A small percentage of clients only have single sided deafness (SSD). Unfortunately this is not enough to just justify high investment into providing improved solutions for this particular problem.

There are three main difficulties with SSD.

1. Localisation of sounds - using just the one ear makes it difficult to know where sounds have come from.

2. The head shadow effect - low frequency sounds can travel around the head, high frequency sounds are shielded. This makes it difficult to hear people clearly from the deaf side because high frequency sounds in speech dictate clarity (the consonants which start and end words). This is particularly noticeable in meetings for example.

3. Speech in noise - the brain has an amazing ability to suppress out unwanted sounds, but it can only do this when listening in stereo. With only the one ear, this is impossible.

SSD can be very frustrating but there are some solutions. Please see these links for more information:

(Prices on application)

CROS / BICROS Wifi by Unitron

TRANSEAR by Puretone

(Please note that Puretone charge a cancellation fee on all hearing aids - this amount will be agreed if necessary at the time of sale)

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