Hearing Center Network

First, among people of similar age and with similar hearing losses, I tested their abilities to accurately repeat words back to me. This is called a speech intelligibility test. Clients in Vallejo achieved scores nearly twice as high as the scores achieved by clients in Walnut Creek. The Walnut Creek group had been wearing their hearing aids for years and had purchased them from a variety of places and different professionals, including hearing aid dispensers and audiologists.

But regardless of where they purchased their hearing aids, they were unhappy with them and had not experienced the benefits that were commonplace among my clients in Vallejo. My staff and I were surprised by this discrepancy and saddened that our new clients had been through so much difficulty with their hearing aids and experienced a diminished quality of life.

The second experience we had was with a new client, who came in hoping to buy better hearing aids, but was already wearing excellent devices that were only two years old. I discovered that his hearing aids had been programmed correctly according to the international standards for his level of hearing loss. However, they still did very little to improve his speech comprehension. He and his wife were incredibly frustrated because several return visits to the audiologist who sold him the hearing aids had failed to solve the problem.

He, like many of my other Walnut Creek clients, had been told that his hearing loss could not be further corrected. I tuned his hearing aids during a short session in my office and corrected his problems easily. He and his wife were surprised and thrilled by the immediate improvements in his speech comprehension that were easily achieved with the hearing aids he already had.

However, because we had reached a solution so quickly, they were outraged that the audiologist they had been working with for so long did not have enough knowledge to meet their needs and provide a successful hearing experience. Also, they were disappointed that the recommended prescription according to international standards had been so far off the mark for his needs.

These stories are not unusual. Many people wear perfectly good hearing aids programmed ineffectively for their needs. These are only specific examples of widespread problems that plague hearing aid wearers worldwide. They are a consequence of extended life expectancies, explosive scientific and technological advances, and the inability of the hearing aid industry to adapt to these changes to provide their clients with a successful hearing experience. On this website, I will explain these problems in more detail and offer solutions that benefit people with hearing problems.