Hearing impairment affects more than just your ability to hear — it affects your quality of life. Fox Valley Hearing Center stresses the importance of an accurate and timely hearing test. The hearing evaluation is just the beginning of your treatment, and it’s essential to setting your unique care plan in motion and taking action on hearing loss. Your in-depth hearing evaluation will help us craft a treatment plan that renews your ability to hear, allowing you to truly hear your best and live life on your terms.
Step One: The Interview
The interview process helps our practice determine the extent of your hearing impairment and aids us in uncovering any specific areas requiring further attention. Some typical questions you’ll want to prepare for are:
- Has anyone else in your family had hearing problems?
- Have you had any illnesses or injuries that might have affected your hearing?
- Have you taken any medications that might have contributed to hearing impairment?
- Have you been exposed to loud noises in your workplace or while participating in leisure activities?
Step Two: The Examination
Our hearing care providers take a close look inside your ear and figure out whether the hearing difficulty you are experiencing could be caused by an obstruction or damage to the ear canal or eardrum. We use a special instrument called an otoscope or video otoscope to inspect your outer ear.
Step Three: Hearing Tests
Next we’ll need to figure out the nature of your hearing loss. There’s a chance we will include hearing tests such as the following:
- A measure of your hearing at several frequencies
- A speech assessment to measure how well you hear and understand ordinary conversation at different volumes
- A special assessment to measure your ability to understand speech in background noise
- A middle-ear evaluation to measure how your eardrum and hearing react to varying degrees of air pressure
Step Four: Treatment Options
Hearing Devices
We will work with you to match your lifestyle needs with the most advanced technology, specifically designed to treat your unique hearing loss. The basic components of this instrument include a microphone, an amplifier, a receiver, and a tiny processor. The exceptional effectiveness of your devices is the result of a powerful combination of professional expertise, software, and hardware.
There are occasions when surgery is a better option, and we can help you determine if you might be a candidate. There are devices which are surgically inserted into the ear to improve hearing, facilitate lipreading, and make it easier to distinguish certain sounds. Typically, these are most helpful if you are deaf or profoundly hearing impaired and hearing aids are not a useful treatment for you. Surgical implants include:
- Cochlear implants
- Middle-ear implants
- Bone-anchored hearing aids
- Auditory brainstem implants