Week 11, Fall 2007
This week I saw a recruit who I had recently seen for a hearing evaluation. He had normal hearing to mild hearing loss in the low-frequencies, and a sharply sloping drop, beginning at 2000Hz, to a severe SNHL Hz in the high-frequencies. His hearing and speech discrimination was substantially worse in the left ear, so my supervisor and I advised him to try a monaural fitting first. We ordered an Oticon Delta 4000 for his right ear.
When his hearing aid arrived, I programmed it according to the manufacturer's first fitting for his audiogram. When the recruit came for his visit, I found his REUR and used it to tailor his fitting. When I asked the recruit how his hearing aid sounded, he reported that they didn't seem to be providing enough gain. I boosted gain in the middle- and high-frequencies, and the client seemed to be pleased with the increases. Additionally, he did not report any tolerance problems.
I also completed some testing in the soundfield to verify hearing aid benefit. The client's word discrimination and warbled pure tone minimum response levels improved substantially when unaided results were compared with aided results. The recruit commented on the improvement in audibility and "sharpness" that his hearing aid provided. The client was very happy about the fitting and was receptive to new information about maintenance, use, and his warranty.
The client was scheduled to return in a week and a half following Thanksgiving Break.
The following article, Recognition of Hearing Aid Orientation Content by First-Time Users, discusses one of the roadblocks to successful hearing aid fittings ... retention of information. Stay tuned for more info.
http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=aph&AN=17870910&site=ehost-live
posted by KaraMar10 @ 10:07 PM
2 Comments:
It's always a joy to be able to work with a person who perceives such an increase in audibility and speech understanding with hearing aids. I was just curious if this was his/her first amplification?
Hi Sabrina, thanks for your comment. I talked about this person in Week 5, Fall 2007 if you want the whole story. But, in short, this person was not a first-time user. Prior to coming to our clinic, this person was fit in his other ear by another audiologist in the area. The ear that was previously fit had very poor discrim, which is why I would imagine he had been so dissatisfied with amplification in the past.
Luckily, he was very open-minded to trying something new. I see him around town sometimes, and he always tells me how much he likes his new hearing aid in his better ear. Yay!
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