Why do you need real ear measurements?
Hearing aids do not come out of the box ready for use. Hearing aids need to be programmed and verified for patients to hear their best. Even top-of-the-line hearing aids can be rendered useless if best practice standards are not used.
Getting the Right Prescription
Real ear measurements provides graphs of sounds levels recorded in the ear to ensure that the hearing aids are set properly for the prescription, and that’s why it’s been the gold standard in our industry for years.
A probe tube attached to a microphone is placed in the ear canal and the output of the hearing aid is measured in decibels for both speech and loud sounds to make sure the levels are meeting prescriptive targets. The tube is placed very near to the eardrum and needs to be inserted carefully by a trained hearing specialist.
Few clinics perform real ear measurements despite evidence that shows patients are more satisfied with their hearing aids when real ear measurement is performed.
Why are only 30-40% of audiologists doing them?
Training & Expertise
Measuring and interpreting these acoustic gain curves requires a good knowledge of acoustics. Only audiologists have 4 years of graduate work and courses in acoustics.
Lack of Time
Busy corporate run practices know that time is money and the goal is to see as many patients as quickly as possible. Adding additional time to do tests that are unpaid is not logical to them.
No Legal Requirement
There is no requirement that hearing aids be tested to make sure they are fit properly for a particular hearing loss. They are only tested for meeting factory specifications.
Cost
The cost of the equipment is several thousand dollars and insurance does not allow audiologists to bill for those tests.