Hearing aid consultation
Hearing Aid Consultation or Evaluation
During your hearing aid consultation, we spend time getting to know what is important to you. This helps us to understand your real hearing needs and challenges that you want to solve with your hearing. From here we can design a solution that is personalised to you. We record specifically the areas that you want to be improved so that we can check that we have achieved this at the end of the trial. To choose the right hearing aids for you we take into account your:
Hearing loss and other physical factors
Lifestyle and your hearing needs
Preferences i.e. what the hearing aid will look like or specific functionality
Funding – you may be eligible for funding from a government agency
Your budget – we need to find a solution at a price you feel comfortable with
We match the best hearing aids for your needs by finding out about the listening environments you are in, where you are having the most hearing difficulty hearing. We also discuss your preferences, like what your hearing aids will look like or the functionality you prefer. As an independent hearing aid clinic, we can choose the hearing aids we believe are best suited to you. For example, often clients prefer their hearing aids to work automatically all day, others would like more control or connectivity to other devices like the phone, TV and or an external microphone.
Before we can begin your hearing aid consultation we need a recent hearing test (last 12 months). If you have one, please bring it along, if not we will test your hearing before we begin; During your consultation, we will clearly explain the hearing aid fitting procedure so you are comfortable with the process.
At your appointment
Hearing loss and other physical factors
If you need a hearing test first we will set aside 90 minutes.
At this appointment, we usually give you an opportunity to listen with hearing aids and even have a coffee in the cafe next door while wearing them if we have time.
A second opinion appointment (where you are currently trialing hearing aid with another clinic) is $120 and this will be refunded if you choose to have hearing aids fitted with us.
A hearing aid adjustment will take 30 minutes.
A hearing aid adjustment and hearing test together will take 1 hour.
Hearing aid evaluations (of your current hearing aids)
Hearing aid adjustment/reprogramming. Have you stopped wearing your hearing aids and feel you need to start again? Or is the sound not quite right for you? Are your hearing aids whistling? We can most likely put you back on track.
We will assess how your hearing aids are working and optimise (adjust and reprogram) them for your current hearing levels. We will make you new ear moulds if needed.
We also do hearing aid repairs. If we can not fix it in the clinic we can send it off to the supplier for repair on your behalf.
ACC hearing aid funding – Included products and services
ACC covers the cost of accidents in New Zealand ACC provides “comprehensive, no-fault personal injury cover for all New Zealand residents and visitors to New Zealand. This means you can apply for our help, no matter how you got injured, or whose fault it was” – ACC website ACC has been covering the cost of hearing habilitation for people who have hearing loss due to workplace noise or other accidents since the scheme began in 1974. Until 2011, ACC covered all costs associated with noise-induced hearing loss. The system was changed and they have since contributed a smaller amount towards hearing devices and services. In July 2014, ACC again reviewed their funding, and here we outline the current ACC hearing