Comprehensive Hearing Assessments
Cayman’s Most Trusted Professional Hearing Assessments
Were you aware that a dripping faucet wastes a gallon of water every day? It doesn’t seem like much, but over time, it becomes costly.
Just like a dripping faucet…
You don’t notice that your hearing is getting worse until you start to have problems hearing conversations in a noisy restaurant or the volume on your television begins to bother the people around you.
The slow progression of hearing loss causes 68% of people with a measurable hearing loss to wait seven to ten years before searching for a solution to their hearing challenges.
While you wait, you could begin to develop additional negative emotional, mental, and physical health conditions, including depression, anxiety, balance disorders, cognitive decline, and more.
The deterioration of your hearing, your health, and your relationships is costly. Learn the truth about your hearing with a comprehensive hearing evaluation by a professional audiologist.
Hearing Loss Quick Facts
Hearing Loss Quick Facts
According to the World Health Organization, the prevalence of disabling hearing loss (a loss greater than 35 decibels) increases with age, among those older than 60 years; over 25% are affected by a disabling hearing loss.
Symptoms
Hearing loss is often noticed by those around you before you become aware of it. If loved ones and friends are telling you that you should get your hearing checked, they’ve probably already noticed some of the common symptoms of hearing loss, such as:
Struggling to understand what people say, especially in environments with background noise
Having to ask people to repeat themselves more often
Listening to music or watching TV at a volume that frustrates those around you
Difficulty understanding conversations on the phone
Lagging behind conversations and missing the punchline on jokes
Fatigue and stress from straining to keep up with conversations
Feelings of stuffiness or fullness in your ears
Tinnitus or ringing in your ears
Causes of Hearing Loss
Hearing loss is either congenital (you’re born with it) or acquired (it develops over time). One out of every 1,000 children is born with a hearing loss, but the vast majority of hearing loss cases are acquired hearing loss stemming from one or more causes, including:
Presbycusis, age-related hearing loss.
Ear trauma from a blow to your ear or head or an explosion
Illnesses and diseases affecting the inner or middle ear.
Ototoxic medications. Healthy Hearing provides a list of ototoxic medications.
Noise-induced hearing loss (NIHL), caused by exposure to loud noise, is the second leading cause of all hearing loss cases and first among individuals under age 65.
Impacted earwax. A blockage of the ear canal that causes muted or muffled sound
Initial Conversation
Your consultation will start with a conversation about you. We’ll ask questions related to your hearing and overall health, any medications you are taking, past surgeries, and your family history of hearing loss. We will also ask about your lifestyle, occupation, and recreational activities that may put you at risk of exposure to loud noise, as well as help us understand how active you are.
We Examine Your Ears
Some people who suspect they are losing their hearing find out that they are experiencing wax buildup or the ear canal is blocked by some foreign object. That’s why we take the extra step to examine your ears with an otoscope (a magnifying glass with a tapered end and light at the tip) to identify obstructions in the ear canal and evaluate the structural integrity of your eardrum.
Audiometric Testing
Best practices in hearing diagnostics involve the use of various forms of audiometric testing that may include any of the following:
Pure Tone Audiometry. The transmission of tones through headphones at varying frequencies and volume levels.
Speech Audiometry. The transmission of spoken words through headphones to gauge speech recognition. During this test, we will also use sentence-in-noise (SIN) testing to evaluate your ability to understand conversational speech in a noisy environment.
Bone Conduction Audiometry. This device bypasses the outer and middle ear in order to transmit tones directly to the inner ear. It aids in the diagnosis of sensorineural hearing loss (SHL).
Tympanometry. We use an instrument that looks similar to an otoscope to test the pressure on your eardrum and middle ear components.
Otoacoustic Emissions (OAE). Although not used as often as the other four tests, OAE testing measures the response of the hair cells in the inner ear in order to help determine the severity of your hearing loss.
Auditory Brainstem Response (ABR). Most often used to test the hearing of infants and young children, it can be used to test individuals with auditory processing disorder (APD).
Discussion of Results and Options
Your audiogram is available as soon as testing is finished. It shows your hearing thresholds at different frequencies, providing a specific measurement of the severity of hearing loss you are experiencing.
During your visit for testing, your audiologist will explain what your test results mean and offer options, which may include lifestyle changes, the use of hearing protection, and/or hearing aids
FAQs
