With Hearing Health Awareness Month on the horizon, the team has been spreading the word about why regular hearing assessments are essential in Berkeley.
But not many people know what happens during these simple procedures, which can make a huge difference to someone’s life.
With advanced equipment and years of professional experience, the audiologists at Berkeley Hearing Center often find conditions that have gone undetected for years.
This is what you can expect when you come to our office for the first time.
Let’s talk about you
When you sit down with your audiologist, they’ll want to find out why it was important for you to get an assessment.
Some might be looking for a baseline hearing measurement, while others may have noticed certain symptoms such as dizziness, tinnitus, or earache.
In addition, they’ll ask you about your medical history and whether your relatives have ever struggled with their hearing, as conditions can be heredity.
Your feedback will provide your audiologist with a vast amount of background information so that they can personalize your experience going forward.
The hearing tests
Next, your audiologist will take you through a series of hearing tests.
This will begin with one that you may recognize from your childhood, where you’ll listen out for small beeps at different frequencies that grow softer over time.
This will determine your audiometric threshold – the point at which you can no longer hear sounds.
Afterward, your audiologist will take you through some word discrimination tests, which will determine how well you can understand speech in the presence of background noise.
They may also conduct a tympanometry test – which will assess how much your eardrum is moving and whether there’s any negative pressure that could indicate an infection.
This whole process is painless and very easy to perform.
The recommendations
After your results have come through, your audiologist will give you a full diagnosis and spend time educating you on your condition.
Some may benefit from a referral to an ENT physician for a medical evaluation. But many patients are great candidates for hearing aid treatments.
These incredibly sophisticated devices have come a long way since the early days, and most can’t believe the difference they make to their lives.
Your audiologist will discuss the different options with you for as long as you need, and if you’d like to proceed with treatment, this can take place on the day.
Are you concerned about hearing loss or know someone else who might be?
Contact the team at Berkeley Hearing Center, and they’ll help you now!
