Q&A

Subject: One deaf ear
From B: AOL.com

My 11 year old son is totally deaf in his left ear and has normal hearing in his right. The Doctor says that there is a hearing aid which can be placed in his left ear and the noise is transferred to the right ear so he can hear what's happening on the left side. Could you provide me with more information about this type of hearing aid? Please provide some pricing info also. Thank you.

The hearing aid you are talking about is called a "CROSS" aid. You put the hearing aid in the poor ear and it transmits the sound to the good ear by radio. You put a hearing aid in the good ear that is really just a radio receiver. The price ranges from $700 to $1200 depending on features.

There are problems with even partially blocking the sound going into the good ear, so sometimes the receiving aid is put behind the good ear with just a tube going down into the ear.

This type of system will allow your son to hear sounds coming from his bad side, but he still won't get any direction information. Everything will seem to be on his good side.

Good luck. Solveig