Audiology
The ENT Center of Austin offers a host of audiology services to our patients:
- Comprehensive Hearing Tests - pure tone air and bone conduction, and behavioral testing to determine the degree and type of hearing loss
- Otoacoustic Emission Testing - to detect cochlear damage
- Admittance Testing - for evaluation of middle ear function
- Hearing Aid Evaluation and Selection - an in depth look at your hearing loss, lifestyle, and amplification options to decide what would work best for the patient
- Hearing Aid Fitting and Follow Up Programming - fitting and programming of a patient’s hearing aid(s) to adjust for the best sound quality possible through amplification
- Custom fit Ear Pieces - custom ear pieces such as ear molds for amplification, ear plugs, swim plugs, and musician’s plugs
For more information on hearing loss including types, causes, effects, and prevalence, visit the American Speech-Language-Hearing Association (ASHA) website. There is also a great self assessment listed on their site to help you determine if you may have a hearing impairment: www.asha.org/public/hearing/disorders.
Hearing Aids
There are several different major hearing aid manufacturers. Each manufacturer has a range or products from basic to high end. I could fit a patient with a hearing instrument from almost any manufacturer and find something that would work for them. There are a few manufacturers that I prefer to use based on their customer service to me and in turn to my patients. However, I am open to working with other manufacturers if they are someone that my patient has experience with and prefers. Here are the links to the three main manufacturers I work with:
www.gnresound.com
www.oticon.com
www.phonak.com
Insurance Coverage and Payment of Hearing Aids
Unfortunately, there are very few insurance companies that will cover hearing instruments. It is because of this that our office policy is that we do not submit to insurance companies for hearing aid benefits. You will be responsible for paying us the full price of the hearing instruments. If you do have insurance that will cover hearing aids it will be your responsibility to file for reimbursement. We do carry a range of hearing instruments to fit every budget. We use Care Credit and are willing to work through them to offer payment plans if necessary.
Bio
Dr. Valerie Brickner was born and raised in a small town in Michigan. She attended Central Michigan University where she received her Bachelors of Science and then went on to complete her Doctorate of Audiology degree. Dr. Brickner relocated to San Antonio to do an internship for her doctorate program. Upon graduating in May of 2009, she moved to Austin and accepted a position at Unitron, a company that manufactures hearing instruments. During her time with Unitron, Dr. Brickner was responsible for an 18 state territory in the middle of the country. She provided support and training for audiologists that worked in VA Hospitals, Military Bases, and Indian Health Clinics. Life on the road and not seeing patients was not a very good fit for Dr. Brickner, and she decided to look for something different. This brought her to our practice.
Dr. Brickner has a passion for working with hearing impaired patients that started as a young girl. She has several hearing impaired family members; including her father, who has worn hearing aids since he was in his twenties. Dr. Brickner is a member of the American Academy of Audiology and a licensed audiologist for the state of Texas.