Acoustic Neuroma: Lesion originating from the hearing and balance nerve. Symptoms include unilateral tinnitus, dizziness, and asymmetric hearing loss.
Benign Paroxysmal Positional Vertigo (BPPV): Symptoms of dizziness or vertigo, lightheadedness, disorientation, disequilibrium or nausea, brought on by particular head/body movements or positions.
Cholesteatoma: A skin cyst that occurs behind the eardrum, which can, overtime, increase in size and destroy the tympanic membrane and the bones of the middle ear and spread throughout the mastoid bone and nearby structures.
Eardrum Perforation: An abnormal hole in the tympanic membrane typically from infection, inflammation, or trauma.
Endolymphatic Hydrops: Elevated inner ear fluid pressure. Symptoms of hydrops include pressure or fullness in the ears, hearing loss, dizziness, and imbalance.
Exostoses “Surfer’s Ear”: Bony growths in the external auditory canal that are common in individuals after years of exposure to the forceful rush of cold water into the ear canal, leading to plugging, infections and hearing loss.
Glomus Tumor: Highly vascular benign tumors arising from veins within the temporal bone which houses the structures of hearing and balance.
Meniere’s Disease: A disorder in the regulation of inner ear fluid pressure resulting in fluctuating nerve hearing loss, episodes of severe spinning vertigo, tinnitus, and often a sensation of fullness/pressure in the ears or head.
Noise Induced Hearing Loss (NIHL): Prolonged exposure to environmental noise resulting in sustained hearing impairments or permanent damage to the hair cells of the inner ear.
Otitis Media: an inflammation or infection marked by an accumulation of pus or fluid in the middle ear space.
Otosclerosis: A disease of the bone that surrounds the inner ear that results in hearing loss most commonly from reduced vibration of the third hearing bone called the stapes; one of the most correctable causes of hearing loss.
Polyp: Benign, fleshy growth occurring within the external canal, on the eardrum, or in the middle ear.
Presbycusis: The permanent partial hearing loss that occurs with aging. Although there is no surgical or medical treatment that can restore hearing, presbycusis is usually helped by a properly fit hearing aid.
Sudden Sensorineural Hearing Loss: Onset of hearing loss within minutes to hours that involves the inner ear, usually from viral or small vessel causes, that is often improved by prompt medical treatment.
Temporal Bone Fractures from high force trauma such as motor vehicle accidents or blows from blunt objects.
Tinnitus: the perception of ringing, buzzing, or any other abnormal noise in the ears or head that is not generated by an external source of the sound; often the sign of a specific otologic disorder and sometimes improved with treatment.
Minor In Office Procedures:
Eardrum Repair or Patches of small Perforation
Excision of Ear Polyps and Cysts
Debridement of Accumulated Material from Ear Infections
Myringotomy Opening of the Eardrum with Tube Placement
Laser Procedures including Stapedectomy, Perilymph Fistula Repair, and Tympanoplasty
Mastoidectomy
Ossicular Chain Reconstruction for Hearing
Temporal Bone and Skull Base Tumor Removal
Tympanoplasty Repair of Eardrum and Middle Ear Procedures
Vestibular Nerve Section
Labrythectomy
Hearing Aids
Today’s hearing devices pack power and clarity in cosmetically appealing instruments. Starkey's S- Series iQ, powered by multi-core technology, is the most complete and advanced line of hearing instruments, designed to fit the widest range of patients and lifestyles. In addition, the latest CORE Collection from Phonak (such as Exelia, Versata Art, Audeo Zip, Audeo Smart, Naida and Certena Art) is one of the most sophisticated audio processing platforms providing superior quality and performance for improved hearing for all lifestyles.These advanced technologies are designed in both custom and behind the ear (open-fit to completely in the canal) products.
In deciding which aid is right for you, your type, degree and configuration of hearing loss is taken into consideration in guiding you to the most suitable hearing instruments. Following a complete audiological and medical evaluation, the most appropriate hearing aid(s) will be recommended for you.
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Starkey
In addition to Phonak products, we now introduce Starkey Hearing Instruments to the clinic. The S-Series iQ is designed for the widest range of lifestyles and experiences.
The architecture driven features include:
1. Voice iQ, reducing noise between syllables of speech while providing ease of listening & intelligibility of speech-in-noise 2. Sweep Technology, replaces tiny buttons and dials with a touch surface, making volume and memory adjustments with the sweep or touch of a finger 3. Feedback Eliminator, no more whistling 4. Advanced HydraShield, moisture protection system, superior water resistance both inside and out 5. InVision Directionality, designed to perform best in highly complex backgrounds of noise, significantly increasing speech understanding in noise 6. T2 on Demand, enables basic standard adjustments to the patient’s hearing aid over the telephone 7. T2 Remote, patients can use their own phones as a remote control, adjusting volume or switching memories 8. Live Real Ear Measurement, evaluates the hearing aid response to match selected targets 9. Voice Indicators, alerting the status of the hearing aid, low battery, memory and telephone modes in male or female voices in a wide variety of languages 10. Reminders, audible voice or tone reminders for follow-up appointments and maintenance checks 11. Automatic Telephone Solutions, automatically detects telephone use and adjusts to the optimal acoustic frequency response for telephone listening 12. Music Processing, offering multiple music genre settings to maximize sound quality and listening enjoyment 13. Television Processing, designed for optimal performance while watching television.
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PHONAK
State-of-the-art breakthrough features from Phonak hearing aids include:
1. StereoZoom: In an extremely noisy situation where you want to communicate with just one person, StereoZoom can zoom in even closer and reduce noise even further. 2. UltraZoom: In noisy situations with several people facing you, UltraZoom automatically zooms in on their voices. Noise from the side and back is reduced. 3. auto ZoomControl: When you cannot easily face the speaker, e.g. in a car, autoZoomControl can zoom to either side and backwards to improve hearing. 4. FlexControl: Personalized increase in volume and clarity.
More Features & Benefits
SoundRecover: Awareness of the sound environment and listening pleasure.
FlexVolume: Controls that allow the wearer to easily make target adjustments.
WhistleBlock: Feedback free hearing.
Duo Phone: With the push of a button, the phone signal is heard in both ears.
SoundFlow: Continuous and instant optimization to all environments.
ZoomControl: Ability to choose the hearing focus.
RealEar Sound: Natural sound orientation.
NoiseBlock: Premium comfort in background noise.
WindBlock: Suppresses wind noise.
EchoBlock: Understand well in echoey environments.
SoundRelax: Eliminating annoying sounds.
QuickSync: Control both instruments with one touch.
Discrete and easy to use remote controls available include the KeyPilot, WatchPilot and QuickSyn MyPilot with ZoomControl and iCom. MyPilot allows the user to control access to adjust volume and programs. Exclusive ZoomControl, allows the user to focus listening in any direction. It also includes a read out system status allowing the user information on battery status, current programs, and volume levels. QuickSync MyPilot, allows the user to adjust volume and program settings to synchronize them quickly and discreetly in both hearing aids at once with just one touch of a button. iCom is the newest communication interface allowing hangs-free binaural telephone capabilities. By receiving Bluetooth signals from any Bluetooth enabled mobile phone or Bluetooth telephone adapter, iCom has a one touch button to accept and end calls as well as directional microphones, thereby enhancing clarity of the users voice for a clear signal back to the caller.
Auditory Processing Evaluations
Auditory processing disorders (APD), also referred to as "Central Auditory Processing Disorder", is a deficit in neural processing of auditory stimuli that affects a person's ability to understand the meaning of incoming sounds. It is not a hearing impairment due to reduced hearing sensitivity or due to higher order language or cognitive deficits. The causes of APD can include head trauma, lead poisoning and unknown reasons. In essence, the "ear" is transmitting sounds efficiently but the brain is unable to interpret the meaning. The assessment is not a standard hearing test but rather an assessment of how the brain interprets what it hears.
The APD test battery reflects auditory processing capabilities which are believed to occur in the auditory brainstem, the temporal lobes, and the auditory association areas of the corpus callosum and address the following auditory skill areas: auditory closure, auditory figure ground (speech-in-noise), temporal processing, dichotic listening and pitch pattern awareness. Additionally the following are pre-requistes for an APD evaluation:
normal hearing sensitivity
verbal fluency in the English language
normal or near normal cognitive skills
the ability to sit quietly and attentively during the test session
