Hearing Aid Fitting
After a comprehensive hearing evaluation, you will be scheduled for a hearing aid evaluation if your hearing loss is not medically or surgically treatable. Based on your hearing loss, communication needs and budget, we will assist you in selecting the most appropriate style and technology to best match your hearing loss and lifestyle.
September, 2023
Silicon Valley is proud to announce that we are the first Lenire Tinnitus Treatment Provider in the San Jose area.
Your Path to Better Hearing
At Silicon Valley Hearing, we provide comprehensive hearing aid fitting services tailored to your unique hearing needs. Through detailed diagnostic testing and professional expertise, we ensure your hearing aids are programmed precisely to your hearing loss.
Using advanced Real Ear Measurement technology, we verify that your devices deliver the right amount of amplification across all frequencies, maximizing speech clarity and listening comfort. Our fitting process focuses on your lifestyle requirements and personal preferences to achieve optimal hearing outcomes. We work with leading manufacturers like Phonak, Oticon, Widex, Starkey, and ReSound to provide you with the latest hearing technology, ensuring you receive devices that best match your hearing needs and daily activities.
The Fitting Journey
Your journey to better hearing starts with a thorough evaluation of your hearing needs and lifestyle goals. We guide you through device selection, programming, and verification to ensure your hearing aids perform optimally.
Initial Consultation
We review your audiogram and perform additional tests to understand your specific hearing challenges and goals.
Device Selection
Together we choose the right hearing aid style and technology level based on your hearing loss and daily activities.
Programming and Verification
Using Real Ear Measurements, we program and verify your hearing aids to match your unique hearing prescription.
Follow-up Care
We provide ongoing support and adjustments to ensure your continued satisfaction and optimal hearing performance.
Why Professional Fitting Matters
Professional hearing aid fitting ensures your devices perform optimally for your specific hearing loss. Through precise programming and verification with Real Ear Measurements, we can confirm your hearing aids provide appropriate amplification across all frequencies. This expertise leads to better outcomes and higher satisfaction compared to over-the-counter alternatives.
Benefits of Professional Fitting
Professional fitting ensures optimal hearing outcomes through precise programming, real-ear verification, and ongoing support from our experienced audiologists. We focus on your unique needs to maximize hearing performance.
Custom programming optimizes sound clarity in all environments
Personalized settings match your lifestyle and preferences
Professional guidance ensures long-term hearing success
Most fitting appointments take about 1-2 hours. This includes programming your devices, performing Real Ear Measurements, and teaching you how to use and care for them.
Your brain needs time to adjust to hearing new sounds. Most people adapt within 2-4 weeks, and we provide support throughout this adjustment period.
We use Real Ear Measurement technology to verify your devices are providing the right amount of amplification for your specific hearing loss.
We schedule follow-up appointments to fine-tune your devices and address any concerns. The first year includes all programming adjustments at no cost.
Yes, we provide ongoing support and adjustments to ensure your devices continue performing optimally for your hearing needs.
Common Questions About Hearing Aid Fittings
Understanding the fitting process helps prepare you for success with hearing aids. Here are answers to common questions about what to expect during your fitting and how to achieve the best results.
Hearing Aid Evaluation
After a comprehensive hearing evaluation, you will be scheduled for a hearing aid evaluation if your hearing loss is not medically or surgically treatable.
Your hearing aid evaluation entails the following:
- Review of your audiogram and hearing loss type. This is an opportunity to ask as many questions as you like. It is recommended that you bring a family member with you to the hearing aid evaluation. Most audiologists agree that hearing loss is a family issue. It helps to have another supportive person at the appointment to help you understand the information and recommendations.
- Quick Speech-in-Noise Test (QSIN): Just as your audiologist tested your ability to understand speech in quiet, it is equally important to determine your ability to understand speech in noise. As you know, we live in a noisy world. From this test, your audiologist can determine if you have normal, mild, moderate or severe hearing difficulty in noise. This test is an important part of the hearing aid selection process.
- Most Comfortable (MCL) and Uncomfortable Levels (UCL) of Loudness: You will be situated in the sound booth and headphones will be placed on your head. First, the audiologist will determine your MCL for each ear individually and both ears together in response to speech stimuli. Then the audiologist will present tones (to each ear individually) and ask you to rate their loudness. Several different frequencies will be assessed. The audiologist needs to know the difference between “Loud, but okay” vs. “Uncomfortably Loud.” Obtaining UCLs is a fundamental part of setting your hearing aids appropriately for loud sounds.
- Lifestyle Needs Assessment: Our audiologist will ask you to complete an assessment questionnaire. You will be asked questions about your lifestyle, such as social activities, whether you work or are retired, communication difficulties and what your most important priorities for improving your hearing are.
Hearing Aid Selection
In today’s world, there are many different styles of hearing aids (the way they look) and technology levels (basic, mid-level and premium). We will discuss features such as Bluetooth® and other wireless connectivity devices to enhance your listening experiences in a wide variety of situations.
Based on your hearing loss, communication needs and budget, we will assist you in selecting the most appropriate style and technology to best match your hearing loss and lifestyle. Keep in mind, everyone’s hearing loss is different and listening needs are unique, so what we recommend for you may be quite different for what we recommend for someone else. See our “Hearing Aids” link for a comparison of the different styles we carry. Depending on the style you choose, you may need to have impressions made of your ears.
Hearing Aid Fitting
After you have selected the best hearing aids for your needs, we will schedule an appointment for you to be fitted with them. We will program the hearing aids to your hearing loss and perform “Real Ear” measurements to ensure audibility of speech sounds. By performing Real Ear measurements, we can determine an accurate fit of your hearing aids for soft speech, moderate speech and loud speech. We also want to ensure that loud sounds are not uncomfortably loud for you. This process involves putting a small and very thin flexible probe microphone into your ear canal. This allows us to specifically tailor the hearing aids for your listening needs and takes into account the acoustics of your individual ear canals. Real Ear measurements make the appointment more interactive and can reduce the number of office visits required for successful hearing aid programming.
Our audiologist will explain how to use these devices, how to put them in your ear(s) and how to remove them, how to change batteries and how to care for and clean the devices. We will also counsel you on realistic expectations during your first few weeks with your hearing aids. We encourage you to bring family members to your hearing aid fitting so they understand what the hearing aids will do for you. We understand that you will experience a variety of different emotions during this process and we are here to guide you every step of the way.
We firmly believe that attitude is one important key success with hearing aids. Hearing aid studies have shown that people who have a positive attitude do better with hearing aids. If you, as well as your spouse or family, approach your hearing aid fitting with a positive outlook, you will have a much better listening experience more quickly. Keep in mind that it may take some time to get used to the sounds you were missing, and by working closely with your audiologist you will get the most out of your new hearing aids.
At Silicon Valley Hearing, any programming or adjustments are included (free of charge) within the first year of your purchase. We offer lifetime cleaning services at no additional charge. Please call us whenever you are having problems and we will gladly assist you.
