Last Updated: 3 weeks ago
So, you are looking for an Audi. Not the car brand, Audi, but the person who is an Audi or short for audiologist.
It may be the first time you need an audiologist, or you moved to a new location. You could be dissatisfied with your current one or need a third opinion. But choosing who to service from can feel like you are entering the unknown.
If there is anyone who knows how to choose an audiologist, it will not be an audiologist, an influencer or a doctor. It will be someone who spent many decades meeting with various types of audiologists to discuss their hearing health.
Not all audiologists are the same, and the skill of providing health care is unique. You can choose an audiologist in a few ways, and this article will show you five ways to choose an audiologist.
1. Discover your Audi in your vicinity
Location is one of the biggest drivers for choosing an audiologist, and it is the neighbourhood. If you live in a metropolitan community and driving is not as accessible, you may want to select someone easy to access. It might be someplace close to your workplace, where you live, or maybe where you shop, like Costco.
2. Audi that are available when you have free time.
If you work, depending on your employer, the time you take away from work hours may be part of your vacation time or sick leave time. If you are a parent, you know how valuable those days off are to help care for your family. Sacrificing vacation time or sick leave time to go to an appointment.
Remember, fitting a hearing aid requires multiple appointments. What you hear in the office differs from what you will listen to in the real world. Multiple follow-ups to adjust settings on the hearing aids can only be done by your audiologist. Yes, some apps come with hearing aids, but these apps don’t have your audiologist’s capabilities.
Some audiologists are available during evenings and weekends to help you keep your precious time off for when you need the time off. You may prefer to work with these over the other.
3. Brand Agnostic
Many hearing clinics may be disguised as hearing aid manufacturers. They appear to be unique, distinct hearing clinics with different names from hearing aid brands, but these hearing clinics are subdivisions of parent hearing aid brand companies. They are restricted to only selling hearing aids manufactured by their parent company.
If you are looking for any hearing aids that give you the best quality of life, these hearing clinics will not be able to sell you any hearing aids that will do. Independent, community-owned hearing clinics have partnerships and access to many hearing aid brands and can personalize your needs.
4. Have a backup solution for technology failure
You can’t expect your hearing aids to work smoothly all the time. You might feel your whole world has shut down as soon as they are giving you trouble. You can’t go to work, hang out with friends or even go out. Some audiologists can’t make repairs in-house. They will need to ship the hearing aid to a manufacturer repair center. If this is the case, you want to see if they can offer you a spare. It would be even better if they could make repairs in-house.
Not having a clinic that can support you while you are entirely deaf can feel like you are putting your life on hold at their time and expense.
5. Identify the business reviews
It’s a skill to interpret hearing test charts and adapt hearing aids to them. It’s a skill when an audiologist gets you and how you desire to live your life and can fine-tune a hearing aid to match. Not all audiologists can intuitively make a connection. Some are more tech-savvy and lean on technology for the job. Others who are curious to identify what can be done to satisfy you are the audiologists you need and want.
The only and best way you can know is to find an audiologist with a diverse client base with all hearing loss and frequency ranges is by reading reviews. Especially reviews where you can relate to the person who commented, based on the challenges they experienced and the satisfaction that their problem has been sold.
Vague reviews like “they are great” will not help you find the audiologist you need.
Audiologists are not hearing aid fitters.
Audiologists have medical licenses that allow them to quickly identify health issues related to hearing loss. While they are not ears, nose or throat specialist who can perform surgery to treat any problems with the ear, an audiologist has more knowledge about hearing aids than just fitting hearing aids than a hearing aid dispenser.
Hearing aid dispensers are the nurses for hearing aids, while audiologists are the doctors. If putting on hearing aids is all you care about, you can choose between hearing technicians and audiologists. Still, if you are seeking a more thorough examination of your hearing health, an audiologist is what you need.
Find an audiologist with these factors in mind, and you will be much closer to finding someone who delivers value for price.