Comprehensive Hearing Evaluations

The next step in your hearing evaluation will begin to see how well you are able to hear sounds of various volumes of low to high frequencies. You will be asked to respond to a series of beeps in a variety of tones. By indicating when you can hear the sound being played, it provides an understanding of the pitches you are able to hear, evaluates all sections of your ear, and tells us to what level of volume you are able to hear such tones.

Many instances of hearing loss originate in the inner ear, and with bone conduction testing, we find out how well the inner ear hears by responding to low and high frequencies. By this testing, we will be able to determine exactly how well this portion of your ear is functioning. A device will be placed over your mastoid bone behind your ear; this device will send vibrations directly to your skull, and in a manner similar to air conduction testing, this will help us determine how well you can interpret various pitches and frequencies presented from the inner ear and will inform us of what kind of hearing loss you are experiencing.

The final portions of your hearing evaluation are intended to determine how well you can hear and understand spoken words. During speech recognition testing, recorded words will be played for you at softer volumes until you can no longer hear them. In a similar fashion, word recognition testing asks that you repeat the words that are played at your comfort level of volume to analyze how well you can both hear and understand verbal communication. If we find that you do have a hearing impairment, the results of these two tests will be helpful in determining how effective hearing aids will be in your daily life.

Hearing speech in the presence of background noise can be significantly more difficult than in quiet. This testing is necessary to find out how well you understand speech in noisy areas such as restaurants. With this information, we will be able to recommend the appropriate hearing devices and help provide proper expectations of your ability to understand speech in noise.

One of the single, if not the most important, procedures that could ever be performed on you and your hearing aids is real ear measurement and live speech mapping. Real Ear Measures, or Real Ear Verification, is the only way to ensure that your hearing aids are programmed correctly to your hearing loss prescription. Without using real ear measurement, fitting a hearing aid is complete guesswork. At your follow-up, we will conduct REM to ensure that your fitting is correct based on your loss to ensure you're getting the maximum performance from your hearing devices.

While discussions around hearing loss often lead to a conversation about hearing aids, another important element to your hearing ability is often overlooked – protecting your ears from loud sounds. Like the popular saying goes, prevention is the best medicine, and with hearing loss, this couldn’t be more true.

It can only take one instance of hearing a loud sound for you to sustain permanent damage to your hearing, and unfortunately, many daily noises we encounter are much louder than what our ears can handle. With over 15% of Americans experiencing irreversible noise-induced hearing loss, one thing is clear: more education is needed around how to adequately protect our hearing on a regular basis. We offer different styles and makes of molds to protect your hearing.

Whether you’re in law enforcement, are often around industrial equipment, or even enjoy recreational hunting or swimming, custom earplugs and earmolds will make a huge difference in your ability to hear for years to come.

This direct knowledge of the impact that loud sounds can have on our hearing is why we are such strong advocates for preventing hearing loss before it begins. Our patients find they have the most success when using custom earplugs and/or earmolds, as these devices are comfortable and protect your hearing during a wide range of activities. 

We will discuss these findings in great detail. Our goal is for you to fully understand how your hearing impairment is affecting your daily life, to offer resources and options for treatment, and to recommend the best solution to accomplish this goal.

Finding success with your new hearing aids is largely dependent on if you have the right technology programmed precisely to your hearing loss prescription using Real Ear Measurement to test the validity of the fitting based on your hearing loss and receive excellent training on how to use your devices by applying best practices from the beginning of your journey of better hearing.