Will phonak audeo smart 9 be right for me.(unilateral hearing loss)

[eelstrebor]

Hi I have ordered phonak audeo smart 9 power. (Ric)I have hearing loss on my right ear. Will this aid be ok for me? Will it be powerful enough? Will hearing aids work differently or not at all when you have Unilateral hearing loss?
I keep hearing about the cros aid where you use your good ear to signal to your bad ear. What's the difference from the cros to having just a good aid on the bad ear.
I've had nhs phonak nathos and tried Ambra cic private but just don't seem to work. I still struggle in noisy places and still have to turn to my good ear to hear people clearly. I'm starting to wonder if any aid will help. I did take around 6 years to start wearing one.
I hope the phonak audeo will help. I just want that wow factor that some people get. Any comments I would be grateful.



My loss


Right ear
250. 55
500. 55
1000.60
2000.50
3000.90
4000.70
8000.90

left ear
250. 20
500. 20
1000.10
2000.-10
3000.10
4000.0
8000.20

[CallunaVulgaris]

Looks like my hearing loss is somewhat similar to yours in the right ear. I have the Phonak Audeo CROS setup and while some people may experience sound differently, standard amplification would not work for me because while I can hear the loud sound, I still have poor speech discrimination in that ear. As a result, louder for me does not always mean better. What the CROS does is take the sounds that are coming from the side with hearing loss and transmit it to the aid in the hearing ear.

While you may be able to wear an aid that's designed for amplification, it really depends on your speech discrimination--is that on your audiogram anywhere? However, if it's really hard to understand even when you are wearing a hearing aid in your right ear, CROS may be an option. I've had mine for a few months now and it's helped me out a lot.

[eelstrebor]

Thanks that was really helpful and good to know. I'm surprise the hearing aid dispenser did not mention this to me.

[mike1963]

you will not get all the benefits of the Smart IX if you are using monaurally ---- if money is no object then by all means use one but if you are only going to use one the Smart V may well be good enough as with the IX you are paying for a number of features that you cant use....... CROS is a good system provided your expectations are realistic and you understand exactly what it is doing and more importantly what it is NOT doing

Thats very true about paying for features that you can't use. My friend made that mistake.

[Doc Jake]

in my opinion you could wear a good set of RICs and get excellent results. without a pair you will loose a lot of the features and your right ear really isn't that bad. most of my older guys have numbers as bad as your right ear or worse in both ears. a few have a really bad ear and one much better they really like the RICs.

[eelstrebor]

Hi. Mike1963 what did you mean what the cros does NOT do?

[prodigyplace]

Originally Posted by eelstrebor

Hi. Mike1963 what did you mean what the cros does NOT do?

the Smart IX has features that depend on two Smart IX aids communicating with each other. Thise features are the major difference between the Smart IX and the next lower model. Since a CROS system only uses one aid, the extra money is wasted on features that cannot be used.

[CallunaVulgaris]

Yeah, I actually didn't know at the time that some of the IX features did not work if you only have one--shame on the audiologist. So I'm "stuck" with my IX for CROS. Oh well, a learning experience for next time I suppose. Those matters aside, it's worth a try if you think it might help you. It's so wonderful not to have to turn my head 24/7 when someone talks on my right side. It doesn't completely do away with my problems in loud environments, but it does help.

[eelstrebor]

is there any extra benefits i can use with smart 9 with one ear hearing loss or is all extra benefits only work with 2 hearing aids.
its about 400 pounds difference between 9 and 5