Our Hearing Services
At Lake Murray Hearing in Lexington, SC, we combine the best of remote, phone, and in-person services to help you get the services you need, whether it’s hearing testing, hearing aids, help for tinnitus, hearing aid repair, or for other hearing needs. If you can’t come into an office, we can often do hearing tests remotely as well as remote repair work and adjustments for your hearing aids. We want our services to be convenient and efficient for you.
Hearing Tests in Lexington
Hearing loss can be gradual and difficult to notice until it’s advanced, so it’s a good idea to have your hearing screened once a year. You should seek a hearing test if you’re:
- Straining to hear conversations
- Asking family and friends to repeat themselves often
- Setting the TV volume so loud that others complain
- Hearing muffled sounds or difficulty hearing conversations with background noise
Hearing tests measure your ability to hear different frequencies at different volumes. They can also measure things such as pressure behind the ear to see if there is fluid behind the eardrum.
Steps During a Hearing Test
- Audiometric hearing tests help determine how well you hear different tones and words. We’ll say words that are commonly misunderstood and ask you to repeat them.
- Tympanometry tests how well your middle ear functions by changing ear pressure. If it functions normally, we can rule out infection, congestion, or obstruction as a cause of your hearing loss.
- Otoacoustic emission testing (OAEs) measure how well the inner ear is working and how it responds to a variety of sounds.
Hearing Test Results
When you’re finished, you’ll get an audiogram, which is a chart of your test results. We’ll review it with you. It’s usually displayed as a chart with the left side showing the volume as measured in decibels and along the bottom are frequencies.
The chart shows whether you have hearing loss at higher or lower frequencies and how impaired it is. If you can’t hear a sound until it’s at least 30 decibels, you have some hearing loss. The louder a sound has to be before you hear it, the more severe your hearing loss is.
If it turns out you need hearing aids, the audiogram helps us program your hearing aid to your specific hearing loss, like getting a prescription for eyeglasses.
Hearing Tests for Children
Hearing Aid Fittings
At Lake Murray Hearing, we’ll show you the many different options for hearing aids and discuss which you may prefer, such as behind the ear or inside the ear. Depending on your degree of hearing loss, we’ll recommend which may be best for your needs.
We’ll show you how to insert and remove your hearing aids properly, how to clean them without causing damage to the device, and how to protect them when you’re outdoors or in other situations.
Getting the right fitting is like getting a prescription for eyeglasses. The fit has to be right for optimal hearing. Hearing aids are programmed to the exact results of your hearing test, so they complement your ear’s current hearing ability. It’s essential that the fit is snug and comfortable. Occasionally we may require making a mold of your ear so it fits correctly in the canal.
Fine-Tuning Your Hearing Aid
It’s important to remember that even with our custom fittings, you need to allow for a period of adjustment with your new hearing aid. Your brain will need time to relearn how to process sounds it hasn’t heard in a while.
The worse the hearing loss, the longer this “relearning” may take.
We recommend that during the first few weeks you should practice using your device in different environments to hear different sounds. Also, you may want to listen to audio books while you read the words, which will help your brain get re-acquainted with processing sounds into words.
During this adjustment period, make note of any environments or circumstances where the hearing aid didn’t work as expected or was not comfortable. We’ll help you tweak your hearing aids until they give you the sound quality and performance you’re expecting.
Tinnitus Treatment in Lexington
If you’re hearing ringing, buzzing, whooshing, crackling, clicking, or other sounds in one or both ears, you’re not alone. Tinnitus can be distracting, interfere with sleep, and affect your daily life. While there is currently no cure, there are many ways to manage tinnitus and reduce its impact.
Tinnitus may develop after prolonged exposure to loud noise, such as concerts, or may be related to medications, allergies, high blood pressure, or other health conditions. Understanding your personal tinnitus triggers is an important first step toward finding relief.
Common tinnitus triggers include stress and anxiety, poor sleep, excessive caffeine, alcohol, loud noise, and certain medications. These triggers can make tinnitus more noticeable or difficult to ignore. Paying attention to when your symptoms worsen can help you identify personal triggers and take steps to manage them.
Help is Available
At Lake Murray Hearing, we empathize with you. We know tinnitus is uncomfortable and completely disruptive to normal living. First, we’ll discuss your medical history with you, your medications, and conduct a full ear exam including a hearing evaluation. We’ll help uncover the root cause of your tinnitus and determine the best treatment.
Until we identify a treatment option, we recommend avoiding things that appear to make your tinnitus worse. For example, if you’re regularly exposed to loud noise through your work or home environment, be sure you have adequate hearing protection. If you’re taking medications, check the side effects to see if tinnitus could be one. If it is, consult your doctor to see if there are alternate choices.
Tinnitus Treatments
Treatments can range from removing impacted earwax, changing medications, or taking measures to lower your blood pressure. You may need other treatments, such as special hearing aids, maskers, allergy treatments, or cognitive behavioral therapy.
The first step to finding the best treatment is to make an appointment for a complete evaluation with us at Lake Murray Hearing.
Hearing Protection
Noise pollution is prevalent today no matter where you are. Whether you live in a city or in the suburbs, there is noise from traffic, lawn mowers and blowers, airplanes overhead, loud conversations, and other reasons. It’s not difficult to accidentally expose yourself to noises loud enough to do permanent damage to your hearing. And living in a soundproof environment or getting away to a quiet, secluded place for an extended time isn’t always practical or doable.
Taking precautions is important. Hearing loss occurs as low as 85 decibels if you’re exposed for an hour or more without earplugs or other ear protection. Concerts are loud enough to harm your hearing, but using a smartphone’s earbuds can be just as damaging if the volume is high enough. Sports events and movie theaters can be loud enough to need earplugs.
Earplugs are easy to carry but if you need hearing protection all day or for extended periods, custom ear molds are far more comfortable. At Lake Murray Hearing, we create earplugs and ear molds custom fit to your ear. We can also provide custom ear molds for your smartphones, TVs, and other devices.
Firearm hearing protection is necessary for those who like to practice at a shooting range or hunt. Gunshots average 140-190 decibels, and since hearing loss can occur at 85 decibels, it’s critical to wear earmuffs or earplugs specifically designed for shooting.
Protection is also critical for first responders who are often exposed to loud sirens as part of their job, often on a recurring basis.
Live concert protection: There’s nothing like going to a concert to really experience the music. Of course, where you sit can make it worse such as being too near the speakers. Hearing the crowd roar can take its toll on your hearing too. If you’re an avid concertgoer, ask us about hearing protection and if you’re a musician, we can recommend special ear plugs such as Musician Plugs ER-9, 15, 25 and In-Ear Musician’s Monitors.
Prevent Hearing Loss. Ask us about hearing protection today.
Ear Wax Removal
- You may want to try over-the-counter ear wax treatments such as drops that you can do at home. However, it may not remove enough of the wax, and you may need professional treatment.
- Don’t wait too long for professional help, especially if you have any significant pain, ear drainage, fever, or sudden hearing loss. You may have an ear infection or something even more serious.
We have years of experience safely removing ear wax and can help restore your hearing.
Auditory Processing Disorder Treatment
The ability to process sound is fundamental to speech, hearing, and being able to communicate. Auditory Processing Disorder (APD), also known as central auditory processing disorder, is when the ear functions perfectly, and the patient hears sounds well, but is unable to quickly or accurately distinguish between sounds. APD is not so much a hearing problem, but an issue with listening to and comprehending sounds. People with APD can have difficulty differentiating between words that sound similar, which often leads people to think they have a hearing problem. APD can affect adults and children and may start in childhood.
At Murray Lake Hearing, our comprehensive APD testing involves painless and non-invasive procedures. Our test results will provide critical information that will help our hearing professionals help patients function at their highest potential.