About Our Clinic

Financing is available on select hearing devices. We would be happy to help walk you through the application process.

Usually, individuals do not seek out their audiologist until a hearing problem is noticed. For example, his/her spouse complaining about the TV being too loud, or difficulty understanding speech in background noise. Although a hearing test at that time is recommended, a baseline is also a recommended starting point so that change in hearing can be determined.

1. Anyone working in the presence of excessive noise (85 dBA) should have an annual threshold check.
2. An assessment around the age of 50 will help determine a progressive hearing loss in the future.
3. A sudden shift in hearing acuity requires a hearing test within 48 hours.

Additional testing may be recommended by your hearing aid practitioner depending on case history and audiometric results. Once hearing loss or tinnitus is determined, an audiometric test every two years is recommended (sooner if any of the above is applicable).

To see a Hearing Aid Practitioner in a private practice, you do not need a physician’s referral. There is a cost for an assessment in this setting, but the wait time is minimal. Some health plans will reimburse the assessment fee, but you must check with your plan to see if it is covered.

Ear wax (or cerumen) in moderate amounts is healthy. It serves as a protectant for your ears, just as eyelashes protect your eyes. A combination of ear hairs, outward migration of the skin in the canal, and jaw movement serve as a natural cleaner of the canal. The aging process often changes the shape of the canal to a slim oval which can also cause wax to build up.

As well, hearing aids can block the wax from making its way out of the canal. Use of Q-tips can push the cerumen further into the canal where it can no longer come out on its own. Remember: never put anything smaller than your elbow into your ear canal! Use of mineral oil, olive oil, or even Colace may be used to soften cerumen before removal, but only if there is certainty that the eardrum is intact.

There are three methods a regulated health care professional will use to remove excessive ear wax:
1. Instrumentation: wax is removed using a curette;
2. Suction: wax is removed using a mini vacuum (safest and most preferred by clients);
3. Irrigation: flushing with water.

NOTE: Ear candling is not a recommended method for cerumen removal.

• Speak normally; not too exaggerated, too quickly or too loudly.
  Be sure you have eye contact before you begin speaking to the person.
• Use facial expressions, gestures and body language.
• Ensure the person is aware when the topic changes.
• Be aware of competing noises or sounds in the room such as music, other people talking, or mechanical sounds such as air conditioners. Background noises make it much more difficult to hear.
• Reword your sentence if the person does not understand what you are saying.
• Most importantly, ask if there is anything you can do to improve communication.

Sudden hearing loss occurs for various reasons and should always be dealt with immediately. In 9/10 cases, the loss is unilateral (only in one ear). Whether the change in hearing is due to wax build-up, a middle ear infection, or a sudden sensorineural decrease in hearing at multiple frequencies (inner ear), you should see your family physician or hearing aid practitioner to determine the cause/type of the loss right away. It is always better to be safe than sorry. Many times, people assume it is nothing serious, only to wait too long to get medical attention and are unable to recover their hearing.

Sudden sensorineural hearing loss (SSHL) should be considered a medical emergency and be dealt with in the first 48 hours. The sooner you seek medical attention, the more likely you are to recover some or all of your hearing. Since there are more than 100 possible causes of SSHL, it is often unlikely that it will be identified. Possible treatments include antibiotics, low salt diet, and most commonly, steroids.

No one said hearing was simple! The complexities of the ear and all the tiny instruments within requires a variety of training and specialties. With that said, when it comes to the medical field of hearing care, there’s an array of specialists.

There are two healthcare professions that provide services to conduct hearing tests for the purposes of selecting, fitting and dispensing hearing aids and other assisting listening devices.  These two groups are called Audiologists and  Hearing Aid Practitioners. Each specialist has a different scope of practice, which is defined by their education and training and by regulatory distinctions.

Audiologist

An Audiologist is a hearing care professional with a minimum of a Master’s Degree of Education. This master’s degree will usually focus on a very clinical point of view on hearing loss and specialize on the physiology of speech and balance disorders.

Hearing Aid Practitioner (HAP)

A Hearing Aid Practitioner (HAP) is a hearing healthcare professional with a diploma in:

•  Hearing Testing and Compilation of testing data to determine type of hearing loss.
•  Prescribing and fitting/dispensing of hearing aids and assistive listening devices including ongoing  service, adjustments, and maintenance of the hearing aids.
•  Ongoing counseling and support with the clients and family members to ensure they derive the  best benefit possible from the amplification.

All too often, clients report a “dead” ear when, in actuality, that ear just has poorer hearing than the other one. Following a hearing test by an audiologist to diagnose the type and degree of hearing loss being suffered, amplification options can be discussed. In the event that one ear either has no hearing OR if it can hear environmental sounds, but cannot distinguish speech sounds adequately, there is now a cosmetically pleasing option to try.

This is called a CROS (or biCROS) hearing aid which stands for “Contralateral Routing of Signals”. In other words, it takes the sound received on the side of the “bad ear”, and sends it over to the “good ear” where it is picked up by a receiving hearing aid that only amplifies the sound if needed for that ear. In the past, this was only possible with a cord running around the back of the neck, but technology has come a long way. It is now wireless and the devices are very discrete.