What does a hearing aid specialist do?

What is a Hearing Aid Specialist?

A hearing aid specialist, also known as a hearing instrument specialist, is a professional who evaluates people with hearing problems and chooses the best hearing aid to improve their condition.

Hearing loss is frequently encountered among the elderly, but also in younger people. Although age is the primary cause of hearing loss, there are other causes such as loud noise, infections, tumours, a ruptured eardrum, or an accumulation of excessive earwax in the ear canal.

What does a Hearing Aid Specialist do?

It is estimated that more than 30 percent of people aged between 65 and 75 suffer from hearing loss to some extent. Moreover, more than half of people who are older than 75 have hearing loss. A person who has poor hearing due to degeneration caused by age may be effectively tested by a hearing aid specialist, who will also select the appropriate hearing instrument to satisfy the patient's hearing needs.

People with other hearing disorders who need a thorough medical examination or specialized treatment are usually referred to audiologists or ear-nose-throat (ENT) doctors.

Hearing aid specialists evaluate each case depending on the results of testing and assessment. The most commonly employed hearing test is an audiogram, which precisely determines the extent of hearing loss in both ears.

After evaluating the test results, hearing aid specialists select a variety of hearing aids that the patient will try. Hearing aids may be worn behind the ears, which are usually larger devices, or they may be placed in the ear. Moreover, there are smaller hearing aids that occupy only the ear canal and are barely noticeable to an observer.

A hearing aid specialist will guide a person through the entire process and will make the necessary adjustment of device settings to ensure a comfortable level of hearing and no collateral noise.

What is the workplace of a Hearing Aid Specialist like?

Hearing aid specialists work in offices that provide hearing aid services to people who suffer from hearing loss. They work with testing equipment and usually have a wide selection of hearing aids available for selection.

If the patient is a child or a person suffering from a less frequently encountered hearing disorder, they will be referred to an audiologist, although a hearing aid specialist may conduct the initial testing successfully.