HEARING TESTS AT HONITON HEARING CENTRE │ what to expect with alana
Alana sat down to discuss what you can expect when visiting Honiton Hearing Centre for a hearing test.
You can watch the video or read the transcript below.
To book a hearing test appointment, the number to call is 01404 47070.
Or visit our contact page to book online or ask a question here.
Video transcript:
“Hello I’m Alana, Audiologist here at Honiton Hearing Centre.
Today I’m going to be talking to you about what it involves when you come for a hearing test with us.
What we would ask you first, is what has prompted your visit. Is it that you’re struggling to hear your friends and family? Is it that in a background noise situation, you’re struggling to pick up speech? Or is it that you just want a general check-up?
There can be lots of different reasons why you need to book a hearing test and we’re here to support all of those.
What we would go through first is your medical history and your hearing history. What this allows us to do is get a little bit of in-depth information about what experience you have with your hearing and if there’s been any operations or issues in the past that we need to be aware of before we look in the ears or continue with the test.
Once we’ve been through that we would talk through your hearing goals. So, what is it that you’re wanting to hear better and what is it that we can do to support that?
Once we’ve been through that, we would then have a look in the ears. We use a video otoscope which projects images such as this: gestures to image of an ear canal on screen.
What this allows us to do is see in the ears to check for wax, to make sure the ears are clear and healthy before proceeding. If there is wax present in the ears, we would recommend 5 to 7 days of olive oil and to book a wax removal appointment with us.
If you think you have wax and you need a hearing test, book a wax removal appointment with us by calling 01404 47070 or booking online.
Once we know the ears are clear we can proceed with the hearing test. We put some headphones on your ears and give you a button to press. We present you with different sounds and tones and all you need to do is sit back, relax, listen to the sounds and press the button when you hear them.
We then continue with a couple of other tests such as bone conduction, potentially something called masking if necessary. Once we’ve completed the tests we may want to do Tympanometry, which is where we check the pressure of the ears, and we can show you those results also.
Now once we’ve completed the test we will go through your results, talk to you about the level of hearing loss you have (if any), then go through a lifestyle questionnaire with you. What this allows us to do is see what situations you need help with your hearing in and what sort of situations you would need a hearing aid to be able to adapt to.
Now your lifestyle questionnaire determines the level of technology that you would need to have within the hearing aid. Once we’ve determined what level of technology we need I would then recommend what style of hearing aid is going to suit your hearing loss the best. Now after that, once we’ve discussed everything it’s up to you what you want to do. Some people choose to go away and think about it or talk to their family members. Some people decide to defer this decision for six months or a year, or even longer sometimes. Some people choose to go ahead with an order there and then.
If you choose to go ahead with an order there and then, we can order the hearing aid for you, go through different things like colours, styles and book you a fitting appointment to come back and see us to have them fitted.
If you choose to defer that decision, that is absolutely fine. You can give us a call or book online to come back in to see us to discuss a purchase at a later date if necessary. We would recommend having a hearing test at a minimum of every two years, so we can keep an eye on your hearing and make sure that it’s not causing issues in your life.
If you have any other questions we have a contact form on your website, or you can call us on 01404 47070. Of course if you want to book an appointment you can book online or give us a call, we’d be more than happy to see you.