Audiology As A Medical Profession

By Roxanne Cruz


The branch of science that studies hearing, balance and its disorder is called audiology. Catering to the needs of every child and adult, Long Island audiology has been serving for quite sometime. Audiology specialists, or audiologists, are health care professionals who have a specialization in diagnosing and treating disorders of the ears and its parts and other related issues.

They find out if you are within the normal range of hearing by employing different tests, and if not, how affected are you by the disorder. They are trained to assist you in installing cochlear implants, and administering hearing aids. Adults who have become deaf are given coping and compensate skills and parents who have a deaf child are given counseling to cope.

Various assessments are used by audiologists to diagnose ear problems like evoked potential exams, otoscopy, and speech audiometry. These tests are done with calibrated equipment in a soundproofed place. A type of assessment is the otoscopy, which assesses the state of the eardrum and outer ear canal.

Tympanometry is an examination to test the middle ear, the mobility of the eardrum, and the conduction bones by creating variations of air pressure in the ear canal. Speech audiometry is a fundamental tool in assessing hearing loss and it determines if a person has discomfort or tolerance to speech stimuli and it gives information on word recognition abilities. Pure tone audiometry is the key test to determine the threshold level of an individual that determines the degree of sensory loss.

Otoacoustics emissions evaluation is an assessment of the inner ear, particularly the cochlea, which is the organ of auditory sense. Vestibular assessment is for those who are having issue in balance and who are always dizzy. Evoked potential test measures the time it takes for the nerves to respond to a stimulus like a test pattern.

These evaluations are needed to make a sure diagnosis of the ear and balance disorders. They also provide options for managing sensory and vestibular conditions, including amplification and therapy. They are equipped to determine what hearing aids or listening devices are needed for you and make the necessary adjustments.

Audiologists are usually part of a cohesive team of health care specialists, like physicians, physical therapists, speech pathologists, and occupational therapists, to bring a more effective treatment program. Most ear doctors work with the general populace, but there are some who specialize in working with children. Others are more interested in research related to hearing disorders and some opt to work in schools.

In general, you will need to earn a Doctor of Audiology or AuD to practice it which usually takes four years after earning a baccalaureate. This requires almost two thousand hours of supervised clinical rotations to make sure that each graduate is prepared and knowledgeable in evaluating ear and balance needs. Audiologists in all states are required to be licensed or registered.

This field is developing rapidly since there has been a high demand for them. Usually, the patients are elderly people or young children. Visit your nearest Long Island Audiology center and have your ears checked up.




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