What Training Do Hearing Aid Specialists Have?

Most people have heard of audiologists, who are professionals that are highly educated in diagnosing and treating hearing loss and other hearing issues. Hearing aid specialist are lesser known, but they are not of less value among hearing professionals.

Hearing aid specialists play an important role in the area of diagnosing and helping patients with hearing loss or hearing complaints. They don’t have as much training in their field, but they are trained to do their specific job well.

What Do Hearing Aid Specialists Do?

Hearing aid specialists typically work closely with an audiologist or other hearing professional in order to determine the best course of treatment for each individual. After a person visits medical professionals to determine the reason for their hearing loss, they will sometimes be referred to a hearing aid specialist to be fit for hearing aids or other hearing devices and/or hearing protection.

The typical hearing aid specialist will schedule appointments with patients, attend team treatment meetings with patients and their physicians, perform hearing tests and help patients understand their hearing loss, fit and modify hearing aids, order supplies and control inventory of hearing aids and other hearing devices, and do a lot of paperwork.

Hearing aid specialists are also experts at fitting hearing aids for each individual person. They will help you discover the best hearing aid for your particular hearing loss and determine the size and fit that you need. They can even make fully custom hearing aids by creating and earmold and sending it in. A manufacturer will then create a hearing aid just for you.

Though a main part of their job is fitting for heating aids, it’s not all that they do. During appointments, hearing aid specialists perform hearing examinations, collect background information, medical histories, symptoms, and complaints. They counsel families and individuals on techniques to improve hearing and help people with communication related to hearing loss.

What Is Required to Become a Hearing Aid Specialist?

Every state has it’s own requirements for what training and experience a hearing aid specialist must have. Typically, hearing aid specialists are licensed in each state. The American Speech Language Hearing Association overseas licensing requirements of hearing aid specialists around the country.

In most states, licensing requirements are:

• Must be 18 or older
• Have completed high school or equivalent
• Has completed an approved hearing aid specialist training program

Hearing aid specialist training (HAST) is a vocational training that usually consists of training in theory and also a number of logged hours of practical training. For example, Oregon’s licensing requirements are that each hearing aid specialists completes 520 hours of practical training.

Mainly, they learn how to work with patients, how to read medical charts related to hearing loss, how to fit hearing aids and custom hearing products such as protective devices. They also learn everything they can about the different styles and types of hearing aids and what works best for certain individuals. Their training readies them for working in a fast-paced environment as complimentary professionals among other hearing professionals.