Virtual Sound Cafe In Houston, Texas
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What is the virtual sound cafe?
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 cafe 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 cafe is really neat to demo the “My Sound” feature of the Widex hearing aids as it has a feature that you can listen to one sound profile vs another, similar to when the optometrist flips the lens and asks you “A or B?”, Widex hearing aids have a feature to them in their app that you can choose which sound profile you like better and you can save that as a “favorite” program.
We can also use the sound cafe to demonstrate TV adapters, so that patients can see how they hear the TV directly in their ears using streaming technology. For patient’s with issues that they can’t resolve, we also use the sound cafe to program their aids in difficult environments as we have a full computer + hearing aid programming set up in the cafe as well.
What can patients expect?
When a patient comes to our office, they will get more time in our office with the doctors than your average audiology office. We spend this extra time demoing or troubleshooting if there’s any issues, so if the sound cafe is needed we just pop right in, activate all 6 sound sources, and begin the procedure.
What types of environments does the sound cafe recreate?
We mostly recreate the most difficult environment for most people / #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.
How do patients react to the sound cafe?
Patients are pretty shocked once they have had the sound cafe 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 cafe, 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.
Make An Appointment With Our Houston Audiologists
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 (included the Sound Cafe if needed) so you can be properly evaluated by a Houston audiologist. Call (713) 984-7562 today!
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“The best audiologist in Houston! Dr Elly was amazing, would highly recommend. Everyone at the clinic was super friendly, professional, and helpful!”
— Sadaf S.