Seeing an ENT for your Hearing Aids

Apr 30 2013

A good audiologist will refer you to an ENT (Ear Nose and Throat) specialist if they suspect your hearing loss needs specialist care.

One issue with some ENT clinics is that you may be sent to what seems like a seperate business to do a hearing test, need another appointment to talk to the ENT specialist and then yet another for the hearing aid fitting if they are recommended.
The problem with this is you may not know the price of the hearing aids and the seemingly seperate entities are in fact one business or a business arrangement.
That is all fine as long as you know that. Many of us are used to not questionning specialists and going along with their recommendations.
However they may in fact be partners in related services without your knowledge.

We recommend just to be aware of being on a referral rollercoaster as some medical corporations are working in the interests of share holders as a priority. Sometimes they will use the medicare system to generate more referrals.

My personal experience with ENT's has been good - in fact family members have had excellent outcomes one in particular where an ENT referred another specialist who had experience in rebuilding the ears.

Otologist or ENT is there a difference

What we were not aware of is that an Otologist may have different specialites than an ENT. Fortunately our ENT did recommend an Otologist and a very good one.
The family member had the choice of Hearing Aids or seeing an Otologist. The Otologist did require more expense but was able to rebuild the ear with a very successful outcome and a large percentage of hearing restored.

Some of our audiologists have suggested clients see a specialist or have also suggested that hearing is at a level they do not need a hearing aid yet.