FREE IN-HOME HEARING EVALUATION & TESTING
If you pressed the Get A Free Hearing Evaluation because you are thinking of acquiring hearing aids or replacing your current hearing aids, you have taken a step in the right direction.
Evaluation and testing are performed at no charge and I never employ high pressure sales tactics. Not ever. All the aids I provide are subject to a 45-day return privilege should they fail to improve your ability to hear or understand speech. I have 36 years of dispensing experience and you will find that my prices are very competitive. All you have to do is to give me a call at 707-515-5522 and we will schedule an appointment at a time convenient for you in the comfort of your own home or office.
As you can see from my reviews, I am able to repair many hearing aids on the spot without having to send them into a repair lab which would charge a fee for the repair.
A hearing evaluation consists of several elements.
The first thing I do is an ottoscopic examination of the ear to check for wax buildup and to make sure the ear drum is intact. Once this is done, we can proceed to the first of six tests.
The first test is called pure tone air conduction where tones are presented to the patient at various amplitudes to determine the lowest level at which the patient can detect the tone. This test is performed at 125hz, 250hz, 500hz, 750hz, 1000hz, 1500hz, 2000hz, 3000hz, 4000hz, 6000hz and 8000hz.
The second test is called LDL or loudness discomfort level and is determined by playing tones to the patient at ever increasing levels and having the test subject signal if the tone level gets to the point that it is uncomfortable. This test is performed starting at 85dB and presenting the tones at ever increasing levels until either the subject signals that it is uncomfortable or reaching 110dB.
The third test is called SRT or speech reception threshold which is determined by presenting spondaic words decreasing the volume until the subject can only correctly identify two out of four word. This is the level where speech starts to become understandable.
The fourth test is called MCL or most comfortable level which is determined by using tones or paired sentences at various level until a comfortable level of speech is achieved.
The fifth test is called Discrimination which is determined by using a phonetically balanced word list that covers the different speech sounds in the English language. The word list is presented at MCL with 50 words being presented to each ear. The subjects correct responses are totaled which gives us a percentage of correct responses. A discrim score in the 90s is considered excellent, in the 80s is considered good, in the 70s is considered fair, in the 60s is considered poor, and if the subject scores below 40% hearing aids will not help.
The final test I give is bone conduction by presenting tones in order to find the lowest level the tones can be heard. The test is performed at 500hz, 1000hz, 2000hz, 3000hz and 4000hz.
Analyzing the results of this test when compared to pure tone air conduction scores will tell me the kind of loss you have:
Sensorineural, Conductive or Mixed.