Audiology
Specialized Hearing Care for All Ages
Whether you're concerned about hearing loss, need a hearing evaluation or are looking for hearing aids, our certified audiologists can help. We provide comprehensive hearing care for patients of all ages, from newborns to older adults.
Our team works with you to understand your needs at home, work or school and recommend personalize solutions that help you hear and communicate more confidently. We offer advanced testing, hearing aid services and expert care at locations across Vermont and northern New York.
Why Choose UVM Health?
- Advanced hearing technology: We use state-of-the-art technology to gain exceptional detail about your unique ear anatomy. Adept at performing real ear measurement (REM) testing, our audiologists precisely adjust your hearing aids for comfort and performance.
- Experienced audiology specialists: As a health system anchored by an academic medical center, our audiologists are certified through the American Academy of Audiology or the American Speech-Language and Hearing Association. You can be assured of always receiving care from a knowledgeable hearing professional.
- Convenient hearing aid support: Our audiology assistants can clean hearing aids, troubleshoot issues and perform many minor repairs on site, helping you get back to hearing your best more quickly.
- Coordinated specialty care: When needed, our audiologists work closely with ear, nose and throat (ENT) specialists, connecting you with trusted experts to identify and treat medical conditions that may be affecting your hearing.
Audiology Services for Adults
At UVM Health, our certified audiologists perform comprehensive hearing evaluations to assess hearing loss and guide treatment recommendations. These evaluations may include audiometric testing, which uses headphones in a soundproof booth to measure your ability to hear sounds and understand speech in each ear.
You have many choices of hearing aids, but how do you know which will give you the best hearing experience? Our experienced audiology professionals work with you from start to finish and will help you select an aid suited to your needs, budget and lifestyle.
Real Ear Measurements help ensure hearing aids are programmed accurately for your hearing needs. By measuring how sound is delivered in the ear canal, audiologists can verify and adjust hearing aid settings to provide the appropriate level of amplification and optimize hearing performance.
Our audiology program is dedicated to hearing preservation and conservation at any age. We offer custom-fitted ear plugs to help reduce the effects of occupational and recreational noise exposure. Our team works with anyone interested in protecting their hearing, including musicians, motorcyclists, hunters and construction workers.
Audiology Services for Children
If your baby does not pass a newborn hearing screening, additional testing is important to determine whether hearing loss is present. UVM Health offers auditory brainstem response (ABR) testing to further evaluate your infant's hearing. Depending on your child's age and needs, testing may be performed during natural sleep without sedation or, in some cases, with sedation.
Safe and painless, ABR testing is performed by a qualified audiologist and measures how the hearing nerves and brain respond to sound. Early and accurate diagnosis helps families access appropriate care and support as soon as possible.
Your little ones are in child-friendly hands. Our pediatric audiologists tailor testing methods to each child's age, developmental level and ability to participate. We use a variety of techniques to make hearing evaluations as comfortable and engaging as possible, adapting our approach to meet each child's individual needs.
For younger children, testing may include visual reinforcement audiometry (VRA), in which a child is rewarded with a brief visual stimulus, such as an entertaining video, when they respond to sound. For older children, we may use play-based audiometry techniques involving toys and games to encourage participation while gathering accurate hearing information.
Hearing care starts early at UVM Health. Most babies born at our hospitals receive a hearing screening shortly after birth as part of their newborn care. Our universal newborn hearing screening program screens approximately 2,500 babies each year using age-appropriate, noninvasive screening methods, which may include otoacoustic emissions (OAE) screening and/or automated auditory brainstem response (AABR) screening, depending on the hospital and individual needs.
Every child is different. That's why we offer a variety of hearing aid styles and color options, from subtle and discreet designs to more colorful choices, so children and teens can select what feels right for them.
For school-aged children, our audiologists work closely with school consultants for the deaf and hard of hearing. Together, we ensure children in our local communities receive the resources and support that they need.