Hawkins Hearing Center

Hearing aids are primarily useful in improving the hearing and speech comprehension of people who have hearing loss that results from damage to the small sensory cells in the inner ear, called hair cells. This type of hearing loss is called sensorineural hearing loss. The damage can occur as a result of disease, aging, or injury from noise or certain medicines.A hearing aid magnifies sound vibrations entering the ear. Surviving hair cells detect the larger vibrations and convert them into neural signals that are passed along to the brain. The greater the damage to a person’s hair cells, the more severe the hearing loss, and the greater the hearing aid amplification needed to make up the difference. However, there are practical limits to the amount of amplification a hearing aid can provide. In addition, if the inner ear is too damaged, even large vibrations will not be converted into neural signals. In this situation, a hearing aid would be ineffective.

An audiologist is a licensed professional who has a masters or doctoral degree in audiology. Audiologists are clinically, academically and professionally trained to determine which hearing losses require medical referral and/or assistive listening devices.

Audiologists often focus on diagnosis and pediatric patients.Hearing instrument specialists are also qualified, trained and licensed to evaluate hearing and fit hearing aids. Their focus is on treating sensorineural hearing loss (hearing loss related to inner ear) and fitting hearing aids.

Hearing aids are generally not covered by health insurance, although most companies will have some forms of financing available. Financing is usually available with some plans even offering 0% financing.

During your visit an audiometric exam will be conducted. This exam will determine if you have a hearing loss and if it’s correctable by hearing aids. If you have a hearing loss and it is determined that it cannot be corrected with hearing aids, you will then be referred out to an otolaryngologist. An otolaryngologist is a physician who specializes in ear, nose, and throat disorders and will investigate the cause of the hearing loss.