Services
Services
At Gilmore Audiology, our goal is to provide you with the information and tools you need to achieve the healthy hearing you deserve. Individual requirements and priorities vary between patients and we recognize that there is no “one size fits all” approach to working with hearing loss. Our professionals make your success a priority and take the time to get to know you and your unique hearing ability.
We strive for complete patient education and satisfaction, and offer the following services:
Hearing Evaluations
The journey to better hearing can be an easy one with the proper care. The first step on that journey is a hearing evaluation. We specialize in getting to the root of your hearing concerns with our thorough and highly accurate hearing evaluations.
We begin these appointments by getting to know you. Understanding your history, current symptoms or concerns, and unique hearing needs for your lifestyle helps us determine the cause of and solution for any hearing issues we may uncover. We then examine your ear to check for any physical obstructions or abnormalities. This is a brief and painless look into your ear canal to make sure everything is clear and healthy.
Next comes a complete hearing test—designed to evaluate the thresholds (the volume and frequency limits) of sound that you’re able to hear. You’ll be asked to wear a pair of specialized headphones and indicate when you can clearly hear the various sounds emitted. These tests reveal the extent, type, and details of your unique hearing loss, if any is present at all. Since there are different types and degrees of hearing loss, each needs to be treated in a specific way. Once completed, we then review the results of these tests with you in detail.
If our hearing evaluation detects a hearing loss, rest assured that there are many treatment options available. And none of them are clunky or outdated. We’ll walk you through all of them and answer any questions you have. Our recommendations are always based on your unique hearing and lifestyle needs, and our professionals take the time to ensure that you’re loving the results.
Hearing Aid Fitting and Programming
Hearing is a complex and wondrous process. But once hearing loss occurs, it can take some time to regain the ability to hear lost sounds again. Unlike wearing glasses to help with poor eyesight, wearing hearing aids to help with hearing loss requires an acclimation phase to get used to your new instruments.
When you select your preferred hearing aids at our office, we’ll program them to your precise hearing requirements and adjust their settings to make them as comfortable as possible. We’ll also get you acquainted with your new devices by reviewing how to use their controls and how to best care for them, including details on proper storage and cleaning, battery replacement, and what to avoid.
You’re encouraged to begin wearing your new hearing aids as soon as you’ve purchased them. But be aware: things will sound a bit odd at first. Consider that your brain has to relearn how to process various long-lost sounds, a process that takes some time. It helps to begin slow and gradually increase the amount of time that you wear your hearing aids each day in that first week of owning them. We also schedule regular follow-up appointments during your adjustment phase to check in on your progress. We’ll clean your hearing aids to keep them in good condition, and make any adjustments needed to help you hear clearly. In between these appointments, we’re just a phone call away and encourage our patients to contact us with any questions or concerns they may have.
Oftentimes, patients already have hearing aids that were obtained here or elsewhere. Our office will always evaluate and work with your current hearing aids first. It is common to find that a patient's hearing aids just needed to be cleaned and/or adjusted and newer hearing aids aren't even necessary!
Hearing Aid Repair
Modern hearing aids are built for unsurpassed performance. Their intricate technology enables results never thought possible, which is likely the reason they quickly become their owner’s most cherished devices. But like all complex electronics, repairs and replacement parts are sometimes necessary.
At Gilmore Audiology we understand how important these devices are for your daily activities and we strive for the fastest repairs possible. If you have a hearing aid in need of repair, bring it to us for a diagnosis. Our knowledgeable team will identify what is occurring, and often make repairs directly in the office. With our start-of-the-art tools, we can often fix your hearing aids that same day.
Occasionally, hearing aids may require a repair that is more than we can handle. For major repairs like these, we’ll send your hearing aids to their manufacturer for service. Rest assured, however, that our dedicated team will do everything we can to make this process as painless as possible. We’ll discuss your options, keep you updated on timelines, and may offer some loaner hearing aids for the time being. We’ll do everything we can to get you back on the path to better hearing quickly.
Custom Earmolds and Earplugs
It’s estimated that over 15% of Americans experience Noise Induced Hearing Loss (NIHL), a preventable form of hearing loss caused by exposure to loud noise. Unfortunately this form of hearing loss is irreversible, but custom hearing protection can prevent it from starting in the first place. These custom-fit earmolds are also excellent for keeping the ear canal dry and healthy for all underwater activities.
If you’re frequently exposed to loud sounds, custom hearing protection is invaluable for preserving your ability to hear well. The following noises are especially dangerous with repeat exposure: lawn mowers, truck engines, motorcycles, garbage trucks, chain saws, power tools, rock concerts, gunshots, and jet engines, to name a few. While store-bought ear plugs do offer a small degree of noise–dampening, custom earmolds and ear plugs provide significantly more hearing protection by fitting into your ear canal perfectly.
At Gilmore Audiology we know how hard hearing loss can be. It’s why we’re strong advocates for preventing hearing loss from happening at all. We offer a full array of custom hearing protection to provide you with maximum protection and all-day comfort. These are ideal for:
Air traffic controllers
Musicians (Musician In-ear Monitors or IEMs)
Concert fans
Industrial & Construction personnel
Hunters
Sleep plug users
Law Enforcement
Woodworkers
Machinists
Swimmers
Divers
Tinnitus Management
Tinnitus (pronounced ti-ni-tis), or “ringing in the ears,” is the perception of a sound in one or both ears, without there being an external cause for that sound. Typically experienced as a ringing, buzzing, clicking, hissing, or roaring, the sounds heard with tinnitus can be intermittent or constant, loud or soft. While the experience of tinnitus can vary widely, the effect upon sufferers is often similar: difficult and tiresome.
Tinnitus is somewhat of an enigma. Its cause can be as elusive as its cure. Tinnitus is not a disease, but instead a symptom that something is wrong in the ear, the auditory nerve, and/or the parts of the brain that process sound. Something as simple as a piece of earwax blocking the ear canal can cause tinnitus. There are several other possible causes for tinnitus, however many are actually unknown.
The most common causes are:
Exposure to loud sounds over time
Head and neck injuries
Medication side effects (called ototoxicity)
Untreated medical conditions
Natural aging
Sudden impact noises
At Gilmore Audiology we work closely with our patients to help them find the relief they’ve been waiting for. While no cure for tinnitus exists, there are a number of ways we can help you ease the effect that tinnitus has on your daily life. Our professional team can help you gain control and take back your life by forming a course of treatment that suits your specific needs.