What Can You Expect at Your Audiologist Appointment?

Attending any appointment can be nerve-wracking, especially when you aren’t certain what will happen. As such, if you’re on the brink of your first audiologist appointment, it’s normal to feel nervous. 

The good news is that there really isn’t anything to be afraid of, and we aren’t just saying that! Whether you’ve been referred or sought an appointment yourself, audiologists are highly professional. They’ll talk you through every step of the process, as well as helping you on the path to better hearing health moving forward.

But you don’t need to take our word for it. Here, we’re going to hopefully alleviate your worries by talking you through exactly what you can expect when you arrive and during your appointment.

Getting to know you

Your audiologist will tailor care towards you, so a lot of your appointment will center around getting to know you. First, your audiologist will likely run through your medical history and ask questions such as whether there are hearing issues in your family. Then, they’ll take the time to understand your current hearing complaints in your words before doing anything that you aren’t comfortable with.

Hearing tests and examinations

Once your audiologist has a solid understanding of your history and current hearing predicament, it’s time for tests and examinations that will help them to confirm or disprove any suspicions about what’s going on. 

The good news is that you needn’t revise for this test, and it definitely won’t hurt you. Rather, your audiologist will attempt to determine where your hearing is at. This is typically done using three tests, including:

• Otoscopy: By looking in your ear canal with an otoscope, your audiologist will check for earwax, blockages or other issues with your ear canal or drum.
• Tympanometry: By testing to see how your eardrum responds to light pressure, a tympanometry test allows an audiologist to determine whether anything is inhibiting eardrum motion, such as fluid or infection. 
• Audiometry: Consisting of both air conduction and bone conduction testing, an audiometry test involves listening to several different pitches to determine the softest sounds you can hear.

Making a plan of action

During these tests, your audiologist will track all their findings on an audiogram, which they will then run you through and use to make a plan of action. The next step depends on their findings, but they’ll talk you through the best route every step of the way. With easily treatable conditions such as earwax impaction, a follow-up appointment may be all you need. Or, in more severe cases of hearing loss, your audiologist may recommend hearing aids. In some rare cases, further referrals will also be necessary, but you needn’t worry – your audiologist will do whatever they can to help. 

So, you see – there’s really nothing to worry about when seeing an audiologist. In fact, the sooner your appointment, the more chance that your audiologist will be able to work with you towards a simple solution!