hearing aids
Our hearing aid services include:
- fully independent guidance to hearing aid selection
- fitting and fine-tuning of the latest digital hearing aids
- independent evaluation and fine-tuning of your current hearing aids
- as many appointments as needed for 12 months after fitting free of charge
- hearing aid cleaning and maintenance
Digital hearing aids and sensorineural hearing loss - information for the medical profession.
How do I know if I need a hearing aid?
How do I know if I have a hearing loss?
We will advise you if your hearing test results indicate the need for hearing aids.
Regardless of the degree of hearing loss, if you are experiencing significant communication difficulties, there will be a hearing aid suitable for you. If you have tinnitus and a hearing loss, hearing aids will be effective in both the management of your hearing loss and reducing your tinnitus awareness.
Assistive listening devices are available for the telephone, television, doorbells and alarms and can be used either instead of hearing aids or in addition to hearing aids.
Choosing a hearing aid
Which hearing aid is right for me? for a technology overview and further details about hearing aid styles
What can I expect from hearing aids?
We take pride in offering a fully independent hearing aid service, so that we can help you choose the most suitable and cost effective hearing aids from a wide range of hearing aid companies. We aim to make hearing aids as accessible as possible by keeping our prices fair, and usually below the industry average. Please refer to our ethical policy for further details.
The advantages and limitations of the range of hearing aids suitable for you will be discussed in detail at your initial appointment. This will help you make an informed choice and have realistic expectations with regards to the level of benefit you can expect. You will not be expected to make your choice at your initial appointment, but you could if you wish to.
Hearing aid technology
Digital signal processing hearing aids are miniaturised computers, and are able to:
- automatically adjust and set the required volume for each sound in your environment - so that you don't need a volume control (unless you want one!)
- highlight speech through competing noise
- provide multiple listening programs to suit different environments such as: speech in quiet, speech in noise, music, telephone, telecoil, FM amplification
- automatically switch between different listening programs, depending on the environment you are in
- provide multiple microphones and adaptive directional listening - where the hearing aid restricts amplification from the noisier parts of your environment
Hearing aids come in a range of technological sophistication, so that you can choose from a basic model to a "top of the range" model. In between these two extremes is a range of models with some of the features listed above.
Hearing aid styles
Each hearing aid model comes in a range of sizes, depending on the extent of your hearing loss, your cosmetic preferences and handling ability. The smallest is the completely-in-the-canal (CIC) hearing aid, which is inserted deeply into the ear canal. The in-the-canal (ITC) hearing aid is slightly bigger and has the advantage of dual microphones. The in-the-ear (ITE) style hearing aid is bigger than the ITC, so it is easier to handle, and fills the bowl of the ear.
The behind-the-ear (BTE) hearing aid consists of a customised plastic or silicon ear mould, joined with plastic tubing to the hearing aid which sits behind the ear. Slim tube, micro BTE hearing aids have been designed to be discreet and minimise occlusion or blockage of the ear canal. The popularity of these hearing aids has resulted in hearing aid manufacturers competing to produce the smallest possible BTE size hearing aid, known as a micro BTE with canal receiver (CRT). A greater degree of miniaturisation has been made possible by placing part of the hearing aid circuitry inside the ear canal.
The features provided by the hearing aid need to be matched to your individual communication needs and handling ability. People who rarely communicate in high levels of background noise may not need a sophisticated and expensive hearing aid.
The cost of the hearing aids will vary depending on the features provided. Most private health insurance funds will give a rebate for hearing aid fitting under extras cover. An income tax rebate can be claimed for out of pocket health expenses over $1500 per family.
We receive many enquiries with regard to effective hearing aid fitting from the medical profession. It seems that despite the technological advances, in the wider community too many hearing aids are used infrequently, often with disappointment at the level of benefit obtained.
With hearing aid technology rapidly changing, we have written an article for doctors focusing on various aspects of successful digital hearing aid fitting including a contemporary update on hearing aid technology.
Steps to hearing aid success
Fitting hearing aids
Following the purchase of hearing aids, you will be provided free of charge with as many appointments as needed for 12 months after hearing aid fitting. This allows us time to carry out our approach to hearing aid fitting where you are gently eased into the level of amplification required for optimal speech intelligibility. Over this period, we work closely with you to complete the fine-tuning of your hearing aids.
Fine tuning hearing aids
As computer software and hearing aid technology have become more sophisticated, the skills required by the clinician to carry out effective fitting and finetuning of hearing aids have increased enormously.
We have extensive training, experience and expertise in fine-tuning digital hearing aids to individual communication needs. This enables you to receive the best possible level of speech intelligibility from your hearing aids.
Adapting to hearing aids
Because of the gradual onset of most hearing losses, a person with a hearing loss will slowly change their concept of what "normal" hearing is to them. Additionally, our brain subconsciously selects and highlights sounds that are important to us. Unimportant sounds are heard, but not fully perceived, unless we consciously pay attention to them.
With an initial hearing aid fitting, your concept of "normal" hearing and the process of subconscious selection will need to be relearnt, which can take up to several months. You will notice that unimportant sounds will seem both louder and unnaturally noticeable through your hearing aids at first.
Many people approach hearing aid use as likely to be required on an occasional basis only. However, wearing your hearing aids most of the time will ensure that your concept of "normal" hearing will be successfully redefined. As a result, you will rely on your hearing aids and will find it harder to communicate without them. This is an inevitable part of a successful hearing aid fitting, and does not mean that hearing aid use has aggravated your level of hearing loss.
Hearing Aid Satisfaction Survey
The EarTrak survey is run completely independently of our practice and mailed to clients 3 to 6 months after hearing aid fitting. The responses obtained are confidential and remain anonymous, unless specified otherwise. The survey is designed to give us detailed feedback about our clients' satisfaction with their hearing aids and the services provided by our practice. This allows us to act on any comments made that will guide us to improving our services. It also allows us to compare how our practice is performing compared to the group average of the other participating audiology practices, both in Australia and overseas.
While we do not carry out this survey with all our clients, we are committed to carrying out this survey regularly.
Ongoing successful use of hearing aids
We recommend an annual review of your hearing levels to check for any changes in hearing. In this way, adjustments can be made to ensure your hearing aids keep matching your hearing loss. You are encouraged, however, to arrange a hearing assessment at any time if you suspect a change in your hearing has occurred.
A build up of wax in your ear canals can damage your hearing aids, as well as affect hearing aid performance. An increase in feedback from your hearing aid(s) may indicate that wax removal is required.
Hearing aid maintenance
As part of your hearing aid fitting package, we provide maintenance equipment and information, including a moisture absorbent kit.
We provide all our hearing aid clients with:
- free in-house hearing aid cleaning, using pressurised drying and vacuum suction equipment.
- Minor in-house repairs
- hearing aid accessories at cost price
- bulk discount battery purchase
These services are available without an appointment between 9.00 and 5.00 pm.
Hearing aid repairs are arranged through the manufacturer, with loan BTE hearing aids available for use while your hearing aid is being repaired.