Always Thorough. Always Personalized.
Each person who walks through our door is different.
Are you interested in details, or just want to keep things simple? No problem – we will ask, and the choice is yours! As professional listeners, we take the time to understand what you’d like to get from your appointment.
What To Expect
Duration: up to 90 minutes | Price: $80
Part 1
Case History
It starts with you. There are many reasons people seek a hearing assessment.
You may fall into one of the following categories:
- Baseline – an assessment for your records.
- Workplace – if you work in noise or are applying for the police force.
- Curiosity – something seems off and you just want more information.
- ‘Uh oh’ – you and everyone around you recognizes there’s a problem.
- Medical – a sudden change in ear/hearing status has prompted concern.
Each situation requires a different approach. Not only do we want to eliminate any medical red flags requiring special investigation, but inquiring about your history and experiences guide us towards solutions. As part of this, we delve into your case history.
Things we will ask you include:
- Do you have any history of ear infections?
- Have you experienced excessive noise exposure?
- Do you hear any sounds in your ears (e.g., buzzing, ringing)?
- Have you noticed any difficulties in hearing?
We take special care in noting the exact nature of your concerns. If there are multiple concerns, such as hearing difficulty coupled with ‘fullness’ and ‘ringing’, we will clarify aspects of this to ensure we have an accurate understanding of your experience.
Part 2
Otoscopy
A picture is worth a thousand words.
This is why otoscopy is a crucial step in our process. Otoscopy allows us to inspect your ear canal and ear drum, ensuring any potential issues that could affect your hearing assessment are caught.
Why Otoscopy matters:
- It allows for a detailed examination of the most accessible portion of your ears.
- We get an up-close look at your ear canal, checking for blockages, earwax, or other abnormalities of the canal or eardrum.
- Identifying any issues beforehand helps us ensure a smooth and accurate hearing assessment.
Part 3
Tympanometry
Before your hearing assessment, we conduct this painless test to examine the health of your middle ear.
Primarily, tympanometry helps us understand how your eardrum and middle ear are functioning. Tympanometry can even reveal tiny perforations or holes in the eardrum. Identifying problems like fluid or pressure in the middle ear, or eustachian tube dysfunction, are a crucial part of a thorough assessment.
Part 4
Audiometry
Here is what to expect during the testing process in the sound booth:
- Repeating back words
- Listening for very soft ‘tones’ or ‘beeps’
- Loudness tolerance testing
- Speech-in-noise testing
What we conduct in the sound booth is what people traditionally think of as a hearing test. Your Audiologist will ensure you are comfortable and give you instructions for each part of the test.
Part 5
Review Your Results
Each test we conduct is like a piece of a puzzle, helping to paint the bigger picture of your hearing health. We piece together the results collaboratively with you, to ensure we share the same understanding of your hearing.
Monitoring Red Flags: We keep an eye on any potential abnormalities, ensuring we catch signals that may suggest future close monitoring or even medical referral.
Lions and tigers and hearing aids, Oh My! If you are experiencing sufficient difficulty, or there is sufficient hearing loss, we may need to speak about hearing aids. Don’t worry, these days we have amazing tools for the job. Important to note, is that the way that the devices are set up has greater influence on their effectiveness than the model itself.
Your ears and sense of hearing are a gift
to appreciate on a daily basis. Happy Hearing!
Our FAQ
What percentage of hearing loss do I have?
Hearing loss is not typically described in a percentage because your hearing system is not that simple, and it also depends on what type of sound you’re listening to. However, if a number/percentage is important to you with regards your ability to understand speech, then that is something we can provide! Your Audiologist has prescription equipment that can help calculate a Speech Intelligibility Index (SII) score, which represents the percentage of speech information you have access to. This is a weighted measurement according to how important different sounds tend to be. This metric is actually quite precise, but it does not describe what your hearing system does with sound once it has access to it. In other words, once you have access to sound, is it being processed effectively into a clear and meaningful signal?
When should I get my hearing tested?
Everyone can benefit from having a baseline test of the function of their hearing system. Life happens, including work accidents and car accidents. It can serve you well to have a baseline on file prior to any incident.
Once you have a baseline, our recommendation is based on any risk factors present. Are you regularly exposed to hazardous noise at work or recreationally? Do you have diabetes? Any family history of heritable hearing loss, autoimmune conditions, or genetic conditions? It is wise to monitor your hearing every 1-3 years when risk factors are present. Your Audiologist can provide a specific recommendation for you based on your exact circumstances.
If you have noticed any hearing difficulty, go get checked! It never hurts to be informed. Too often, we get people in our door who noticed difficulties YEARS if not decades ago and left things unchecked, where medical redflags didn’t even have a chance to be caught. Don’t put it off!
What are the common signs of hearing loss?
Hearing tends to change gradually. For this reason, it’s not always obvious to the person with hearing loss… but it tends to be very noticeable to the people close to you!
You might have hearing loss if you experience one or more of the following:
- Frequently asking people to repeat themselves (or pretending you heard them)
- Trouble hearing in group settings
- Trouble hearing in background noise
- Finding that people are mumbling
- Turning up the TV
Contact Us
- 204 Lafontaine St.
Wallaceburg, ON
N8A 4H7