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Audiology

Audiology is the branch of medicine that tends to hearing and balance disorders. Whether you’re seeking help with muffled audio or want to fine-tune your hearing with a hearing aid device, our audiology team can help amplify your sense of sound.

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Amplifying sound with audiology

Sound can play a big role in how we experience life, from communicating with others to engaging with the world around us.

Some people are born with quieter hearing. For others, perhaps their hearing loss is a result of listening to music at max volume on their headphones. It's also important to know that hearing loss can be linked to medications.

Our skilled audiologists can help identify early signs of hearing loss and turn up your sound's volume with implantable and external hearing devices. And should you need help adjusting to this refreshed world of sound, we can support you with speech-language therapy.

Patient sitting on top of exam table while discussing ear symptoms with doctor during an audiology clinic appointment.
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Conditions

There are a variety of factors that can lead to hearing loss, including:

  • Aging
  • Genetics
  • Loud noises
  • Medications
  • Trauma at birth
  • Viral infections

From our littlest patients to adults, we help people living with one or a combination of the following hearing disorders:

  • Eardrum perforations
  • Middle ear infections
  • VIII cranial nerve lesions
  • Ototoxicity
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Testing

Our audiologists are skilled in conducting a variety of diagnostic tests to get to the bottom of your hearing problem. We offer the following hearing tests to determine the degree and type of hearing loss you're living with:

  • Auditory brainstem response (ABR) testing
  • Diagnostic audiology service
  • Inner ear evaluations
  • Intra-operative testing
  • Ototoxicity monitoring
  • Screening for newborns, infants and toddlers
  • Screening for patients with cancer

Our audiologists also work in harmony with ear, nose and throat (ENT) doctors and other hearing specialists to better treat complex hearing problems.

Comprehensive hearing evaluations

At your first visit, your audiologist will review your medical history and examine your ears to confirm they're clear for testing. Your comprehensive hearing evaluation includes tests such as:

  • Distortion-product otoacoustic emissions (DPOAEs)
  • Immittance battery
  • Pure tone air and bone conduction
  • Speech audiometry
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Treatments

Many people with hearing loss have become accustomed to tinnitus (ringing in their ears) or faded words and sounds. But it doesn't have to be that way. Our audiology services include:

  • Communication training to reduce the impact of hearing loss in situations when it's difficult to communicate
  • Fitting hearing aids
  • Hearing aid repairs
  • Hearing loss and amplification
  • Implantable hearing device
  • Pediatric swim molds (custom-made waterproof earplugs made from silicone that prevent any water from entering the ear canal)

Hearing aids

About 1 in 8 people in the United States aged 12 or older has hearing loss in both ears. Hearing aid technology has improved dramatically over the years. Today, you can benefit from a higher sound quality, more connectivity options and a sleeker look than the devices of the past.

Implantable hearing devices 

Different from traditional hearing aids that are worn in or behind the ear, an implantable hearing device is a more permanent solution that's surgically implanted in the ear to amplify sound. Together, we'll explore if a bone-conduction hearing aid or cochlear implant is right for you.

Ototoxicity monitoring

Ototoxic medications play an important role in treating conditions like cancer, serious infections and sickle cell anemia. If not properly monitored, these medications can cause hearing loss or damage. Ototoxicity monitoring involves routine hearing tests to measure how well you hear and flag the first signs of hearing loss to your doctor.

Speech-language therapy

Hearing aids and cochlear implants can transform how you hear sound. As exciting as this is, we understand it can be a lot to adjust to, especially when hearing loss has impacted communication for so long. Speech language therapy is used to help people overcome speech, language and cognitive conditions so they can communicate with confidence. 

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