HEARING

Diagnostic Hearing Evaluations

A comprehensive hearing evaluation includes a discussion of your concerns and hearing health history, a physical examination of the external ear and the ear canal, impedance measures to determine eardrum and middle ear function, objective measures of inner ear function, a pure-tone evaluation to measure your level of hearing at specific frequencies, and speech detection and discrimination ability, completed within a soundproof room.

Tinnitus / Hyperacusis Assessment

Tinnitus, or ringing in the ears, is a very common symptom defined as the sensation or perception of ringing, buzzing, humming, roaring, or any sound detected in one ear, both ears or centrally. These sounds vary in loudness and have different impacts dependent on the person and the cause. The evaluation generally requires a complete medical evaluation, a hearing test, and otoacoustic emissions tests, as most tinnitus is related to some type of hearing loss or alteration.

HEARING AIDS  (Provided by Carolyn J. Agresti, MD Hearing & Balance, LLC)

Our experienced Audiologist understands that every patient has unique needs, and that hearing aids are not one-size-fits-all. That’s why we work with the top hearing aid manufacturers to find a customized solution that is right for you.  Here are some of the hearing aid manufacturers we work with:

How to be fit with the hearing aids that are the best for you.

When it comes to finding the best hearing aid for you, it’s important that you be evaluated personally. The trick is to find the one that works best for your type of hearing loss, life situation and physical ability. Just because your neighbor likes a particular model, doesn’t mean that it’s the best choice for you.

At Dr. Agresti’s office, we break down the hearing aid evaluation process into four steps:

1.   Determine your goals

You may hear well when it’s quiet, but struggle when there’s background noise. You may need extra help hearing on the phone or when watching TV. You may be an avid golfer or sportsman who needs a waterproof or wind resistant hearing aid, or perhaps you love the symphony and opera and need extra help when in these environments. Prior to your appointment, write down the three situations in which you are having the most difficulty hearing, in priority order.

2.   Decide which style of hearing aid works best for you

There are four general styles of hearing aids:

• Custom Hearing Aids, including: In-the-ear; In-the-canal; and completely in the canal
• Behind the ear (BTE) tube fit
• Receiver in the canal (RIC)
• Extended wear

While it used to be that each type was for a different degree of hearing loss, improved technology means that almost any hearing loss can be fit with almost any style of hearing aid.

3.   Determine the technology level that’s best for you

Today, almost all hearing aids are digital and most have Bluetooth capability. In fact, often, they have more processing speed than your home computer. An average hearing aid performs millions of computations per second, adjusting to your constantly changing sound situation hundreds of times per second. Each step up in technology will garner improvement in sound quality and/or speech perception.

This is where your audiologist’s expertise becomes invaluable. Determining which technology is best for you depends on your needs. Along with a variance in quality, each level you move up likely denotes a cost increase. Hence, we need to factor in your budget, as well.

4.   There Is a Standard of Care

In order to verify how the hearing aid functions while in your ear, we routinely use the Audioscan Verifit, a sophisticated, specialized diagnostic and verification tool which includes real-ear probe microphone and speech mapping measures. Very few practices in the area offer this service. This is the standard of care all of our hearing aid patients can expect.

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