Hearing Aid Best Practices
I am a member of the Saddlebrooke Hearing Discussion Group. It is not unusual for a resident attending one of our monthly meetings to ask for a recommendation as to where to go to get their hearing evaluated. While as a group we don’t make recommendations for audiologists in the Tucson area, individual members of our group are willing to share their personal recommendations. Fortunately, there are several good choices in the area.
Wherever you go to get evaluated for hearing aids I do recommend that you go to a hearing care professional who follows best practices. If the professional doesn’t follow best practices, it is possible that the expensive hearing aid you purchase will end up in a drawer because it provides little or no benefit. To get the full benefit of your new hearing aids it is important that your hearing professional follow best practices in selecting, fitting and programming your new hearing aids.
So, what are best practices? Well, a good way to find would be to attend the presentation that we are hosting at 10 AM on October 19th in the MountainView East Ballroom. At that time Dr Julie Jeon with the University of Arizona Speech and Hearing Clinic will give a presentation on Hearing Aid Best Practices.
Another source of information would be the many videos that Dr. Cliff Olson has posted on the subject. One good video that he has posted can be found at this link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RLrlwzVKrQQ. The video is titled “Hearing Aid Best Practices Matter”. It is a short 4-minute video that provides a good overview.
In his video Dr. Cliff mentions some of the Best Practices. The first one he mentions is Speech and Noise Testing. This test evaluates your hearing in a noisy situation such as at a busy restaurant. The test determines how well you can separate speech from background noise. If you don’t perform well on this test you might want to consider a remote microphone.
Another Best Practice is Real Ear Measurement which measures how well your hearing aids are meeting your hearing prescription. If this test is not performed there is no guarantee that you will receive the maximum benefit of your hearing aids.
Finally, the best practice that is rarely performed is test box procedures which verify how well your hearing aids are meeting manufacturers specifications.
You can find a copy of all the published best practice guidelines on the websites of either the American Academy of Audiology or the American Speech Language Hearing Association.
Our group meets on the 2nd Friday of every month at 10 AM in the Catalina Room in HOA2. We typically have a Doctor of Audiology student from the University of Arizona in attendance. If you have questions or comments about this article, would like my recommendation for an audiologist or would like to have your email added to our distribution list, contact me at tgaule@outlook.com.