CONTACT MEMORIAL HEARING OF HOUSTON TO MAKE AN APPOINTMENT
What is the Virtual Sound Café?
The “virtual sound café” has many uses. It is used when a patient wonders if hearing aids will help them – we activate the noisy environment and do a demonstration with and without hearing aids and talk to them as if we are sitting in a restaurant with them. Experiencing the difference has left some patients speechless and in tears!
We have also used the sound café for showing how the hearing aid apps work (letting patients hear the sound in different programs, for example). With Widex brand hearing aids, the sound café is a great environment to demo the “My Sound” feature of their products. This feature allows our patients to listen and compare different sound profiles – similar to an optometrist flipping the lens and asking you, “A or B?”. Widex hearing aids even have a feature in their app where you can choose which sound profile you prefer and save that as a favorite program.
We can also use the sound café to demonstrate how TV adapters are used, allowing patients to hear the television directly in their ears via streaming technology. For patients having issues with their hearing aids, our sound café provides the opportunity to program their aids in noisy, difficult environments. With our full computer + hearing aid programming setup in the café, we’re equipped to tackle any issue head-on!
What can patients expect?
When patients visit Memorial Hearing, they are able to spend more time in our office with doctors than in your average audiology office. We spend this extra time demoing or troubleshooting if there are any issues, so if the sound café is needed we just pop right in, activate all 6 sound sources, and begin the procedure.
How do patients react to the sound café?
Patients are pretty shocked once they have had the sound café experience. Some patients commented that they would leave our quiet office only to get to a difficult noisy environment and not know what to do. Now with the sound café, they don’t have to wait to get into a difficult environment and then come back to see us- we can deal with it head-on if needed.
What types of environments does the sound café recreate?
We recreate the most difficult environment for most people’s #1 complaint– a noisy restaurant. We have 2 TV’s with voices playing, 2 sound sources playing restaurant noise including background mumbling/chatter and dishes clanking, and 2 sound sources playing a variety of music. It makes for a very difficult environment, and from there we will either demo aids, app, or make changes to the programming if needed.
Make An Appointment With Our Houston Audiologists
HEARING LOSS CAN BE TREATED, AND THERE ARE MANY OPTIONS FOR ALL LEVELS OF SEVERITY
If you have concerns about your hearing or notice you are struggling to understand what people are saying, contact Memorial Hearing today to schedule a diagnostic hearing exam (including the Sound Café if needed) so you can be properly evaluated by a Houston audiologist.
Call 713-984-7562 today!
DIAGNOSIS AND TESTING