Virus update

Ears to You remains committed to providing quality hearing care during these trying days.
We plan to continue seeing patients, but our schedule has been structured so that only one patient is in the office at any one time.
Walk-ins are allowed if no other patients are present. Patients may be accompanied by a family member or friend as desired.
Patients are asked to use hand sanitizer or wash their hands upon arrival. Patients with symptoms such as cough, fever, shortness of breath,
or muscle aches are asked to reschedule. Surfaces are cleaned following each appointment.

One patient emailed us, “You are essential personnel.” 🙂

David A. Taylor, MA
Audiologist & Hearing Aid Specialist
Ears to You

Ears to You

Come Home to better hearing

by

Incompetence in hearing care

Back when I started this blog, I said I was going to write posts that others in the hearing care community may not like. I don’t think I’ve done much of that yet, so here goes. It’s going to get a little technical, but bear with me and I think you’ll understand enough to get the message.Watch Full Movie Online Streaming and Download

This week I took on a new client who is in his sixties and has worn hearing aids since his twenties. He has what is known as a flat, moderate sensorineural hearing loss in both ears. He and his wife recently moved to the area from somewhere in New England. His most recent hearing aids contain some the best technology available and he paid a premium price for them at his previous provider.

The style he wears is known as receiver-in-the-canal or RIC. He wears them with an unvented dome over the speaker. In the course of our discussion he remarked that his previous provider had tried an open dome at first. The choice of an open, highly vented dome as a first choice for a flat, moderate, sensorineural hearing loss shows that his previous provider knows nothing about hearing aid acoustics. An open dome would take away all of the low to mid-frequency benefit he needs by venting all the lows out of his ear.

We were going to send his hearing aids in for repair due to water damage, so I fit a loaner for him. When I programmed the loaner using Real Ear (probe microphone) measures, he was curious. He said no one had ever done this sort of procedure for him! He has worn hearing aids much of his life and none of his previous providers (as far as he remembered) had ever used a probe microphone! (Real Ear is the standard of care for audiology.)

So, how do you protect yourself from the incompetent? Inform yourself. Go to the website for the American Academy of Audiology. Call them or email them. Ask about best practices. See what they say. If you live in the Hampton Roads area of Virginia you can attend my presentation at the brand new Denbigh Community Center on September 28th. The title of the talk is “Hearing Aid Shopping: What to Know Before You Go.”