What is unilateral deafness?
Unilateral deafness means that one ear hears perfectly normally, but the other ear has anything from a mild hearing loss to no hearing at all.
What causes unilateral deafness?
Unilateral deafness is not uncommon. Some unilateral deafness is only temporary, such as that caused by one-sided glue ear or by a small hole or perforation in one eardrum.
Other types of unilateral deafness are permanent and may have been caused by mumps, measles or some other illness or by a head injury. Your audiologist or ear specialist will be able to explain the type of unilateral deafness you have.
Why are two ears better than one?Normally both ears hear the same. This helps us to:
- Know where a sound is coming from.
- Hear what is being said when there are other noises in the background.
- Hear people clearly from either side.
Unilateral deafness means that:
- It is harder to work out where a sound is coming from.
- It is difficult to pick out one conversation in a noisy room or outside in traffic.
- Sometimes you can't hear someone who is sitting on your deaf side.
What can you do?
- Children at school: A child with unilateral deafness should sit near the front of the class with the good ear towards the teacher who should be told about the problem. If your child still has problems, contact your Audiologist for further advice.
- At home: Try not to talk from another room. Remember that your child will have difficulty finding where you are when you call. Keep background noise such as music or television down, especially at meal times. Seating should be arranged so that people sit on the child's good side.
- Outside: The most serious problem here is road safety. You or your child has to be taught to look carefully for traffic.
