Audiologist Warn Against

Buying Hearing Aids Buying Hearing Aids

without Proper Diagnosis

of Hearing Loss

The Academy of Doctors of

Audiology (ADA) urges

consumers who suspect that consumers who suspect that

they have hearing loss to seek

treatment from a licensed

audiologist or other hearing

healthcare professional to

ensure the proper diagnosis

and treatment of hearing loss.

Even when hearing loss is

detected through a detected through a

comprehensive

examination, hearing aids

are not always a

recommended course of

treatment.

Key risks of omitting an evaluation and

treatment by a licensed audiologist or

hearing healthcare professional include hearing healthcare professional include

the missed diagnosis of a serious

underlying health condition that

requires medical intervention and

subsequent hearing loss as a result of

improper fitting and/or programming of

hearing aids.

According to the ADA, there are many

possible causes of hearing loss including:

-Aging-Aging

-Blockages in the outer ear

-Ear infections

-Head injury

-Medication

-Meniere’s Disease

-Tumors

On October 26, 2011, the

Minnesota Department of

Health released a statement Health released a statement

stressing the importance of

seeing a hearing health

practitioner for hearing loss

and advising that failure to

do so “skirts state and

federal legal protections

and could result in harm.”

Hearing aids are

medical devices

regulated by the U.S. regulated by the U.S.

Food and Drug

Administration (FDA)

and must be

recommended, sold

and fit by qualified

health professionals.

The ADA urges consumers to seek proper

diagnosis, treatment and counseling for diagnosis, treatment and counseling for

suspected hearing loss. To find a licensed ADA

member in your area, visit

http://www.audiologist.org/audiologist-directory.html