What Is a Bi-Cross Hearing Aid Used For?

Hearing loss affects millions of people around the world. Hearing aids are the least invasive and most commonly chosen treatment option. Deafness presents a different set of obstacles; most hearing aids are ineffective because the nerves of the ear have died. In the 1960s, hearing aid manufacturers developed a hearing aid for people who were deaf in one ear. Bi-cross technology helps some people overcome the obstacle of single-sided deafness.

Purpose

• A bi-cross hearing-aid is intended for a person with deafness in one ear and normal hearing in their other ear. Single-sided deafness takes away your ability to locate sounds. You can no longer hear conversation on both sides. You’re forced to turn your head to hear someone on your deaf side.

Parts

• A bi-cross hearing aid consists of a hearing aid--containing only a microphone--placed behind or in your deaf ear and a hearing aid containing only a receiver placed in your normal hearing ear.

Function

• Bi-cross hearing aids are either wired or wireless. The signal picked up by the hearing aid microphone in your deaf ear must be routed over to your other ear. This is done using either a thin wire, which hangs behind your neck, or wirelessly with an FM receiver.

Benefits

• The hearing aid in your ear with normal hearing is designed to barely fill your ear canal and allows you to hear normally through that ear. When someone speaks on your deaf side, the microphone in the deaf ear transmits sound through the receiver in your normal ear.

More help

• Some bi-cross hearing aids have amplification for people with hearing loss in their better ear. Sound entering the microphone in the deaf ear is routed through an amplifier in the better ear before coming out of the receiver.