When an audiologist encounters someone with what is referred to as a “dead ear,” it makes it very difficult to help that person with standard amplification. A dead ear essentially means that there is no usable hearing in that ear, so no hearing aid would provide any degree of help. This could be caused by damage anywhere within the auditory pathway from the middle ear space to the auditory cortex. This is very difficult for a person to deal with as you have to make an effort to keep everyone talking to you on the side of your better ear.
The only option for an audiologist to help that person is to fit them with what is called a Cros or a BiCros hearing aid. In this case, the patient wears a transmitter on the dead ear, which looks exactly like a hearing aid, except it does not have an amplifier or a receiver. The transmitter simply takes in any sounds and transfers them to the hearing aid or device that is worn on the other ear. The hearing aid is worn on the side where the patient has usable hearing. The side with usable hearing could be normal hearing and not amplifying any of the sounds, or in the case of fitting a BiCros, that ear also has some degree of hearing loss. Many years ago, these devices were wired so the patient would have a wire behind their head that went between the two devices. As technology has improved and everything has become digital, they have become wireless. In the past, it was also the case that not all hearing aid manufacturers offered this technology, but it is becoming more widely available.
I do present this option with caution as, historically, these devices are difficult for some people to adjust to, and fitting them on anyone with a mental health diagnosis or declining cognition may cause more challenges. That being said, there are people who have worn this type of device for many years, and their brains have become accustomed to hearing this way. Other options are available to people who do not benefit from a hearing aid but require surgery. Those options would be a cochlear implant or a bone-anchored hearing device. Stay tuned to hear about these in future articles!
