Hearing Health Check
We offer all patients a 15-minute hearing health check. This will help us determine whether to recommend either a more comprehensive hearing assessment, a referral for wax removal or in some instances a medical referral to explore any identified concerns during the health check. Our hearing health check includes a brief case history, otoscopy and four frequency audiometry in both ears.
Full Hearing Assessment
The full assessment includes:
- Case history- to determine your previous history of hearing as well as medical history that may be relevant to hearing or hearing loss. To learn more about how your hearing impacts on your lifestyle.
- Video otoscopy- to examine the outer ear using a camera, the audiologist will be able to examine the ear canal and eardrum.
- Tympanometry- this non-invasive procedure assesses the middle ear function and can detect stiffness of the middle ear or fluid in the middle ear.
- Acoustic Reflex Thresholds (ART)- provides and objective measure that provides information on the type, severity and site of hearing loss.
- Pure Tone Audiometry- you will hear tones that will get softer and softer, every time you hear the tone, you need to press a button. This will be done at a range of frequencies.
- Speech Tests (single words and sentences)- listening to and repeating words and sentences in both quiet and noisy settings.
- Hearing aid demonstration- if you have a hearing loss, hearing aids will be programmed for you to wear for the rest of your appointment. This will give you the opportunity to experience how hearing aids can benefit you as well as allowing you to test the sound quality, features and comfort of hearing aids.
We do recommend where possible, you attend your appointment with a family member or someone that you spend a lot of time with. This helps the Audiologist gather a greater understanding of your hearing situation, it is often our loved ones that are most aware of where we are most challenged when it comes to hearing.