Monaural Hearing Loss
Monaural hearing loss is hearing loss in one ear only, with normal or near-normal hearing in the other ear. It is used interchangeably with the term unilateral hearing loss and describes the same audiological condition. The degree can range from mild to profound. When the impaired ear is severely or profoundly affected, the condition may be specifically called single-sided deafness (SSD).
Monaural hearing loss disrupts the binaural hearing system, which relies on comparing sound input from both ears to determine where sounds are coming from and to separate speech from background noise. People with one functioning ear often report particular difficulty when a speaker is positioned on their poorer side, in group conversations, in reverberant rooms, and when there is background noise present.
In children, monaural hearing loss can affect attention and academic performance in classroom settings and may be managed with FM system support, preferential seating, and audiological monitoring. In adults, management options include conventional hearing aids for milder degrees of loss, CROS systems, bone-anchored devices, and in appropriate candidates, cochlear implantation. Please also see the entry for Unilateral Hearing Loss for a full discussion of management options.
