Five Steps to Better Hearing
Schedule an appointment with an audiologist. The hearing evaluation is usually covered by health insurance. Bring previous hearing test results if you have them. In a sound booth, several ear-specific test are accomplished :
Otoscopy: Is the outer ear canal filled with wax or open?
Threshold Testing: What is the softest sound you can hear at 8-10 frequencies through ear phones and also by bone conduction?
Speech Reception Threshold: What is the softest volume you can hear words correctly?
Word Discrimination: At a comfortable volume, how clear are words?
Tolerance: What is the loudest level comfortable for you at key frequencies?
Noise: How much background noise can you hear and still understand words?
Tympanograms and Acoustic Reflexes: What is your middle ear status? Is the ear drum and middle ear bones functioning appropriately?
The results should reveal symmetrical hearing. Asymmetrical hearing may require medical treatment. Results should indicate similar responses to air and bone conduction. If the results indicate normal hearing, the issues may be listening or processing, rather than hearing. We can help with that, too.
2. If you are a candidate for a trial with hearing aids, you will hear about the consumer protection laws that permit you to try aids for a month or so to ensure they meet your needs and to return them if they don't - for a refund, less a restocking fee, of what you paid for them.
3. A specific hearing aid will be recommended for you. The model is dictated by the configuration and severity of the hearing loss. The make is often due to dynamic changes in the hearing aid industry, and often due to your lifestyle that necessitates a feature that only one manufacturer has available. Some circuits work better on a "flat" hearing loss, some on a "high frequency loss", some only for a severe to profound hearing loss, etc. The audiologist will give you a reason for the recommendation.
4.The devices are ordered and a hearing aids fitting and orientation is scheduled. A thirty-day trial begins with periodic visits to adjust sound once acclimatization occurs. A conformity visit is scheduled after about two weeks to measure brain changes, improvements in perception, reduction of tinnitus, comfort, etc. Bluetooth technology may be demonstrated.
5. Follow up visits are scheduled, usually every six months. Hearing loss usually worsens with time, so the selected devices will permit changes in hearing to be easily added.
