Can CROS hearing aids help you hear better in a noisy restaurant?
Koorosh Nejad- 2 days ago
- 5 min read
The short answer is no, but there may be a trick to improve its use in noisy environments. I helped a few patients with single-sided deafness (SSD) in the past few weeks. We discussed their needs and wants in CROS hearing aids. This article summarises the benefits and shortfalls of CROS and biCROS hearing aids for people with single-sided deafness (SSD).
Note: Please learn more about CROS and biCROS hearing aids in this article.
What type of people are the best candidates for CROS fitting?
A CROS fitting is for patients who have lost all hearing in one ear, but the hearing in the other ear is excellent. Such deafness is not due to ageing. It can be caused by an accident, a severe infection in one ear, idiopathic sensorineural deafness, autoimmune disease, a Schwannoma, or other health issues. Often the drop on one side is rapid, i.e. over 90 days.
Does CROS fitting restore hearing in the deaf ear?
No. The CROS fitting does not restore hearing to the deaf ear.
How do CROS fitting hearing aids help people with one-sided deafness?
A CROS hearing aid does not restore hearing to the deaf ear. A transmitted hearing aid will be placed on the deaf ear to receive the sound on the deaf side and send it in real time to the good ear. The sound is then presented to the good ear. So the good ear will hear the sound on both sides. Such a set-up helps the patient with a sense of direction. For example, it can help the patient who is in a group to also attend to the calls and conversations happening on the deaf side. A good example is that the patient can communicate better with people on the left and the right side when sitting at a round table. He or she does not have to turn around to the person on the deaf side to hear them.
Can CROS hearing aids help you hear better in a noisy restaurant?
Not really. The CROS hearing aids will be fitted with open domes on both sides. This way, the patient is still able to hear the sound naturally in the good ear. For the hearing aid to be able to help hear speech better in a noisy environment, the fitting of the aid needs to be a closed fitting. This is often how I fit a biCROS hearing aid. In a biCROS setting, however, the better ear has some degree of hearing loss, so I often fit that ear with a closed or power dome so the hearing aid can help manage noise for the patient. I need to emphasise that the CROS transmitter is simply a transmitter; it has no processing ability to reduce or filter noise.
Can biCROS hearing aids help you hear better in a noisy restaurant?
Yes, A biCROS hearing aid is often fitted with a closed or power dome on the better ear. This enables the hearing aid to filter noise and improve speech intelligibility. Since a biCROS fitting is not a binaural fitting, the biCROS is not able to do directionality and beam focus. For this reason, the SNR improvement of a biCROS will never be as high as a binaural fitting. My best advice for those looking for a biCOS setting is to consider AI-DNN driven biCROS hearing aids. The new models of biCROS can do a better job of controlling noise through AI-DNN processing.
What are the benefits and constraints of a CROS hearing aid?
The Pros and Cons of CROS hearing aids are:
Pros
Better spatial hearing
Better sense of direction
Used for streaming and hands-free calls
Cons
Cannot help with noise management or speech intelligibility (unless fitted in biCROS)
Is there any way to hear better with CROS hearing aids in noisy environments?
There is one. The best technique to hear speech better in a noisy restaurant with CROS hearing aids is to replace the open fitting on the good ear with a closed fitting. This would allow the hearing aid to do a better job in noise management. In such a case, the fitting is just like a biCROS setting. The compromise is that you might hear your voice louder (called occlusion). Such a setting can be used in noisy places, but not all the time. Ask your audiologist to set up a specific program on your hearing aids for such situations so you can choose when in a noisy environment. Remember that besides switching the setting through your hearing aid app, you also need to replace your open dome with a closed dome. If the occlusion does not bother you much, you can also keep the close-fitting setting as the default. This option may need a couple of visits to your audiologist, but I believe it is worth it.
Can I hear better with higher technology level CROS hearing aids in noisy environments? What about a biCROS fitting?
The ability of the aid on the good ear to control the noise in a CROS setting is parallelised due to the good ear will be fitted with an open dome. However, other aspects of the hearing aid, such as its ability to control the wind noise, echo and reverb and so on, are often better as you pick a higher-level technology hearing aid.
This is more important in a biCROS fitting as the ability of the aid in the better ear in controlling noise is more critical in a noisy space.
Should I go for rechargeable CROS/biCROS or rechargeable?
In a CROS and biCROS fitting, the hearing aids are constantly in communication, so the rate of battery consumption is much higher than a normal binaural fitting. Here is some of my best advice for users considering CROS and biCROS fitting
If you expect a lot of hands-free calls and streaming, you'd better consider battery-powered CROS and biCROS models.
If you insist on rechargeable CROS and biCROS hearing aids, then make sure that you pick the ones with long battery life to start on a 5-year or longer warranty. Also, better buy a portable power-pack charger for your CROS hearing aids so you can charge them on the go if/when needed.
What are the best battery-powered CROS and biCROS hearing aids?
My vote for battery-powered CROS/biCROS goes to:
Starkey Edge AI 24 RIC 312 CROS/biCROS (312 battery powered)
What are the best rechargeable CROS and biCROS hearing aids?
My vote for a rechargeable CROS/biCROS goes to:
Starkey Edge AI 24 RT RIC CROS/biCROS (50 hours run time, AI and DNN)
Signia Pure Charge and Go BCT 7IX (36 hours run time, Classic Bluetooth, best for Android mobile phones)
Both above hearing aids have long rechargeable battery run times and superior noise management.
Do CROS and biCROS aids come in in-the-canal ITC/ITE form?
No. At the moment, none of the manufacturers offer IIC, CIC or ITC/ITE hearing aids with CROS or biCROS fitting. Please see our CROS and biCROS hearing aid collection here.
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Nice article, helped me to assess my options for CROS hearing aids.