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 WHAT TO EXPECT ON YOUR FIRST APPOINTMENT During your first appointment, you normally receive information about hearing, hearing loss and hearing instruments. Perhaps the most important part of this initial visit is the hearing evaluation. To understand what happens during a hearing evaluation, you need to know about pitch and loudness. Pitch and loudness are the two basic terms we use to describe sounds. If you imagine a piano, the low-pitched sounds, or bass notes, are on the left side of the keyboard. High-pitched sounds, or treble notes, are on the right. Loudness depends upon how hard the piano keys are struck. During a hearing evaluation, you will listen to both treble and bass notes through headphones. By varying the loudness of each pitch, and recording your responses to these sounds, your hearing care professional can determine the softest level at which you can hear different treble and bass pitches in each ear. The results of your hearing evaluation are recorded on a graph called an audiogram. The audiogram gives a clear picture of your overall hearing ability and enables the hearing care professional to decide which type of hearing instrument is appropiate for you. The next step is to make an earmold of the shape of your ear so that the instrument is customized to you. Dr. Ridenhour then includes the resulting earmold when ordering your new custom-fitted hearing instrument. A hearing screening is a quick look at the ear's sensitivity to various pitches or sound frequencies. Audiograms are often taken at health fairs, in family practice physicians' offices and other places, such as public schools. These are called screening tests or screening audiograms. No particular expertise is required to perform them, and often they can be misleading, either showing a hearing loss where none exists, or missing a hearing loss because of inadequate use of the equipment. As an audiologist, Dr. Michael W. Ridenhour has the university audiology background to properly assess and evaluate hearing loss. A proper and valid audiogram and hearing evaluation involves rigid scientific protocols, which have been designed over many years of experience and through much research. A good hearing test should be performed in a noise attenuated sound booth. Completely sound-proof booths are not necessary for routine evaluation, but there must be an ability to isolate the patient from interference from extraneous sounds. This can also be accomplished with a specialized headset utilizing circum-aural dome noise reduction. These are large cups which completely surround the ear, enabling the audiologist to reduce noise interference to a satisfactory degree. These speciaized headsets are the second choice for an audiologist, but in some instances are the only method of evaluating a person's hearing. |
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 DIGITAL HEARING | HEARING EVALUATIONS | HEARING PROTECTION | COMMON QUESTIONS | ABOUT DR. RIDENHOUR | CONTACT | HOME 122 Mountain Ave. SW Roanoke VA 24016 |
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