Hearing Aid Fittings and Programming
At Parkway Hearing, we respect the personal nature of hearing. As such, we offer demo hearing aids from leading hearing aid manufacturers, with customized fittings and programming. This ensures that your hearing aids are tailored to meet your specific hearing needs. From the time you are prescribed hearing aids, we work with you to ensure that everything fits properly and performs powerfully.
In the course of your time as a hearing aid wearer, we continue to offer fittings and programming options to ensure that your hearing aids are functioning as they should to meet your hearing needs. As we monitor your hearing abilities, we will also make adjustments as necessary to your hearing aids.
Hearing Testing
Parkway Hearing offers comprehensive hearing exams to determine hearing ability and treatment. Hearing tests are simple and noninvasive, and provide your audiologist with the level and configuration of your hearing abilities. Prior to a hearing test, we ask that you gather your personal and family medical history, as well as to note the times and places in which you find you struggle with hearing. Your audiologist will perform a physical examination of your ears, and then give you a few tests that involve sounds and speech. Your results will be recorded in an audiogram, a visual representation of your hearing abilities by ear. From these results, we determine the next steps of treatment.
Hearing Aid Repair
Hearing aids are powerful electronic devices, durable to withstand daily wear. In the event that they are damaged or begin to malfunction, Parkway Hearing offers hearing aid repair. When you first begin wearing your hearing aids, we will give you tips on everyday maintenance and troubleshooting guidance. Because hearing aids are almost mini-computers, it is important not to take them apart or tamper with the mechanisms. If the troubleshooting tips we’ve offered do not help, it may be time to take in your hearing aids for repair. We offer comprehensive repair for hearing aids.
Custom Hearing Protection
At Parkway Hearing, we are seasoned professionals in treating hearing loss, but we also believe in the importance of protecting hearing while you’ve still got it. Custom hearing protection is molded to your ear and offers higher levels of protection from sound than silicon or foam ear plugs. We offer custom made hearing protection to meet your specific needs – whether you work in a noisy environment or your recreational activities (such as hunting or attending live concerts) expose you to dangerous levels of sound.
Musicians’ Ear Protection
For musicians (and music lovers), hearing is incredibly important. At the same time, exposure to high levels of sound, whether in a small dive bar or a huge stage venue, has the potential to permanently damage your hearing. Parkway Hearing offers in-ear monitors and musicians’ ear plugs that provide protection from these dangerous decibels, to ensure that your hearing is protected while you’re doing what you love.
Assistive Listening Devices
Whether you wear a hearing aid or not, there are times where you may need an extra boost in sound. Assistive listening devices (ALDs) are designed to amplify the sounds you want to hear and deliver them to a personal neck or ear piece that you wear. ALDs come in many options, with FM waves or infrared light waves to transmit sounds. These are useful in large venues, such as auditoriums or conventional halls, or in noisy places such as a restaurant. Some ALDs may stream directly to your hearing aids.
There are also ALDs available for phone calls, with the option to have live, real-time captions on your calls.
Tinnitus
Parkway Hearing offers treatment options for those suffering with tinnitus, which is often characterized as a ringing or buzzing sound in the ear, or in the head. Tinnitus Retraining Therapy (TRT) trains the brain to habituate and ignore the tinnitus sound. Patients wear ear level sound generators or combination devices for hearing loss and tinnitus, on a daily basis for 6-12 months. The sound generator emits a low-level white noise that mixes with the perception of tinnitus. This, in combination with ongoing audiological support to understand the impact of the negative emotional connection will give most patients permanent relief from tinnitus symptoms. Dr. Adrienne Ulrich was trained under the world-renowned professor Dr. Pawel Jastreboff from Emory University. Dr. Ulrich offers Tinnitus Retraining Therapy to patients in her practice.
Decreased Sound Tolerance
At Parkway Hearing, your overall hearing health can be affected by a decreased sound tolerance that can include hyperacusis, misophonia and/or phonophobia. Treatment options and protocols were developed and implemented by Dr. Pawel Jastreboff. These protocols begin in the office and continue with at-home therapy and in-office support. Treatment can involve desensitization using sound generators.
