Bob Martin

I love this question, and I hear it from my patients all the time. It is similar to other questions that people ask the experts: How many hours a day do I need to exercise to be fit? How many hours a day should I practice the piano to become proficient? Now, before I answer this question, allow me to

Most patients have some problem or a concern about their hearing aids when they return to our office for a follow-up visit. Sometimes, we can quickly remediate their problem by unplugging a sound tube or changing a battery. Other times there is something in the fitting that needs adjusting or we can help the patient hear better by adjusting the

In my two previous blog posts, I discussed various ways of clearly showing patients the benefits of hearing aids. I explained how to conduct demonstrations using test words and pulsed warbled test tones. Today I want to talk about demonstrating a hearing aid’s ability to handle “background noise.” But be warned, this topic is fraught with danger. Not all patients

In his previous post, published June 11, Dr. Robert Martin explained the importance of giving patients a “black and white demonstration” that clearly proves the benefit of aided hearing over unaided hearing. This week, Bob continues his three-part discussion of how to provide compelling demonstrations.   There are many different types of demonstrations you can use to show your patients

(The first of three parts) If you are an Audiologist, it is easy to delude yourself into thinking that people will listen to you and accept what you are saying. You spent a lot of time and energy going to graduate school, and you have a license to practice Audiology. So, because you are a trusting individual, you believe other

If you are working with a hard-to-please patient, I suggest that you introduce two concepts at the same time: maximum comfort (what feels good to wear) and maximum hearing (the fitting that will give the patient the “best” hearing). When a new hearing aid user is finicky, you need to win instant approval from the person. It is easiest to

Many of us make a living doing hearing tests and fitting hearing aids. Unfortunately, the diagnostic tests we use were developed to provide a medical evaluation of hearing. They were not designed with rehabilitation in mind. Conventional hearing tests provide a lot of useful information, but they do not give us a sufficient perspective on how best to help the

One of the great joys of having led a long and busy professional life is the pleasure that comes from growth. We all have much to learn and there is nothing like vast amounts of experience to help us refine the skills we use at work each day. Today’s post, on whether or not to make custom hearing aids (or

As audiologists and hearing aid specialists, we are all in the communication business. It’s our job to help our patients communicate better. It’s only natural, then, that there will be times and situations in the practice of our profession that we are called upon to make an extra effort to communicate effectively with the people who come to us for

If you are new to audiology, be careful when you read this article. Today I want to tackle an advanced concept, so you need to have considerable experience and well-developed intuition when you attempt to employ these ideas. Listed below are hearing thresholds for six patients. For the sake of simplicity I’m showing you their hearing thresholds for only ear