Ask the Audiologist: Bluetooth in both ears

Posted by jonathan on April 11, 2011 under Bluetooth | Be the First to Comment

Question:

“I have a question about  using one hearing aid with blue tooth technology to receive calls from the my cell phone and on the other ear use headpiece to answer calls. Can both be used with one cell phone?”

Answer:

In theory, this is a great idea.  Binaural hearing improves speech understanding four times, and by using both ears to hear the phone gives everyone (even those with normal hearing) a much clearer sound quality.  In practice, unfortunately this won’t work.  Most cellphones are only able to connect to one listening device at a time–either one headset, one bluetooth device, or the actual handset of the phone.  Using a bluetooth device such as the Siemens TEK will however enable a person to use two bluetooth hearing aids at the same time to hear the conversation through both ears.