The Journey to Optimal Hearing

The Hearing Test Appointment:

For hearing aid service in Walnut Creek, Walnut Creek Hearing Aid Center is here to help, starting with testing. The hearing test session is used to learn about your hearing problems, your hearing-related medical history, and observe the physical conditions of your ears. A comprehensive series of tests is performed to discover the level of power required to get you to hear sound, the need for medical referral, and your ability to understand speech when it is presented under ideal conditions with standardized, amplified speech. If you currently wear hearing aids, we perform objective tests to measure how well those hearing aids are able to deliver appropriate sound for your hearing impairment.

The Ear Impression:

We take impressions of your ears in order to make custom earpieces that will allow us to properly control the sound in your ear canal at the "Demo" session.

The "Demo" Session:

During the "Demo" session the Hearing System Specialist and you will discover your current, residual hearing capabilities to process sound into clear speech in a variety of environmental conditions. Based upon those findings, we determine the technical requirements of a hearing aid to deliver maximal speech intelligibility and natural sound quality to you. We then create a treatment strategy designed to help you recover your lost neuro-cognitive capabilities to turn voices into clear speech and return the musical and natural qualities to everyday sounds.

Preparation of the Devices: We begin by modifying the acoustic characteristics of the custom earmolds we had manufactured, by carving them as necessary. Hearing aids capable of delivering controlled sound to your ears are then coupled to those custom earpieces. Computer cables are connected to the hearing aids in order to modify and control the sound output into your ear canals. Real-ear microphones are inserted into your ear canals to measure and monitor the sound you hear.

Three Custom Sound Programs Are Created: The first program is designed to get you to hear everything, as close to the experience of a normal-hearing individual as technically possible, while still retaining a completely natural quality of sound. A second program is designed to get you to hear speech as clearly as possible. A third program is designed for comfort and clarity in extremely noisy environments.

During the setting of each program, the Hearing System Specialist performs a series of diagnostic tests to determine your ability to understand speech that is fast, whispered, shouted, or of different sound-pitch qualities. We will determine how your speech understanding is affected by noise, reverberation, and distance in several real and simulated-environment conditions.

What we learn from these diagnostic tests is used to determine the requirements for any hearing aid to deliver the sound you will need; one that will not compromise either your current needs nor your future requirements from a hearing aid, once you have neuro-cognitively adapted to hearing the sounds you've been missing.

Choice of Hearing Aids: We discuss the pros and cons of various hearing aid styles and how each would work for your particular hearing capabilities and loss.

Set The Treatment Strategy: Everyone has different immediate-listening needs and current capabilities. These must be considered in the selection of initial hearing aid settings. Everyone also has different realistic performance level expectations to strive to achieve, in both the short and the longer-term. We discuss the level of options that you feel comfortable taking on to move towards your goal of optimal hearing. The hearing aid is modified to the settings you will walk out with.

The Delivery:

You will be trained on how to use and care for the hearing aids.

You will be given instruction on what to expect and what you should report back to us at your first trial visit in approximately 1 week.

The Trial Visits:

Hearing aid service at Walnut Creek Hearing Aid Center is thorough, and trial visits are important. During these visits the Hearing System Specialist will discover your immediate successes and problems with the hearing aid settings, ear-pieces, and real-world listening situations. Modifications will be made if necessary and another appointment is scheduled. With our Life of the Aid service plan, weekly Trial appointments continue until you no longer have a reason to return for additional modification or instruction. At that point, you will be instructed as to when to return for your future checkups, hearing tests and re-tuning sessions to keep you hearing your best. Call us today to schedule your first appointment.