How do you know when you need to dump the bad ear and go to Cros/BiCros? What if you can still hear out of bad ear but because of Menieres the word recognition is not great. What is the line your ear gets to that says let’s dump the hearing left in that ear for a Cros aid? Not sure difference on Cros or BiCros?

Totally valid! Thank you for explaining that. That app is certainly a more convenient way of changing volume/programs and definitely gives you that visual reinforcement of the changes made. I didn't even think about the lack of remote support in that situation. They need to get on it!

All great, valid reasons. I just switched someone today from the Phonak Paradise CROS to the Oticon More CROS, primarily for this specific reason -- the app not working.

Great points. I too have been holding out for the Phonak Paradise Cros P. I tried them about a year ago, but without the app control, they were useless, as I suffer from fluctuating hearing loss in my good ear due to Ménière’s disease, which requires having the ability to adjust the hearing aids on the fly.

I was so frustrated with my Phonak Paradise bi-CROS without the phone app that I stopped using the CROS. It seemed that the best features of the Phonak Paradise were impaired by the CROS non-functionality. (Am I making things up? Are some of the attributes of the Paradise hearing aid turned off/neutralized/ineffective when paired with a bi-CROS? My previous aids (before I went single side deaf) were Widex and they spoke to me each time I pushed the button to shift programs. I also could set it with the phone app; and always knew what program I was on. With my Paradise aids I can't tell when/if they have activated the telecoil for hearing loops (and I am a peer coach for hearing loop use). Without a phone app, it is difficult to adjust the volume and I had feedback with the Phonak telecoil setting. I've had it adjusted several times, but wish I could whip out my phone and correct the setting when needed. I am pleased to use a Select microphone in group settings or to focus on voices when there is background noise. Without the bi-CROS my Paradise hearing aid stays charged much longer (with bi-CROS it was under 10 hours on a charge) When the long-promised app finally comes out, I will re-activate the bi-CROS and try again. For now, I am functioning well with one hearing aid in my better ear.

@@kathykeener628 I feel for you.

Unfortunately, your experience far too common, primarily because most general practitioners receive very little in med school when it comes to training on the auditory system. I just saw a patient today (fit her with an Oticon CROS system), who went through this in the spring of this year. She woke up one morning, having lost all her hearing in her left ear. Her GP told her it was an ear infection, arriving at that conclusion without really physically examining her, and wrote her a prescription for anti-biotics -- which do nothing for most causes of SSD, especially if they are virally induced. When a virus causes SSD, it can be treated in a 2-week window with steroids, preferably in the first 48 hours as you indicated. Past that two weeks, it's permanent. One of the key differences between a classic middle ear infection (bacteriological) and an inner ear infection (viral) is the sensation of pain and / or pressure. A middle ear infection manifests with a build up of fluid in the middle ear cavity, which initially causes pressure, which leads to pain. With inner ear infections, neither of these symptoms are present. Thus a GP who knows what they're doing should refer immediately to an ENT examination and, if appropriate, the steroid treatment, if a person experiences SSD without the symptoms of pain or pressure. Cliff needs to do a video specifically on this...

@@sfrink1425 With Ménière’s during a attack and your ear goes deaf should you take steroids to keep that from damaging more hearing then not treating it at all?…

@@2007vwbeetle The cause of decreased hearing due to Meniere's disease and virally-induced hearing loss are very different. The former is believed to be caused by an imbalance (over-production) of endolymph in the inner ear, whereas the latter is due to the virus attacking the inner ear. Steroids are usually used for the treatment of virally-induced hearing loss, but I've never heard of them being used to treat Meniere's. Thus it's actually best to see an ear, nose, and throat doctor for actual appropriate treatment and good medical advice rather than to make assumptions.

@@2007vwbeetle I've never heard of steroids being used to treat a Meniere's attack. I'm not a physician, but in my 29 years in the audiology profession I've never seen it.

@@sfrink1425 you need to look up Prednisone and Menieres because it’s a common practice during a flare up.

For any hearing aid that has it, you would use the "binaural acoustic telephone" feature (BAT) to create the AmpCROS setting. The concept for BAT is that it sends the telephone signal from the side where you're holding the phone to the opposite side, similar to a CROS system, while maintaining stimulation on the telephone side as well. So, you're essentially utilizing this specialized telephone setting to accomplish what a CROS system does--and more. When it comes to programming it, this needs to be done by a licensed audiologist or hearing instrument specialist; it can't and shouldn't be done by the consumer. It also requires two hearing aids, rather than a hearing aid and a transmitter, so if you already have the Signia CROS system, it won't be capable of it. You'd need to get a second Signia hearing aid for the bad ear to replace the transmitter. This is also something that I can't specifically advocate for you since I don't know your full situation and whether it would be the best choice for you. Finally, unfortunately the story you told that your regular physician said there was nothing that could be done for your bad ear due to SSD is far too common, mainly because general practitioners know very little about hearing care. They should refer to a specialist -- audiologist, hearing instrument specialist, or ENT -- when it's outside of their scope of knowledge, but unfortunately many don't.

@@sfrink1425 thank you soo very much for the prompt response and great information!! I also have Starkey Evolv AI hearing aids that has stimulation on the bad ear but not the CROS capability on that ear - however this year I can get new hearing aids and really hoped by this time there was hearing aids or technology available to do exactly what you were discussing... Thanks again

And the doctor who told me nothing could be done was the Otolaryngologist who did the surgery after they found a schwannoma tumor in my ear canal!! He made me go thru radiation that was SUPPOSED to either shrink the tumor or at least keep it from getting bigger and guaranteed my hearing would remain the same but it went from 80% to 16% a week after going thru the radiation!! He first told me the hearing was worse because of the swelling but another week afterwards I couldn't hear anything at all in that ear....

@@tamratepper6535 Sorry for the delayed response. Radiation is for treating / eliminating the tumor in order to prevent worse symptoms from showing up. Often, but not always, it's at the sacrifice of the person's hearing on that side. It's hard to promise a patient that their hearing will recover, so I never would, but the sacrifice is still necessary because the symptoms from the tumor can be get much worse if it goes untreated.

@@sfrink1425 No problem thanks for the reply... And yes I understand that but that doctor definitely guaranteed me that my hearing would stay at the same level in the bad ear even after the radiation - had he explained it better or told me the consequences beforehand I would've been able to research better and not be soo surprised and distraught when it went down... However my main issue with him was that he told me hearing aids wouldn't help me after the radiation when in fact they have tremendously. And thanks again

1. Make sure you have a manual setting for "Speech in Loud Noise." It will reduce inputs outside of a 40 degree angle directly in front of you in order to minimize the effects of noise. 2. You make a good point about dome type. Typically if the hearing in the better ear has thresholds of 40dBHL or better, the patient is "open fit" with non-occluding domes. The is primarily to minimize the effect of plugging the ears in relation to the sound quality of the user's voice. It's especially necessary if those thresholds are better than 20dBHL (generally accepted as the range for normal hearing), but that doesn't mean we couldn't try it if the thresholds are worse than that. We just have to consider the trade-off, which is how your own voice might then sound to you. Some patients can tolerate it, some can't. But your supposition that it might help mitigate the effects of background noise are totally valid.

@@sfrink1425 Dr. Frink, Thank you for your reply and comments. (1) Tried Speech in Loud Noise on Phonak device on busy, noisy but regular street: with person walking & talking on my bad side. Unfortunately unless the person talks very loud & vocally to me, the environmental car and chatter noises cover over the volume of the voice being transmitted into my good ear; so difficult to understand & comprehend what they are saying. Yet if the person is talking on my good side, I can hear and understand them sort of OK. (2) Yes, I have very good hearing in my "normal" ear. I will need to see if my audiologist can try out a closed dome on the Receiver. Or is a semi-closed dome a better option? If you have any other comments or ideas, would be highly appreciated. Thank you.

@@andyf5992 The Speech in Loud Noise setting wouldn't work well on a busy street. It narrows the focus for pick up of the microphones to directly in front of you, a 40 degree field. Thus that's why it wouldn't work well if you're walking down the street and the person it to your left or right. It works great, however, in a noisy restaurant when they are sitting across from you. The P90 product has a "Speech in Car" setting, however, that focuses on where the speech signal is coming from, so if you were given a manual setting for this it would probably work pretty well for a street conversation also. Ask for a manual "Speech in Car" setting and see if that helps. Going "closed" could help as well, so long as it doesn't negatively impact how your own voice sounds. But the automatic speech-in-noise settings are more oriented towards speech in front of you than to the sides. This is why the manual "Speech in Car" setting, which changes direction to focus on where the speech in coming from, might work best for the situation you described.

@@sfrink1425 Thank you for kindly & patiently answering all my questions. Highly appreciated. Let me try "Speech in Car" out.

Nothing has really developed along those lines, as the idea of a CI is to get the worse ear as close to performing like normal as possible, thus negating the need for a CROS situation. Unfortunately, ReSound has yet to develop any CROS technology and isn't capable of AmpCROS. I say "yet", because the technology is always changing and thus a new generation of ReSound technology might negate my statement.

In Advanced Bionics Cochlear Implant system you have a CROS option, the name is Phonak Naída Link CROS and is only available for Advanced Bionics Naída CI Q70 and Q90 systems.

Both viewpoints are relatively true. Some may use the phrase "age-related hearing loss", or "presbycusis", but it's really that the system has deteriorated or been damaged, and you don't have to be old for this to have happened. It's just more likely to have happened if you're older, as it would for many health problems. Arthritis is associated with aging, but there are many people UNDER the age of 65 who suffer from it. Systems do age, but not all systems are damaged from age-related causes.

There was term used by my Audiologist, Carhart notch effect, in her discussion of my audio gram results. I was offered the opinion of seeing a special ENT that performs stapedotomy, I am not interested in the surgery.

Try the Signa Silk (Dr Cliff does a review) it comes in a cros and is mostly invisible.