Hearing & listening assessment

Your Hearbrite hearing journey will start with our hearing aid consultation.  This is the first step of your journey, where you will be thoroughly assessed so we can advise you appropriately on what your next steps are.  It is entirely your decision on what steps you take, we will simply give you our professional advice and guidance for you to make an informed decision.  

It is advisable that you bring a close friend or family member with you, as there is a lot of information to take onboard during the assessments.  

This is what you can expect from our hearing aid consultation....

This is vital to make sure we have a great understanding of your hearing history and difficulties you experience.  We make a record of the areas you want to improve from your hearing, so we can monitor the improvement during your rehabilitation process.  We also highlight any areas that may require further assistance from other medical experts.

This is a vital outer ear examination.  We take a close inspection of the health of the pinna (ear), external auditory meatus (ear canal) and tympanic membrane (ear drum).  Any problems such as a wax blockage will be highlighted at this stage.

This is a standard audiological assessment that we have to conduct to be able to establish your hearing loss thresholds.  We can use this information to assess the severity of your hearing loss and program hearing aids based on the results.

The hearing assessment is based on listening to a series of pure tones and it is a good indication of what sounds you can hear.  What information this assessment doesn't give us, is a good indication of how you listen.

 We hear with our ears, but we listen with our brains. 

These are additional assessments and measure your listening ability, rather than your hearing ability.  

We feel they are vital assessments as the information gained helps us to accurately prescribe what level of technology you may require.  These assessments are more of a reflection of how you hear outside of a clinical environment.  

We use a speech in quiet examination called Word Recognition Test (WRT) - this assessment tests your understanding of speech in a quiet environment without hearing aids.  We can then repeat the assessment with hearing aids and monitor the initial improvement.

The next assessment is called QuickSIN.  This is a speech in noise assessment, it gives us a signal-to-noise ratio.  This will give us a great understanding of how your listening ability is in noise.  This may dictate what technology is required from a hearing aid.

We explain your hearing and listening results to you in easy to understand format.  It is useful at this stage to have someone with you to also understand your results and how that relates to your hearing difficulties.

If we recommend a hearing product to be the right solution to improve your hearing and lifestyle, then we would recommend this at this stage.  If a hearing product is not going to be the right solution, we will advise you on the appropriate next steps.

We can offer a full hearing aid demonstration, with a pair of the latest hearing aid technology.  Even at this early stage a demonstration will give you an idea of the benefit you will receive from amplification.  

If you decide to purchase a hearing aid product, we will explain what happens at each step of your hearing journey.  This will start with the next step, the fitting appointment.  

Our passion is ensuring you maximise your hearing and listening ability.