Your Journey At Quality Hearing Care
You are diagnosed with hearing loss. You visit a doctor and wear a hearing aid. Your problem is solved. Is it that simple?
No way. Wearing a Hearing Aid is just the beginning of your hearing Loss journey and not the end of it.
Treating hearing loss requires much more emotional and medical support than that. It requires an elaborate patient management process. The gap between hearing well and communicating better could never be bridged with a mere device or just one appointment with your audiologist. It’s a commitment that needs trust and care.
With this understanding, Quality Hearing Care, a renowned hearing health clinic in Mumbai, came into existence around 35 years ago.
Most hearing care providers treat hearing loss as a medical condition and focus only on the hearing aid and biomedical treatment processes without considering their personal preferences and needs. Unlike other health issues, patients with the same severity or the same diagnosis may have varied expectations while suffering from hearing loss in terms of treatment options and overall case management, depending on their lifestyle and choices.
Watch this video to get a quick overview of the process:
What Happens at Quality Hearing Care?
At Quality Hearing Care, we try to break that barrier with our 7 step patient-centric approach. Professionals connected to curate such services here have imbibed these principles in helping people suffering from hearing loss regardless of their age bracket or any other barriers.
A chronic condition like hearing loss deeply affects a person suffering from it and their loved ones equally. It so happens that others could observe the symptoms and developments even better than the person itself. The family’s involvement in prognosis can drastically help to improve the patient’s quality of life.
Our approach has helped us to be recognized amongst India’s leading hearing care centers. Besides using a psychosocial model in our work, we have also meticulously incorporated all the diagnosis protocols required to arrive at a critical understanding of an individual’s amplification needs.
Because each hearing problem is like a fingerprint, they are all unique. Our string of tests involves an audiometry speech test in noise, a quiet and short working memory test. These help us to gauge the benefit of the proposed amplification.
At quality hearing care we are using an elaborate process that helps you to define your expectations and hearing goals clearly. We work alongside you to understand all the nuances of your day to day life and how your hearing issues are impacting them.
We want you to carefully think about level of your difficulties and your final expectation in detail without missing out any important points
At every stage involvement of close family members will be of great help. As it is not only about immediate requirements but also possible future needs
This helps us to create a vision for how you would like to improve your hearing in such situations. We plot these expectations in form of a table and match them against the various attributes of all types of hearing aids available in the market. This scientific method is used to select a hearing aid that is the best match for your hearing goals. We will finally relate it to your hearing evaluation results to give you realistic expectations.
Let us have a sneak-peek of how your journey would look like with us in detail!
Step 1: Hearing Accessing Test
The first step is to get a consultation with Quality Hearing Care. Your initial meeting with the audiology team is an excellent chance for you to relay all your hearing concerns, challenges, and difficulties.
We will spend adequate time discussing with you in a relaxed environment, asking you a few easy questions to capture a full picture of your day-to-day lifestyle. This will enable us to identify any signs of hearing loss and understand your individual hearing needs, along with your expectations.
Our next step is to examine the general health of your ears by inspecting them with an otoscope for any abnormalities in your eardrum or canal. Obstructions such as wax or infection may also be contributing factors to your hearing loss. After this evaluation, you will need to undergo a few simple auditory tests to diagnose your hearing loss level and decide the degree of hearing loss.
You can also take a free online hearing test here.
Watch this video to get more info on Quality Hearing Care’s free 3-minute online hearing
Step 2: Diagnosis
After we have carried out a full inspection and ruled out the possibility of an obstruction or infection, your audiologist will begin diagnosing the type and severity with one of the most common hearing examinations named a Pure Tone Audiometry test.
A series of varying tones will be played via earphones in a sound-proof room during this simple evaluation. Your audiologist will ask you to signal to indicate when you have heard sound. During this simple evaluation and results will be plotted on an audiogram.
Depending on the type of hearing loss diagnosed, you may be required to undergo further analysis, including; a Speech Audiometry test or a QSIN test.
Image Source: Microtone Audiology
Speech in Noise Test
A Quick Speech in Noise test (QSIN) measures the inability to hear speech in noise by determining the quietest level of speech you can understand correctly amidst background noise.
It is a crucial follow-up examination in succession to your Pure Tone Audiometry test, as two people with the same level of hearing loss will have completely different abilities to understand speech in background noise.
Step 3: Prescribing
As per your diagnosis, we will recommend the best device that suits your type of hearing loss, lifestyle needs, and budget.
Providing the right hearing aid for YOU is of the utmost priority, and your hearing care specialist will ensure that you enjoy the maximum benefits, resulting in a better life.
- Technology
We offer a range of hearing aids and accessories to suit your individual needs in collaboration with some of the world’s leading developers and distributors to bring state-of-the-art and trusted technology to our patients. You are sure to find the perfect fit at Audiology Medical Services.
- Style & Comfort
We only offer the most modern hearing devices on the market to ensure we can deliver the appropriate style to suit your needs and ear canal shape.
- Price
We offer you a variety of hearing devices with varying price ranges to suit your budget. We will provide you several options from these different ranges and discuss the best choice for you.
Watch this video to find out how to find the right hearing aid for yourself:
Step 4: Fitting Stage
You must get adjusted to your new hearing aid the right way. Otherwise, it will be of no benefit to you whatsoever. In line with our commitment to providing best practice patient care, we only use the most advanced technology on the market to ensure the results you desire.
Our customized fitting suites allow us to verify your hearing aids in real-time to ensure you are getting precisely what you needed.
Step 5: Verification
Verification is an essential step in the completion of this process. To verify your hearing aids accurately, we conduct three methods: Real Ear Measurement, Visual Speech Mapping, and Virtual Reality Simulations.
- Ear Measurement
We use this to measure your digital hearing device’s frequency shaping while it sits on your ear. The specific shape and size of your ear canal and how it will affect the sound are taken into account. It provides an excellent result as it takes into consideration individual ear canal differences providing a highly personalized solution.
Your audiologist places tiny probe microphones inside the ear and analyzes the same levels of sound in your eardrum. The output from the microphone will be displayed visually on a screen for you to see.
- Visual Speech Mapping
To monitor whether your new hearing aids performance, Aurical Speech Mapping allows us to see exactly what the devices are doing with a speech. This enables us to change and define the instrument’s signal to serve you better.
- Virtual Surround Sound
It is invaluable in measuring your hearing aids’ noise reduction features.
Our virtual surround sound system allows us to recreate these difficult background noises in our clinic’s live setting. During this analysis, we can verify and adjust the hearing aids to a comfortable fit.
Step 6: Validate
The rush of new noises and sounds may be overwhelming when you use a hearing aid for the first time. It is wise to become accustomed to these changes by slowly building up the usage of your devices.
Image Source: Evidently Cochrane
You can start by wearing them for short periods during the day and try them in different social environments until you become comfortable enough to wear them successfully all the time.
As you adjust with your new devices, it will become clear where your hearing care specialist will need to make changes to fine-tune your settings.
We recommend that each patient keeps a strict diary taking note of any specific issues or situations where you experienced any difficulties. This will be useful for your next follow-up visit, where your audiologist can review your adjustment period and take any necessary steps.
These feedbacks are absolutely crucial as they help us determine how well the hearing aid is satisfying your needs and if the hearing aid fails to do so, then how to change/alter the settings for a better hearing experience.
Step 7: Ongoing Aftercare
It is essential to note that your hearing may change over time, and you may need to readjust the technical settings of your device accordingly. At Quality Hearing Care, we take pride in our high standards of patient aftercare.
- Continuous Professional Support
You can’t put a price on peace of mind. So we take full responsibility for your hearing aid at Quality Hearing Care. You can relax that if anything goes wrong, we will be over any repairs and do our utmost to hand them over in full working order as quickly as possible.
Depending on your case, we may supply you with a replacement device while your own is being fixed.
Providing excellent patient care is a core resolution with each team member at QHC, and we persistently strive to exceed this promise. We believe that no query is too silly, and we will be delighted to offer any assistance whenever possible.
- Your Aftercare Appointment Plan
A regular quarterly follow-up plan with our care team is vital to encourage your new hearing problem’s continued development. Your first visit will take place a few weeks after your initial fitting, meaning you will have had a considerable amount of time to adapt to life with your new instrument.
Aftercare Appointment is an excellent opportunity to raise any concerns or teething problems you may have experienced so far. After listening to your detailed feedback, your hearing care specialist may decide to fine-tune or make specific changes to your device to improve your overall user experience with the device’s sound quality.
Following this, we will invite you to attend six-monthly check-ups during the lifespan of your hearing aid to analyze its performance. We will see how effectively it is working for you.
To know a few more essential tips on how you can improve your hearing, watch this video:
An annual assessment will also be scheduled to re-examine your hearing level, ensuring you will enjoy your device’s maximum benefit for years to come.
We understand that it might get overwhelming to go through all these processes, but it is not scary! With Quality hearing Care, this whole process is smooth and hassle-free.
Get in touch with us today. Share this blog with anyone who might benefit from it.
