How Can an Audiologist Help if You Have Hearing Loss?

Audiologists are certified medical professionals who specialize in addressing and treating conditions involving the ear. They can help with all sorts of issues, from whether you have hearing loss to which assistive hearing devices to choose.

Take a look at some of these ways an audiologist can help you if you have hearing loss.

Tell you the extent of your hearing loss

Audiologists conduct hearing tests: pain-free examinations that determine the nature and extent of your hearing loss. Hearing tests involve listening to a range of sounds and noises through a pair of headphones. The audiologist will play sounds through the headphones and then ask you to report what you can hear. The purpose of the tests is to find out which sound frequencies you find hardest to hear. Audiologists may also conduct a range of other examinations in a hearing test, including looking inside your ear canal to check for anything that might be obstructing sound waves from reaching the eardrum (like a buildup of wax).

Tell you what type of hearing loss you have

There are many reasons for hearing loss, including:

• Old age,
• Trauma,
• Cancer,
• Medications or
• Acquired brain injury

To determine which kind of hearing loss you have, you need a professional with the right qualifications who can ascertain why you might be suffering a loss of audible fidelity. The cause of your hearing loss may not be serious at all. Sometimes you can experience hearing loss because of a buildup of wax, which is something that an audiologist can resolve during a routine examination.

Teach you how to maintain hearing aids

Hearing aids are complicated devices that require plenty of maintenance. Part of the role of audiologists is to instruct patients on the proper maintenance of their devices so that they can get as much life out of them as possible.

Tell you whether your hearing loss has changed

The extent of your hearing loss is unlikely to remain stable over the course of decades. In fact, thanks to aging, hearing loss tends to worsen as time passes. The good news is that audiologists can tell you how much your hearing loss has deteriorated and then offer suitable treatment. Hearing loss may require you to upgrade your assistive hearing devices or change their settings.

Change settings on your hearing aids

As your hearing loss changes, so too must the settings on your hearing aids. Choosing the right settings however, can be a challenge, even if you’ve used hearing aids for many years.

Audiologists use the results of hearing tests to determine which settings need to be adjusted, and by how much. Often, audiologists will make changes to the amplification of sounds in particular frequencies with which you may be struggling. They can also adjust hearing aids so that they provide better directional sound amplification if, for instance, you’re struggling to focus on the voice of a particular person in a room.

Help reduce stress

Finally, it’s worth noting that an audiologist can help reduce stress by providing reassurance and offering solutions which enable you to listen to the people around you.