A full assessment is required before any hearing aid is deemed suitable. A thorough evaluation will determine the most appropriate type of hearing aid for your individual needs.
Lifestyle and Listening Needs
For example, an Audiologist would typically ask about your listening needs in various situations (e.g. work meetings, watching TV, eating out in busy restaurants). Your answers to these types of questions help Audiologists to identify the features of hearing aids that will be most beneficial to you before looking at any hearing aids.
Pure-Tone Audiogram
This is a simple test of hearing using headphones played at a variety of different frequencies. The results of this test are plotted on a graph to show exactly which frequencies you are unable to hear and by how much.
Speech Discrimination Scoring
There is more to hearing than hearing volume. In the speech discrimination test, words are repeated at comfortable loudness and the score indicates how well the brain is able to understand speech. Even if speech is loud enough and is amped up, the score is low and therefore speech will not be of benefit to the user.
Middle Ear Function Check
Tympanometry: The tympanometry test looks at how your eardrum and the middle ear tiny bones (malleus, incus and stapes) change pressure in the ear canal. As stated in NICE Hearing Loss in Adults: Full Guidance, this test can detect problems such as fluid behind the eardrum which need to be treated by an Ear Nose and Throat (ENT) specialist before you can get a hearing aid.
Physical Ear Canal Inspection
This is just one of the many aspects that your Bristol audiologist will complete as part of a full hearing assessment. For Audiologist Bristol, see //www.imperialhearing.com/audiologist-near-me/bristol/.
By going through these steps, the recommended hearing aid will be matched to your specific hearing loss, rather than your symptoms.
+ There are no comments
Add yours