What to Expect At Your First Appointment
Step 1: Before Your Appointment
Before your appointment, please complete our case history form to help us learn more about your medical history, hearing concerns, listening lifestyle, and goals or expectations for your appointment. Also, please have a complete list of your current medications with you for the appointment. If you have bothersome tinnitus or a sound sensitivity, please fill out the corresponding questionnaire.
Step 2: The Beginning of Your Appointment
We’ll sit down and discuss your case history form, your hearing lifestyle, and your goals. If you prefer, this can be done remotely or in-person. Individuals who regularly attend parties or large events will have different goals than people who prefer to socialize in smaller groups or one-on-one. We’ll briefly discuss how our brain processes sounds. Then Dr. Rachel will look in your ears and make sure everything looks healthy. If earwax is present, she will remove it.
Step 3: Evaluating Your Hearing
You’ll wear headphones or earbuds and first listen for soft beeps. Next, you’ll be asked to listen to words and repeat them aloud. We may also complete additional tasks, like asking you to listen to sentences with background noise and repeat them back. Your doctor might conduct immittance measures, which is a quick and simple pressure check that ensures your eardrum is moving properly and that your hearing reflexes are working. Otoacoustic emissions may be evaluated to confirm a part of your inner ear (the little hair cells) is functioning well. If you have bothersome tinnitus or a sound sensitivity, we’ll conduct measurements to quantify your concerns.
Step 4: Review Results & Discuss Treatment Options
After your hearing evaluation, your audiologist will go over your results and explain what they mean. If you do have hearing loss, we’ll discuss which treatment options are best for you, including hearing aids, middle ear or cochlear implants, surgery, assistive listening devices, and/or rehab exercises you can complete at home. If hearing aids are recommended, we’ll fit you with a loaner pair for two weeks. If you have bothersome tinnitus or a sound sensitivity, we’ll discuss various treatment options to reduce or eliminate your symptoms.
Communication and Functional Needs Assessment
Doctors and people who have worn hearing aids before know that completing a simple hearing test and fitting you with hearing aids don’t lead to successful hearing in all real world environments. ASH Audiology is committed to serving each person’s individualized communication needs to ensure you thrive in any situation, and we go the extra mile to make sure this happens. In addition to a typical hearing evaluation and discussion of hearing aid options you may see elsewhere, with ASH Audiology you’ll also receive a comprehensive communication needs assessment that discusses your goals and expectations, listening lifestyle, communication strategies tailored for your specific needs, and solutions to your concerns. Because we know hearing is related to your overall health, we will also conduct a functional needs assessment that optimizes your communication success beyond just your hearing. This may include screenings and testing for cognition, vision, dexterity, tinnitus, sound sensitivity, auditory processing, and vestibular/balance functioning as well as discussions regarding tech savviness, motivation, safety alerts, falls prevention in the home, and more. Rest assured knowing where you stand with your health, obtain easy specialist referrals when needed, and have peace of mind knowing your loved one is in good and safe hands.
Bring a Friend
Research studies have shown patients remember around 40% of what they’re told during a medical visit, and of the information they retain, only 50% of it is remembered correctly. ASH Audiology always recommends having a loved one present during appointments as we know, two sets of ears are better than one.