Step 1: The Initial Consultation

First we'll talk about when and where you have difficulties with your hearing, and the type of lifestyle you lead. We begin the process by performing a detailed Listening needs assessment.

We will ask you about the specific situations where you have difficulty with your hearing so we get a thorough understanding of your needs. We complete a specially designed auditory rehabilitation questionnaire for this purpose and keep the responses for future reference.

We take a full and complete otological (ear related) medical history.

We then examine your ears using an otoscope for any obvious signs of obstruction, wax or infection that may be contributing to your hearing loss.

Next we perform a Pure Tone Audiogram. This test involves you wearing a set of headphones and pressing a button in response to a series of pure tones. This test helps us determine the degree, type and nature of your hearing loss so that we can make a clinical diagnosis.

We then perform a Speech Discrimination Test. You will be asked to sit in front of a calibrated loudspeaker and repeat out loud a series of sentences, words or phrases that will be played to you at different volume levels. This is used to determine your Speech Reception Threshold, or the quietest level at which you can correctly understand speech. We can also do the test in background noise so we can determine your speech understanding in noise. We can use one of a few tests including BKB sentences, AB Word lists or the HINT Pro test.

We will then take the time to thoroughly explain your test results to you and give you a clinical diagnosis of your hearing loss. At this point if we feel that you need a medical referral to an ENT consultant this can be arranged quickly and easily.

If we feel that you would benefit from using hearing aids we will show you examples of several different suitable products from a range of manufacturers and discuss the most appropriate choice for you.

We will then provide you with a written quotation, recommending the most appropriate solution for you. We provide you with all the information you need so that you can make an informed decision.

If you decide to go ahead with a hearing aid trial then we take measurements of your ears and your hearing aids can be ready for fitting within one week or less.

The next step is Hearing Aid Fitting