Our Process
There is no “one hearing aid fits all” when it comes to addressing individual hearing loss. At Andover Hearing, we take time to understand the whole patient and problem, including the kind of lifestyle and typical listening situations that person will be in before we talk about specific hearing instruments.
We take 5 basic steps in our process, all geared towards evaluating what the problem is, providing best solution to address that problem, and ensuring that you are a satisfied patient:
- Hearing Evaluation: We start by asking you some questions about your difficulties and medical/hearing history. This helps us create a case history for each patient. Next we’ll do an inspection of ears to see if there is anything in your ear canal that might affect the test or require referral to your doctor. If the visual inspection is fine, we then do a hearing evaluation where we put you into a sound booth and give you some tones to measure the type and degree of hearing loss. This is called an audiogram.
- Recommendations: Once we do an audiogram and determine degree of loss, we make recommendations on how best to address that loss. Typically we recommend a hearing aid that best fits your degree of loss, dexterity issues, and budget.
- Fitting: The fitting is where we put the new instrument on you and we adjust the settings for your individual lifestyle listening situation. We have different methods to see how well the device is working, including “real-ear-measurement” evaluations. During the fitting, we also show you how to take it on and off, clean it, and replace the batteries.
- Follow-up and Adjustments: After a brief adjustment period, usually 2 weeks, we have back in for a follow-up to do any further fine tuning or address any problems you have experienced. If there are problems, we will address them and repeat the process.
- 6 Month Check: Once we get you fitted and perform the 2-week follow-up, we have you back in six months to clean and check the hearing instrument and address any other issues you may be experiencing.