Can someone please tell me what is the difference between an audiologist and a Dr. of Audiology? Would I be best served by going to a Dr. of Aud. for an HA?
I believe that in the United States you must have a Doctor of Audiology degree to call yourself an audiologist.
A degree does not mean somebody is a good hearing professional. A good hearing professional is skilled in programming the brand(s) of aids they sell and is willing to work with the patient to get the best sound experience.
Personally, I gave up on a Doctor of Audiology and have a better experience with a Hearing Instrument Specialist. The experience is not perfect, but my choices are limited.
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It’s not if they have a PHD in Audiology that counts, it’s if they know how to program your HA that counts. If you read on the Forum enough you will find that a lot of audi’s aren’t to good, some are good and some are great. The same can be said for Hearing Instrument Specialist.
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Audiologists can have bachelors degrees (although there aren’t many of them left), masters degrees, and doctoral degrees - both Ph.D’s and Au.D’s although most Ph.D’s are at universities and not in the clinic.
Any newly graduated audiologist (since 2007) must have a doctorate in audiology, most often a Au.D which is the clinical doctorate, so they will have a very good educational background about all things hearing and balance related. Many audiologists who had a masters degree went back and got their Au.D (like me) and some that had the bachelors degree also did, but none of them had to, they were grandfathered in when the new degree standard was established.
When it comes to hearing aid experience is key…so someone who has been fitting for awhile may be the best way to go. Longer is not necessarily always better, I used to work with a Ph.D audiologist who was so set in her ways that she would only consider one hearing aid manufacturer and unfortunately was not up-to-date on many audiology related topics.
Ultimately it’s all about the relationship between you and the professional and the confidence you have in them and ow well they address the problems you are having. A degree is nice, but it just means that person had more education about topics other than hearing aids.
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Thanks to all. Now the problem I have is: “Shopping around” can be expensive, can’t it? Seems like I would be spending a lot of money just looking for the right person.
layman terms is:
a doctor of audiology knows anything and everything related to hearing and how it works and how to fix it when it doesn’t work.
an audiologist is the assistant to the doctor who fits aids does the audiology test for the doctors and do any other assistive task for the doctor, freeing the doctor to diagnose and treat conditions found through the assistance grunt work.
been on the receiving end for 31 years.
if you discovering that you have a hearing loss for the first time, its best to go to the physician to get refereed to a hospital audiology department to get the best diagnosis in that there are many causes for hearing and a lot of them have nothing to do with loud noises but genuine medical condition related to the ear or other parts of the body
mine was a combination of nerves, hammer, anvil, and stirrup and Cochlea which is part of some unknown degenerative disease.(meaning been gradually loosing my hearing since i was young boy.)
point of my example is you need to take it seriously till you know the cause and then once you know you can go to the brick and mortar audiology store/clinic for the followups.
Hearing is very important in life so its not going to be cheap, why? Because those that provide resources to correct hearing know how important hearing is and sets the cost to care for it based on that fact and not the actual cost of service.
basically its about how willing are you willing to go without hearing? quality of life is severely diminished without hearing, especially if you gradually lost it or lost it suddenly for you know what it was like before the loss and know exactly what your missing. Kind of like the apple of the forbidden fruit tree Adam wants but its too far out of reach to grab it.
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Corey gave the best example possible for explaining doctor of Audiology. Now coming to the higher cost issue this is something that was explained to me by my audiologist - Developing new hearing aid technology is very time consuming and very expensive. This coupled with the fact that the number of aids sold is relatively small when compared to other complex electronic devices, such as cell phones, results in hearing aids being priced at the level they are.
Sometimes, older technology is sold for less, but is often outdated and ineffective. To know for sure what they will cost, it is necessary to see an audiologist for a consultation.
Thanks for the information.
Completely wrong. Doctor of Audiology and Audiologist are the same thing. We work for ourselves or offices. Our testing stands alone and we diagnose the hearing loss type and severity. Our results are used by physicians to determine conditions and treatment. We dispensers and fit hearing aids.
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Way to resurrect a thread - must be a Bot?