A visit to a hearing professional is in many ways similar to visiting any other specialist. If you are a candidate for a SONGBIRD DIGITAL™ Disposable Hearing Aid, you will need only one visit and it should be accomplished within an hour or an hour and a half.



Fees for the visit will vary, but are similar to those charged by an eye care professional – probably in the $100 to $150 range. Ask your professional prior to your visit what his or her fees are, and check with your insurance company to determine whether or not these fees will be covered.



The first thing your hearing professional will do is inquire about your medical history. He or she will want to know whether you’ve had any ear infections or ear surgery, what medications you take, whether there is a family history of hearing loss, etc. Your hearing professional will also question you about the problems and concerns you have regarding your hearing.



Next, your hearing professional will examine your ear with an instrument called an otoscope. This tool supplies light magnification and allows your hearing professional to check for any abnormalities, such as excessive cerumen (ear wax), moles or other types of ear canal or ear drum irregularities, which may affect your hearing. (You probably recall family physicians checking your ears with this instrument.)



In addition to getting a case history and examining your ears with an otoscope, your hearing professional will do a variety of tests to determine whether you have hearing loss and if so, to what degree.

These can include any or all of the following tests:

• Tympanometry – Examines middle ear mobility, which plays a role in how sounds are transmitted to the inner ear
• Pure Tone Air Conduction Audiometry – This test is conducted with headphones, and finds the softest level at which you can hear a pure tone at each frequency, from 250 – 8000 Hz
• Speech Reception Threshold – Looks for the softest level at which a person can hear and correctly repeat back selected words
• Word Recognition Score – Checks how many words, presented to you at a comfortable level, you can repeat correctly
• Pure Tone Bone Conduction Audiometry – This test is conducted with a different type of headset than the pure tone air conduction audiometry; the outer and middle ear are bypassed and the inner ear is directly stimulated. The test measures the softest level at which you can hear a pure tone at each frequency, 250 – 4000 Hz

After conducting these tests, ruling out medical explanations for your hearing loss and determining how much of a loss you have, your hearing professional will discuss your results with you and let you know the type, configuration and degree of your hearing loss. He or she will then discuss your options with you.



At this point, your hearing professional should present Songbird Digital as an option if your loss is in the mild-to-moderate range. (If Songbird Digital is not presented, feel free to ask about it.) If one of Songbird Digital’s four sizes fits your ears physically, you should be able to leave your hearing professional’s office with a hearing aid that day! You will also receive a patient instruction booklet and a wearing schedule, which will allow you to gradually adjust to the physical feel of the Songbird Digital, and to hearing sounds you may have been missing for years.

That’s all there is to visiting your hearing professional…it is a very simple process and you may be able to leave the office hearing better than you have in years!