Transforming Speech Discrimination: How Proper Hearing Aid Fitting at Pindrop Hearing Delivers Significant Results in Noisy Environments

At Pindrop Hearing, one of our most valuable tools is speech discrimination
testing, which helps us determine how well a patient can understand speech in
background noise. This is especially important because the most common
complaint we hear from patients is difficulty hearing in noisy environments or
when competing sounds are present like a restaurant or coffee shop or family
gathering.

With this test, we can quantify their struggles and assess exactly how much
speech they can distinguish in background noise. The test is conducted in a
soundproof booth, where background noise is played from behind the patient
while a female voice presents sentences from the front. We adjust the signal-
to-noise ratio and measure the patient’s ability to discriminate speech at three
different levels.

The graph below displays three sets of results:
The red circles represent unaided speech scores, showing the patient’s
performance without hearing aids- what would likely happen in every day life
for them in noise.
The blue AL indicate their improvement while wearing hearing aids that were
programmed elsewhere—without real-ear measurements (REMs) or the correct
verification.

The red AR markers represent the best and final scores, achieved with hearing
aids purchased from us and fitted using real-ear measures and verification.

These results clearly demonstrate the significant improvement achieved when
hearing aids are properly set up and verified. During his follow-up, the
patient shared that the difference between our programmed aids and his
previous ones was exponential—and that he had never undergone this type of
testing before. He is thrilled with his outcomes, and so are we!