Is your hearing aid not working?
Or do you know someone who doesn’t wear their hearing aid because they think it isn’t working?
This should never be the case, and, in the care of the right provider, this can most often be fixed.
The number one reason given by hearing aid owners who do not wear their hearing aids is that “they don’t work”.
The problem is not with the hearing aids. More often than not, the hearing aid is incorrectly programmed (adjusted) for the user.
Hearing aids are not like many other electronics. You just don’t take them out of the package, plug them in and expect them to work. Hearing aids are sophisticated computers which require an experienced programmer, with a great deal of knowledge of the hearing system, to set all of the sound adjustments to ensure the user can hear speech sounds.
But even the most experienced programmer will not make the hearing aids work for you unless the hearing aid settings are carefully measured to ensure that speech sounds are heard by the user. This measurement process is called Probe Microphone Measurements.
75% of all hearing aid professionals, including audiologists (who, during their doctoral training are taught probe measurements) and hearing aid dispensers (state hearing aid dispenser licensure law requires little to no knowledge on how to measure the settings of hearing aid) do NOT use probe microphone measures when they program hearing aids on the user. This means that 75% of hearing aids will not work optimally for the user.
At Champlain Valley Audiology, we follow the gold standard practice guidelines for verifying the programming of all hearing aid settings using probe microphone measurements, regardless of the level of technology and regardless of where the hearing aids were originally purchased.
Probe microphone measures are absolutely necessary, and, if they are not performed, there can be many visits back to the provider who will adjust the hearing aids based on user report and not on science.
If you or someone you know or love has hearing aids that “aren’t working,” we can often make those aids work much better for the user. Let us program and measure the hearing aids the right way and get them back into the ears of a satisfied user. Contact us today to set up your appointment.