Topic summary
Audiologist
Extracted from the Wikipedia article Audiology.
Audiologist
An audiologist is a healthcare provider specializing in identifying, diagnosing, treating, and monitoring disorders of the auditory and vestibular systems. Audiologists are trained to diagnose, manage, and/or treat hearing, tinnitus, or balance problems. They dispense, manage, and rehabilitate hearing aids and assess candidacy for and map hearing implants, such as cochlear implants, middle ear implants, and bone conduction implants. They counsel families through a new diagnosis of hearing loss in infants and help teach coping and compensation skills to late-deafened adults. They also help design and implement personal and industrial hearing safety programs, newborn hearing screening programs, school hearing screening programs, and provide special or custom fitted ear plugs and other hearing protection devices to help prevent hearing loss. Audiologists are trained to evaluate peripheral vestibular disorders originating from pathologies of the vestibular portion of the inner ear. They also provide treatment for certain vestibular and balance disorders, such as benign paroxysmal positional vertigo. In addition, many audiologists work as auditory or acoustic scientists in a research capacity.