3 Reasons Why It’s Important to Bring “A Familiar Voice” to your Audiology Evaluation

Whether you are a new patient that hasn’t had a hearing test since 3rd grade, or a patient who has been wearing hearing aids for years, you probably think you’re doing just fine.

Well maybe you are and maybe you’re not! The thing is, you probably don’t even know.

1. Who knows you better than anyone? Most likely, it’s the person who is most important to you…the person whose voice you hear all the time. They may notice issues, difficulties and struggles you may not even be aware of. “The level of the TV has increased, he doesn’t want to go out to restaurants as often, he’s spending more time alone and seems depressed, he doesn’t remember what I say.” These are just some of the things the “familiar voice” often reports. We get a much better understanding of you when you bring someone who knows you.
2. Testing and measuring your hearing is only a small part of your comprehensive evaluation. More important than the amount of hearing loss you might have, is assessing how well your brain processes speech. Even if the sound is loud enough, do you understand what is said? The results are most accurate when the voice you are trying to process is familiar, and important to you.
3. Annual checkups and re-evaluations are critical to maintain your best hearing ability. Sometimes, the hearing levels remain the same, but behavior and processing ability change. A familiar voice often alerts and apprises us of these changes they’ve noticed in the past year.