HEARING AIDS

Your Audiologist will advise you about suitable hearing aids (hearing instruments), based upon the degree and type of your hearing loss, your communication needs in the different listening situations you encounter and your budget.

Style

Hearing aids come in many shapes, sizes and colours. Not every style or shape suits every ear or hearing loss, so your Audiologist will show you the ones which will suit you.

One Hearing Aid or Two

If you have hearing loss in both ears you generally benefit from wearing a hearing aid in each ear.

The advantages of two hearing aids are that you:

• can hear better in background noise
• can hear people sitting on either side without having to turn your head
• feel ‘balanced’
• can locate where sounds are coming from more readily
• can set each hearing aid to a lower volume
• have a ‘spare’ in case one needs repair

Special Features

Most people with hearing loss find listening in background noise or in groups much more difficult than listening in quiet. Your Audiologist will explain the features which hearing aids have to improve communication in a variety of situations, including:

• multiple programs: automatic or manual adjustment to different listening situations
• directional microphones: to enhance listening to sounds coming from in front of the wearer
• selective amplification of voice-level sounds
• precise and rapid adjustment to variations in the incoming sounds
• control of acoustic feedback (‘whistling’)
• wireless capacity: to receive signals from the telephone or other device, or from a loop fitted in a theatre, church or other public place

We advise against buying hearing aids on-line. It isn’t easy to choose a suitable device without professional advice and achieving a good fit is more difficult and adjustments and warranty procedures are more complex.  If you do choose to buy a hearing aid on-line, however, we may be able to provide support, depending upon the instrument.

Procedure for Fitting a Hearing Aid

When you and your Audiologist have discussed your hearing needs and decided on the type of aid, there are several steps to fitting it to your personal needs. Some hearing aids and devices can be fitted immediately, while others must be ordered specially.

• You decide on the device you want and the Audiologist orders the hearing aids (we do keep a small number of hearing aids in stock for fitting immediately, but most are ordered specifically for a client)
• You attend a fitting appointment, when the Audiologist sets the aids with a computer to suit your hearing levels and does some testing with them in your ear
• The Audiologist demonstrates the functions of the aids, how to manage the batteries; clean, insert and remove the instrument, etc.
• The Audiologist advises you what to expect of the hearing aids and how to adjust to them and discusses where and when you’ll use them
• You wear the aids regularly for a few weeks, trying them out in a variety of listening situations and recording your observations and experiences
• You come back for follow-up appointments as you need them, when the Audiologist might do some fine-tuning, based on your experiences
• You might need additional accessories or special devices and/or rehabilitation services to obtain the best communication outcomes

Hearing Aid Maintenance

Our Audiologists fit hearing aids and devices from international companies (Bernafon, GN ReSound, Phonak, Phonic Ear, Siemens, Unitron, Widex, Williams Sound) which have been found to provide high quality, reliable products and a prompt, efficient repair service.

Our staff are able to make some simple repairs at the counter, on the same day. Devices which are under warranty and which need to be repaired by the manufacturer are sent by courier the day they come into our office. For private clients there is a charge for repairs undertaken after the warranty has expired. Most hearing aids have a three-year warranty.