Hearing Loss & Hearing Aids

The best hearing aid for you is one that you will feel confident and comfortable wearing.

With so many hearing aid options available, how does one make a sound decision? Working closely with an experienced audiologist is your best choice.

Audiologists are not only trained to help your hearing concerns, local and federal guidelines also require them to take continuing education on the latest hearing amplification technology. Each year audiologists attend classes to learn about the latest changes to hearing technology. In short, audiologists are experienced and highly trained, so they can help you diagnose and treat your hearing loss.

Trust your audiologist, allow them to provide the care that is right for you. Diagnosing and treating hearing loss is very similar to your medical doctor diagnosing and treating an illness with medication. In fact, Audiologists swear an oath obliging them to provide proper care for your hearing treatment.

The first step in hearing health is making sure your ears are clear of wax or any kind of hearing infection. Our ENT provides all of our patients with a full ear, nose and throat examination. He will also remove any wax that is preventing you from hearing optimally. The audiologist will perform a comprehensive hearing examination including testing your hearing and testing the pressure in your ears. That will determine the type and severity of the hearing loss. After the comprehensive examination, the audiologist can sit down with you and explain all of your options based on your hearing loss and lifestyle.

There are different styles of hearing aids ranging from slim over the ear products to small in the ear products. A hearing aid style is how the hearing aid fits on or in your ear. The latest styles of hearing aids include:

• Behind the ear (BTE)
• Mini Behind the ear (mBTE)
• Custom In the ear (ITE)
• Custom In the canal (ITC)
• Invisible In the canal (IIC)
• Receiver In the canal (RIC)
• Receiver in the ear (RITE)

Hearing aids do a lot more than just turn up the volume. Hearing aids are actually programmed to increase the frequency of sound you are no longer able to hear naturally. Any hearing technology from the past 10 years is actually a tiny computer. These computers are designed and programmed to collect what you hear, filter those sounds, and amplify certain frequencies. This allows the hearing aid to filter out unwanted background noise, increase the parts of speech that are important, and help reduce the stress on your brain.

Why will you be asked to wear a hearing aid in both ears?
• To improve your ability to hear in noisy settings
• To allow you to determine where sounds are coming from
• To improve your ability to understand speech, even from a distance
• To help you hear soft sounds at lower levels
• To give the sound a fuller quality.