Your Hearing Aid Journey

Your initial appointment will be 60 – 90 minutes with a Clinical Audiologist, who is a University Graduate, qualified with a Bachelors or Masters Degree in Audiology and has completed their full audiological training in all aspects of clinical audiology in a clinical setting. At Pindrop Hearing we do not employ Hearing Aid Dispensers (also known as Hearing Aid Audiologists), or Healthcare assistants. Read about our team members here.

We will spend time discussing your symptoms, hearing history, exactly when and where you are experiencing hearing difficulties, as well as other related issues such as tinnitus, loudness sensitivity, noise exposure and family history. Our in-depth initial hearing consultation includes a fully comprehensive diagnostic evaluation, after which we will be able to identify the exact type, severity and cause of your hearing loss as well as a range of recommended treatment options.

We will examine your ears with a video camera and you will be able to see the images on a screen. We will look for any visible obstructions in the ear canal, such as wax. We will examine the ear drums and check for any damage or sign of infection.

• If we discover your ears are blocked with ear wax, we will remove this using micro suction or irrigation as appropriate, before we proceed with the hearing tests.

• • This is a test of your hearing sensitivity for different pitches.
  • This test will be done in our sound proof room and in accordance with BSA recommended procedures.
  • You will be asked to wear a pair of headphones and listen to a series of tones at different pitches. You will need to press a button every time you hear a tone. 
  • We will measure the quietest sounds you can hear for different frequencies (pitches). We can compare this to Normal hearing.
  • This test will determine the level of your hearing, and the nature and severity of any hearing loss present and the potential cause.

• This completely painless test measures the pressure in your middle ear, how well your eardrums are moving, and checks for any fluid, congestion or blockage behind the eardrum or eardrum perforation.
• This test rules out any middle ear problems that would require onward referral to an ENT consultant.

• This test also happens in our purpose built, sound proof room.
• You will be sat in front of a loudspeaker and asked to listen to some recorded speech which will usually be a female voice speaking a series of sentences in English.
• There will be noise played continuously in the background.
• You will be asked to repeat the sentences you hear out loud.
• The audiologist will be scoring the percentage of words that you hear correctly or incorrectly.
• The level of speech will be varied, starting loud and getting quieter.
• We will measure your speech discrimination – which is a measure of how well you understand speech at different volumes.
• We can compare this to what is expected for normal hearing.

• If there is a hearing loss and hearing aids are to be recommended, then your audiologist will discuss your listening needs with you in detail
• This will include questions about the specific times and situations you are having problems with your hearing, as well as questions about your individual lifestyle and motivation to use hearing aids.
• We may also set some goals and objectives regarding improving your hearing.