Primary Facts About Long Island Audiology

By Marissa Velazquez


In Long Island audiology was a word coined from the Latin word audire, which in English translates to hear. Audiology is a sub-branch of science that deals with the treatment and study of balance, hearing, and related disorders in humans. The professionals who study and treat hearing problems are known as audiologists. Different nations have different qualification levels needed for an individual to work as an audiologist.

Audiologists treat people with hearing loss and also give treatment that prevent further damage to the hearing system. They do their job by use of various strategies such as otoacoustic emission measurements, electrophysiologic tests, videonystagmography, and hearing tests. All these techniques and many more aim at determining if a patient can hear within the normal range. They also determine which section of hearing is impaired in people who cannot hear in the normal range.

There are three sections of hearing that are likely to get impaired, that is, high, middle, and low frequencies and they all get impaired to various levels. After the tests are carried out and a problem such as hearing loss or vestibular abnormality is determined, the practitioner prescribes various options that are available. Various options for use in such cases include cochlear implants, hearing aid, appropriate medical referrals, and surgery.

Audiologists have training in diagnosis, management, and treatment of balancing and hearing problems. Besides that, they have the authority to recommend and map cochlear implants and dispense hearing aids. They counsel families that have infants with hearing loss and also help people who become deaf at old age how to cope with the situation by teaching compensation skills. As such, they are also found in rehabilitation centers.

Audiologists are also seen helping in the implementation of newborn and school hearing screening programs and personal and industrial hearing safety programs. They provide special fitting ear plugs among other protective devices that protect against deafness after birth and in adults. Some opt to work as auditory scientists in research programs. They spend many hours in a day at work and the working environment is similar to that of most medical professionals.

In some states in the US, for one to practice as an audiologist at the clinical level they must be doctors of audiology. Some states are expected to follow this trend sooner or later. During the study, students are supposed to take and pass national exams and various competencies prescribed by the body concerned with the regulation of the practice in the US. There is also a twelve-month full time, supervised experience practice that the students must attend.

Students command comprehensive knowledge in cochlear implants, sign language, physiochophysics, neurology, counseling, acoustics, anatomy, physiology, and electrophysiology. An audiologist usually graduates masters degree, ScD, Au. D, STI, or PhD depending on the school attended and the state. A working license in dispensing of aids that amplify sound is required for practitioners to prescribe and dispense them.

Long Island audiology is very advanced. It is carried out by qualified professionals who use very sophisticated and top of the class equipment. Facilities that provide these services are uniformly spread within the area for ease of access to them at any time.




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