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From the time we’re children, we’re taught the importance of teamwork. From your favorite school winning March Madness to completing a major project at work, having a good team is the best way to succeed. It’s no different at CEENTA. When it comes to your hearing care, our team approach is the premier way to treat ears that may not be found elsewhere.
Hearing loss has been connected to physical concerns like dizziness and tinnitus. It has also been associated with mental concerns like depression and anxiety, social withdrawal, and cognition and brain health – such as auditory/mental fatigue and memory loss. CEENTA’s ENT and audiology doctors are specially trained in ear and hearing care, and their team approach ensures that all your health and hearing needs are taken care of in one place. That means if you come for a hearing evaluation and the audiologist notices something wrong with your ears, they can refer you to one of our ENT doctors. Conversely, if you see an ENT doctor for an ear infection and you say you have trouble hearing, they can refer you to an audiologist for a hearing assessment.
For example, in our Concord office Audiologist Mark Gabrych, AuD, provides comprehensive hearing tests to determine your hearing loss levels. More than a simple screening procedure, his evaluation will identify the type and degree of hearing loss and assesses general speech recognition or discrimination abilities as well. Additional test batteries may be applied, depending on individual symptoms. He will also perform a thorough case history and assessment of individual hearing needs to learn about your daily activities and the types of hearing environments you’re in most often.
The ENT providers at Concord – F.P. Johns Langford, MD, FACS, and Nicholas G. Stowell, MD – can not only check your hearing, but they can also check for and treat more serious conditions that may present as hearing loss. They can range from common ear infections to growths in the inner or middle ear that may go undetected without appropriate audiologic and otologic evaluations.
“Having a close working relationship with Dr. Gabrych and our top-notch audiology department is a great and essential asset for me to manage the ear and hearing concerns of my pediatric and adult patients,” Dr. Langford said. “We are the only ENT practice in the area with this valuable resource.”
If you do need hearing aids, the ones our providers help you select will be uniquely tailored to you. Not only will they be specially fitted to your ears, but we will help you choose the type you need based on your daily lifestyle and what may offer the best comfort based on the shape of your ear. Do you live a quiet life where the loudest noise you hear is the doorbell? If so, you’ll want a completely different set of hearing aids than someone who spends all day in busy environments or who has children.
“One of the advantages of CEENTA is that we utilize hearing aids from five different major manufacturers, as compared to most retail hearing aid centers, Dr. Gabrych said. “This means there are a lot more options available for vastly varying individual needs.”
CEENTA offers a wide range of hearing aids of the most current technology. For example, in Concord you can get the Lyric hearing aids. These can be worn for 24 hours a day and, instead of needing to replace or recharge their batteries, an audiologist will replace them after 2-3 months when they die. Lyric hearing aids are placed in the ear canal and are nearly 100 percent invisible. They are water- and wax-resistant, and can be worn through daily activities like showering, exercising, and sleeping. They are not waterproof, however.
For some people, hearing aids aren’t enough to correct hearing loss. In those cases, cochlear implants might be appropriate. Cochlear implants are devices that send electrical stimulation directly to the cochlea – the auditory section of the inner ear – bypassing the damaged hearing organs.
“Being part of the only cochlear implant team in the Charlotte area brings me great personal and professional joy as I see people’s lives changed through this miraculous technology,” Dr. Stowell said. “The same is true for those whose quality of life is improved through appropriately fitted hearing aids.”
Your hearing is an important part of your life, and you should trust it to a team dedicated to caring for all aspects of it. To schedule an appointment to get your hearing checked in Concord or at any of our offices that provides hearing services, call 704-295-3000.
This blog is for informational purposes only. For specific medical questions, please consult your physician.
If your student is struggling in school, it might be due to hearing loss. Learn more from CEENTA otolaryngologist Nicholas Stowell, MD, and your pediatric audiology options.
Audiologist Greer Baily, AuD, appeared on WCNC's Charlotte Today on October 18, 2024 to discuss pediatric hearing loss and cochlear implants.
CEENTA audiologist Carolyn Franks, AuD, CCA, appeared on WSOC's The Daily Two on July 26, 2024, to discuss hearing loss causes and hearing aid options.
