Hearing & Dizziness Services

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Hearing & Dizziness Center

East Texas Ear, Nose, & Throat has the state-of-the-art equipment, capabilities, and expertise to resolve your hearing and balance problems promptly. Our experienced specialists offer a variety of comprehensive services in a friendly and professional atmosphere. Our services include:

  • Diagnostic Hearing Evaluation
    Diagnostic Evaluation of Dizziness & Imbalance
    Hearing Aids
    Ear Molds & Ear Plugs

Schedule an appointment with East Texas Ear, Nose, & Throat by calling 903-291-6300.

Meet Our Audiologist

Our Services

Today’s hearing aids are digital and require careful programming by highly trained and experienced hearing aid specialists. If you are picturing big and bulky devices, you will be pleased to learn that today’s instruments are smaller, more comfortable, and provide sound that is more natural. We fit and dispense devices from multiple hearing aid manufacturers to select the device most appropriate for your needs. Our experienced audiologist will program your device customized to pick up the sounds you need to hear and dampen those that you do not, such as background noise.

Testing Overview

The most common audiology test we perform is called a comprehensive audiogram. In a soundproof test booth, you will put on a pair of earphones and listen and respond to a series of sounds of descending volume. At times you will be given prompts to raise your hand, push a button, or repeat what you heard through the earphones. Your results will be recorded on an audiogram and reviewed with you immediately following your test.

Hearing Loss

Many of us take hearing for granted, but humans are unique in the way we interpret noises from our environment: we are able to utilize cognitive processes (knowledge, memory, and intelligence) with the sensory input we receive. This allows us to communicate, learn, and share thoughts and ideas.

Our peripheral and central nervous system extract and interpret information from multiple, competing sounds in our listening environment, assigning meaning to what might otherwise be considered background clutter. When you suffer from hearing loss, your ability to gauge the meaning of a sound that has been separated from its physical source is compromised, leading to confusion and frustration – proof of the strong correlation between hearing and cognition.

The effects of hearing loss on your health and quality of life can be significant and far-reaching. It can impair the exchange of information, thus significantly impacting everyday life, causing loneliness, isolation, dependence, and frustration.

There is also a link between hearing and balance with multiple studies confirming that untreated hearing loss is linked with imbalance and falls. A 2012 study by Johns Hopkins University determined that even a mild hearing loss triples the risk of falls among the elderly. However, results also suggested that treating hearing loss with hearing devices can help reduce this risk of falling.1

Many people believe that only the elderly experience hearing loss. In truth, hearing loss affects all age groups. According to the Better Hearing Institute, loud noise exposure is the number one cause of hearing loss while only 35% of people with hearing loss are older than age 64.

There Is Hope For Your Hearing

Whether you have a new hearing loss or are ready to get some clarity about a long-standing condition, we are here to help. The diagnosis and treatment of your hearing loss, whether medically or with the use of hearing devices, can help lead you back to the life you want to live. Schedule your hearing evaluation with us by calling 903-291-6300.

1 hopkinsmedicine.org

Videonystagmography (VNG)

East Texas Ear, Nose, & Throat is proud to offer comprehensive dizziness and imbalance testing. For individuals having difficulties with their balance and equilibrium, videonystagmography (VNG) is a valuable diagnostic procedure that is simple and painless. The series of tests in a VNG are used to determine whether a vestibular (inner ear) disease may be causing a balance or dizziness problem.