Hearing aid assessment appointment

What preparation do I need to do?

Your ears must be clear of wax in order to have a hearing assessment. When you saw your GP and a referral was made to us, the GP should have checked your ears for wax. If that was not done, then please visit the nurse at your GP surgery to make sure that your ears are clear of wax before you attend your appointment with us.

Please bring any old hearing aids that you have with you to your appointment, even if you no longer use them.

You will be asked some questions when you attend your appointment, can you consider your answers to the following questions before you attend:

• what difficulties do you have hearing in everyday situations?
• how do you feel about wearing hearing aids?
• when do you feel it is most important that you can hear clearly?

What will happen at my appointment?

You will see a highly trained specialist called an audiologist. Your appointment may last up to an hour.

The audiologist will ask you about your hearing, explain the procedure to you and answer your questions. You will be asked to give verbal consent to the procedures which will be recorded in your notes.

The audiologist will look in your ears using an otoscope. You will be asked to put on headphones and listen to sounds at different pitches and levels of loudness. You will be asked to press a button each time you hear a sound.

As soon as the tests are completed the audiologist will discuss the results with you, if you decide to try hearing aids, impressions will usually be taken of your ears to make ear moulds that are custom made to fit your ears.

Further information

Please do not hesitate to contact the audiology department if you have any questions on 0300 303 8640 or email dhc.audiologyenquiries@nhs.net.

For further information about equipment and systems that can assist you with problems not solved by hearing aid amplification, you may find the Action on Hearing Loss website a useful source of information.