my better ear.

The hearing aids are programmed to cross over the sound from the bad ear to the better ear. You are using just the one good ear, but it not the same as wearing just one hearing aid. It’s a bit tekkie, so I’m sure I’m not describing it perfectly. I guess googling it would help.