GETTING A
HEARING AID
Good health practice requires that a
person with a hearing loss have a medical evaluation by a licensed
physician before purchasing a hearing aid.
A hearing
evaluation will help to determine if you have a hearing loss, and
the degree and type of your particular hearing loss. Only then can
an appropriate treatment be recommended. The audiologist will
examine your ears for possible physical causes of hearing loss like
excessive wax build-up or infection. An audiogram will measure your
ability to detect sounds at various frequencies or pitches, and
measure your ability to understand speech at different loudness
levels.
Hearing
aids are custom fit to your ears by making an impression of your
ear. We send the impression to hearing aid manufacturer to make your
hearing aid. Impressions of your ears are carefully replicated for
the best fit possible.
Hearing
aids come in a variety of styles, from the very tiny
completely-in-the-canal to the behind-the-ear. The type of hearing
aid that is best for you is determined by the degree of your loss,
manual dexterity, lifestyle and listening needs. We will advise you
on which of the styles and circuits is right you.
Your
audiogram and your own comments about how well you can hear in a
variety of listening environments help determine the optimum setting
for your hearing aids. Most of the aids we sell are computer
programmable. The aids are set with the computer to fit your
individual hearing loss and range of loudness tolerance. Many aids
have several programs to fit different listening situations.
Your part
is to wear your new hearing aids for a few days in your regular
surroundings. You may even want to keep a diary to record your
impressions of the sounds you hear. Based upon how well you can hear
in your everyday surroundings, the audiologist may make additional
adjustments to your hearing aids if necessary. We will also offer
tips for communicating while wearing hearing aids, encourage you to
practice inserting and removing the hearing aids, and instruct you
in cleaning and caring for your hearing aids.
It
is important to understand that learning to listen with hearing aids
takes time and a degree of patience in the beginning. You may need
to learn to filter out unwanted sounds, just as you used to do with
normal hearing. It's also important to be realistic and not to
expect 100-percent hearing in every situation.
It may be necessary to return for one or
more adjustments of your hearing aids. Also, the help hearing aids
give you can be greatly enhanced if they are used with other
assistive devices, such as amplified telephones, alarm/alert
devices, infrared listening systems and personal FM systems, so that
you can hear clearly or be alert in almost every situation.
The goal of hearing
aids and assistive devices is to help you obtain the best hearing
possible in most situations, given the conditions of your
impairment.
The 10 Commandments of Good
Communication
1.
Thou shall not speak from another room.
2.
Thou shall not speak with your
back toward the person with a hearing impairment (or their back
toward you).
3.
Thou shall not speak and walk
away.
4.
Thou shall not start speaking
and turn away from the person with a hearing impairment.
5.
Thou shall not speak in
competition with something else (turn off the water or turn down the
radio, TV, etc.).
6.
Thou shall get the attention of
the person with a hearing impairment before speaking.
7.
Thou shall try to speak face to
face at all times.
8.
Thou shall try to remove
obstructions while speaking (your hand from your face, etc.).
9.
Thou shall try to speak
distinctly.
10.
Thou shall try to be patient.
--Anonymous
LINKS
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services. An advantage of offering these services at Spokane Valley ENT, is that immediate physician input can be offered for such
problems as ear wax, ear infections, and progressive hearing loss,
tinnitus, or vertigo.