Hearing Aid Evaluation
The first step towards getting hearing aids is to evaluate your hearing. Once you visit your audiologist to get your hearing tested, you will need to provide your full case history including your health history and even your family history regarding any hearing difficulties. Simple questions about your hearing experience will be asked to determine whether you have other conditions such as tinnitus or ringing sensations within the ears.
Once you take your hearing test, which will require you to listen to a wide variety of sounds to see which levels of sound you miss out on, your audiologist will be able to gauge your extent and type of hearing loss. Based on the degree of hearing loss you experience, you may require the use of hearing aids. You may even need to visit a medical doctor to take care of any underlying medical issues that may be disrupting your hearing.
Your hearing evaluation may reveal that you have some degree of permanent hearing impairment, which is when you would be required to obtain hearing aids. It is recommended to get two hearing aids even if you do not have hearing loss in one of the ears. This is to help reduce any additional strain on the regular listening abilities of your good ear.
Work with your hearing care professional to help pick out the best hearing aids for your own specific hearing requirements. There are a wide variety of hearing aids available, each with their own set of unique features and styles. Choose the hearing aids remembering that you will be using them on a daily basis for all your years to come. If you have chosen customized hearing aids, your audiologist will make impressions of both the ears so that the hearing aid is made specifically to fit the unique contours of your ears. Your hearing aids may take a couple of weeks to arrive since they are ordered directly from manufacturers and then adjusted by your audiologist to suit your specified hearing requirements. Once you receive your hearing aids, make sure you notify your audiologist about any further adjustments that may be needed to adapt to your unique needs.