Hearing Aid Assessment: What To Expect

By Author: Diana Worthy
Total Articles: 4
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Upon making the decision to have an evaluation of your candidacy for hearing aids, there are a few things you should be able to expect. A thorough, detailed hearing assessment should be completed. There is typically associated charges, but ask your hearing healthcare provider's office when scheduling the appointment. Not all insurance companies will cover auditory evaluations. Overall the appointment can be expected to last 30-60 minutes.

You will most likely be asked to provide a history of your medical and hearing health. Medical conditions and even medications you are taking can affect your hearing. Thus, it is important that you are open, candid, and thorough in your history. The main goal of the initial evaluation will be to rule out any medically treatable or non-treatable conditions prior to determining your amplification candidacy.

Otoscopy will be performed prior to your hearing evaluation. This simply involves the hearing healthcare professional taking a lighted magnifier (otoscope), gently pulling back on your ear, and looking into your ear canal. They will be looking for signs of any excessive or impacted ...
... wax or other visible outer and middle ear conditions. Once the ears are determined clear for testing, the actual behavioral testing will begin.

You should be seated comfortably in a sound booth or sound-proof room. While some providers may suggest a quiet room is enough for making test measurements, results cannot necessarily be deemed valid or accurate. Ambient noise levels in these situations may make your results appear worse than they are. A variety of tests may be completed based on your hearing needs.

Pure tone audiometry is almost always completed. This is a behavioral test of your hearing sensitivity in each ear. You hear tones that get softer, and will be asked to indicate when the sound was heard (e.g., "raise your hand each time you hear a sound").

Other testing may include evaluation of your loudness discomfort level to determine your tolerance to loud sound; speech testing and speech-in-noise testing to measure your ability to detect speech and understand speech in the presence of background noise; and/or acceptable noise level evaluation to determine your background noise tolerance. Some clinics may also take objective measurements of your middle ear and inner ear functioning. Your hearing healthcare provider will be able to determine which test battery is best for you!

You should expect to hear test results immediately following the evaluation. The hearing healthcare professional should provide you with a thorough explanation of your results, including: if a hearing problem is present, the severity of the problem, the possible contributing factors to the loss, information related to medically treatable conditions you may have, and further recommendations for treatment and management. If hearing aids are an option for you, a variety of types and styles of aids will be discussed and recommendations will be made for you!

California Hearing Aid Professionals has served the Glendora, California area and its surrounding communities for several years. We offer a full range of diagnostic and preventative hearing healthcare professional services, including hearing aid screening, evaluations, hearing aids sales and rehabilitative and preventative counseling. We are dedicated to keeping abreast of the latest improvements in technological advancements in the hearing industry and are committed to offering the most current options to our patients. For up-to-date hearing aid information visit California Hearing Aid Professionals Blog.