Audio-Mind-Processing Therapy

Many specialists adjust devices based on an estimated prescription, which does not account for your ear’s unique “fingerprint.” This is one of the key drawbacks to over the counter devices. Even if they may “feel” like they are doing a good job, there is really no way of knowing what is happening to the sound in your ear, without real ear verification measures. Some specialists blindly adjust devices based on perception alone, completely disregarding critical information provided by verification measures. Some specialists use verification measures alone and refuse to adjust the sound when patients report dissatisfaction.

Our experience has found that these common treatment approaches typically do not lead to a happy patient. There is a magic in the art of hearing aid adjustments, and Dr. O’Boyle feels her AMP Therapy program has found just the right formula! She has trained her team to offer a range of support when you need anything.

If you go to most any reputable audiologist, there’s a good chance you’ll receive at least a technology recommendation that’s appropriate. If you’re lucky, you’ll also find a provider that also uses verification methods to ensure that you’re fit to the proper prescription.

The next part of the process is one of the most important steps of a patient’s hearing aid journey, and where many treatment plans fall short. This is where our approach stands above other specialists, creating an individualized therapeutic plan to help patients through the rewiring process in the brain and one of the most difficult times to adjust to a hearing aid.

Dr. O’Boyle found that most patients report they are fit improperly and are advised that they will get used to the sound. Sometimes no adjustments are offered and when adjustments are made the benefit can be minimal. This is typically when most hearing aid patients start to lose motivation.

The world is a noisy place, encouraging you to want to remove them. Then you fall into a bad habit of using them only when you think you need them. When you do wear them, you are once again bombarded by all the surrounding environmental noises while still experiencing difficulty understanding words. This further discourages the use of the hearing aids and the people you communicate with may also once again feel discouraged to communicate.

The world is a noisy place, encouraging you to want to remove them. Then you fall into a bad habit of using them only when you think you need them. When you do wear them, you are once again bombarded by all the surrounding environmental noises while still experiencing difficulty understanding words. This further discourages the use of the hearing aids and the people you communicate with may also once again feel discouraged to communicate.

Dr O’Boyle often likes to use the analogy of the hearing aid process to an injured leg. Think back to the day you started to notice there was a tiny problem hearing, or understanding, or maybe someone in your life started to complain that you are not listening. It is possible that could be the time frame when your hearing started to change. Since that time, your system was slowly deteriorating and sending diminished signals to the brain. Now imagine if you put a cast on your leg on that day. The day you start the hearing aid journey, it would be the same as your leg on the first day of removing your cast. Many patients expect to hear perfectly in a noisy situation their first day, this is like running a marathon because our brain is trying to hear one voice in a sea of sounds. If you had that cast on your leg for many years, you may never be capable of smoothly running a marathon.

We’re now caught between a rock and a hard place. We want to hear better but we don’t want to be overwhelmed by so many sounds. We can’t get used to the sounds if we are not able to practice wearing them consistently. With our leg analogy, that would be the same as wanting to run a marathon, while only taking a walk a few times per week. Our brain needs practice in order to rewire itself as it relearns what sounds mean, how to prioritize speech over environmental sounds, and understand in complex listening situations.

Our AMP Therapy method uses a special blend of diagnostic test measures, your experiences, information provided by your hearing technology, and “Gold Standard” validation measures. We integrate this information to further refine your step by step adaptation plan to comfortably adapt to hearing the sounds of the hearing world. Over the course of a few weeks, our team implements our to customize and manage your hearing technology settings to best assist your brain during this critical time.

Once we are on an established path implementing our treatment plan, we guide patients and manage adjustments during their journey on the roadmap to better hearing. Our AMP Therapy has a proven track of turning our patients into successful hearing aid users.