Hearing Aid Assessment & Consultations
Dr. Stakiw's philosophy is to provide her patients with the best hearing instruments available based on several factors including lifestyle, the severity of the hearing loss, the impact of the hearing loss on communication, as well as financial considerations. We strive to find the perfect match to help you hear well again.
Most hearing aids come from the major manufacturers listed below. Dr. Stakiw is able to explain which hearing aid would be appropriate for you and why. Please feel free to contact us for a free hearing aid evaluation.
Hearing Aid Evaluations
This FREE appointment is approximately 1 hour in length and Dr. Stakiw will thoroughly discuss all aspects of hearing aids and determine the appropriate hearing aid for your lifestyle, hearing, and budget.
1.) Evaluate your lifestyle needs
What type of activities do you attend? Do you attend meetings or are you still working?
2.) Determine the Style of Hearing Aid that works best for you
We will look at the different cosmetic styles of hearing aids. The outward appearance of a hearing aid does not determine the cost. This is the determined by the technology level.
3.) Technology level best for you
This is where your audiologist’s expertise is very important. Hearing aids are computers, with more processing speed than most home computers. They perform millions of computations per second, and adjust for changing sound situations hundreds of times per second. Each step up in technology will make improvements in sound quality or speech perception.
Which level of technology is best for you is a factor of your needs. Since each level up usually denotes a cost increase, your budget must also be factored in.
4. Branding and Options
There are many different hearing aid manufacturers: Unitron, Oticon, Resound, Widex, Signia, Phonak, and Starkey, just to name a few. For the most part, the brand of hearing aid isn’t as important as the technology level chosen or the competency of your audiologist.
Long gone are the days when hearing aids were large, obvious and embarrassing. Just like computers and cell phones from a decade ago, hearing aids are now much smaller and offer amazing technological performance for all life styles.
New hearing aids offer a number of high-tech features. They are programmed to compensate for your specific hearing needs. Today’s hearing aids don’t make everything louder- they make sound more distinct.
In other words you can:
- hear better in noisy situations
- identify sounds like chirping birds or a ticking clock
- adjust preferences to your personal comfort levels