A complete, unhurried appointment that takes about 60 to 90 minutes. Nothing hurts, nothing is rushed, and you leave knowing exactly where your hearing stands.
Please arrive 10 minutes early to complete a short intake form. Come as you are — no special preparation is needed.
We strongly recommend bringing someone whose voice is familiar to you. Their voice becomes part of the assessment, and their presence makes the conversation about your results much easier to absorb.
Every appointment follows the same careful sequence. You'll always know what's coming next.
Before any testing begins, we sit down and talk. You'll tell us about your hearing in your own words — where it works well, where it lets you down, and what you'd most like to hear better. We'll ask about your health history, medications, family history of hearing loss, and any noise exposure over the years — occupational, military, or recreational.
Nothing is off-topic and no question is small. The more we understand about your life, the more precisely we can help.
Hearing loss is personal. A retired construction foreman needs something different than a symphony subscriber. This conversation shapes every recommendation that follows.
Using a small camera called a video otoscope, we gently examine each ear canal and eardrum. The image appears on a screen right beside you — you see exactly what we see. We look for earwax, signs of infection, and the health of your eardrum.
It is completely painless. Many patients say this is their favorite part — most people have never actually seen inside their own ear.
Sometimes what sounds like hearing loss is simply earwax. Sometimes it's a condition that belongs in a physician's care. We rule out the simple explanations first, and refer promptly if we see anything that warrants medical attention.
A soft rubber tip is placed gently at the opening of your ear canal. The instrument changes the pressure slightly and plays a low tone. In a few seconds, we get a clear picture of how your eardrum and middle ear are functioning.
You may feel a mild fullness for a moment — nothing more. Both ears take under a minute each.
This test distinguishes between hearing problems in the middle ear — which are often treatable medically — and those in the inner ear, which hearing aids address. Skipping it means guessing.
Now we test your hearing. In our sound-treated booth, you'll wear headphones or small inserts. You'll hear soft tones at different pitches and press a button whenever you hear one. Some tones will be so faint they'll feel imagined — that's exactly what we're looking for.
We also test how clearly you understand words at conversational levels, both in quiet and against background noise. If a family member came with you, we may include their voice in this portion so we can measure the sounds that matter most in your daily life.
This produces your audiogram — the precise map of what you hear and what you don't, ear by ear, pitch by pitch. Every recommendation from here forward rests on this.
We sit back down together and walk through your results. You'll see your audiogram on paper and on screen. We'll show you what the marks mean, which frequencies are strong, which need help, and how your right and left ears compare.
Most importantly, we'll translate all of it into your real life — the specific situations where your hearing is holding you back, and why. If your spouse or family member is with you, they are part of this conversation. Ask anything. There is no such thing as a small question.
Understanding your own hearing — really understanding it — is the foundation for every decision that follows. Nothing is prescribed until you can see it for yourself.
If your hearing is healthy, we set a date to see you again in a year. Most age-related hearing loss develops gradually, and an annual baseline is the best protection you can give yourself.
If we find a hearing loss we can help with, we discuss options together — the styles of hearing aids that would suit your lifestyle, how the technology works, what it costs, and how your insurance or benefits may help. If your loss requires a physician's care, we help you get to the right specialist quickly.
No decisions are made today unless you're ready. Better hearing is a partnership, and it begins on your timeline — not ours.
A rushed decision about a device you'll wear every day for years is a bad decision. The best outcomes come from patients who understood exactly what they were choosing, and why.
Every hearing test produces an audiogram — a simple chart that shows the softest sound you can hear at each pitch, in each ear.
Low pitches are on the left, high pitches on the right. The top of the chart is soft sound; the further down a mark sits, the louder a sound has to be before you can hear it. The example shown is a very common pattern: near-normal hearing at low pitches, gradually falling off at higher pitches — the reason so many people say "I can hear people talking, I just can't understand them."
We'll walk through yours line by line and translate it into the exact situations where you'll notice it most.
No. You can book directly with us. If we find something that needs a physician's attention, we'll refer you to an appropriate specialist right away.
No. Our first job is to give you a clear, honest picture of your hearing. If hearing aids would help, we'll explain your options — but no decision is made until you're ready. Many patients take days or weeks to think it over. That's exactly right.
Yes — please. A spouse, adult child, or close friend brings two things we can't replicate: a voice that's familiar to you, and a second set of ears for the conversation about your results. Both help enormously.
No. Every part of the appointment is completely painless. The most you'll feel is a slight fullness during the middle ear check, and it lasts only a few seconds.
No special preparation. Don't attempt to clean or flush your ears the day before — if there's earwax, we'd rather see it than have you disturb it. Otherwise, come as you are.
Your first comprehensive hearing evaluation is complimentary. If you have insurance benefits that apply, we'll verify them for you before your visit, but there is no out-of-pocket cost to you for the appointment itself.
Your first evaluation is free, takes about an hour, and comes with no obligation of any kind.
