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Hearing Tests

Whittier Hearing Center is a Regional Audiology Center. We offer a full range of diagnostic services to determine the type and degree of hearing loss as well as the appropriate treatment. These services may covered by your medical insurance. We are a provider for all major insurance companies including Anthem/Blue Cross, Blue Shield, Medicare, United Health pace, PacificCare, Secure Horizons, SCAN, Healthnet; PERS, and many others. We are also the contracted provider for many of the local medical groups and hospitals including Bright Health Physicians, Presbyterial intercommunity Hospital, Allied Physicians of California, Whittier hospital, West Covina Medical, and Eastland Medical. Be sure to check with us regarding your insurance coverage for these services as we want to always maximize your benefits and minimize your out of pocket expenses for all services.

Why get a diagnostic work-up done?

The Effects of Hearing Loss and Sound Voids™ can be minimized if:

  • Your problem is correctly diagnosed;
  • You receive the right type of treatment; and
  • You and your hearing care team are committed to solving the problem

When you are seen for a diagnostic work-up the following steps are involved:

Step One: The Interview
Purpose: To help your AudigyCertified™ professional determine the extent of your problem and uncover any specific areas requiring further attention.

Some Typical Questions:

  • Has anyone else in your family had hearing loss?
  • Have you had any illnesses or injuries that might have affected your hearing?
  • Have you taken any medications that might have affected your hearing?
  • Have you been exposed to loud noises in your job or leisure activities?

Step Two: The Examination
Purpose: To help your AudigyCertified professional determine whether the hearing problem you are experiencing could be caused by an obstruction or damage to the ear canal or ear drum. Your AudigyCertified professional will use a special instrument called an otoscope or video otoscope to inspect the outer ear.

Step Three: Hearing Tests
Purpose: To help the hearing care professional determine the nature of your hearing loss. Your Audiologist may include hearing tests like the following, may be used depending on their assessment of your needs:

  • Audiometric pure tone evaluation to measure your hearing at different frequencies.
  • Speech evaluation to measure how well you hear and understand ordinary conversation at different volumes.
  • Immittance middle ear evaluation to measure how your ear drum and hearing react to varying degrees of air pressure.
  • If you are suffering from a hearing loss, your results will be documented on an audiogram.

Step Four: Treatment Options
Purpose: To insure that you know all your options for treatment and understand the benefits of each option.

Medical Treatment:
In some cases there may be surgery or medical treatment that can correct or improve the hearing. In those cases we work closely with your primary care physician and also specialists such as Ear-Nose-Throat physicians to resolve the medical problems. We never recommend hearing aids if you have an option of medical treatment.

Hearing Aids
Hearing aids come in a variety of designs, with a wide range of functions and features to address an individual's specific needs. The most basic components include a microphone, an amplifier, a receiver, and (in the case of digital hearing aids) a small computer. The unprecedented effectiveness of modern digital aids comes from a powerful combination of professional expertise, software, and hardware. Many of today's aids come with accessories to increase the usefulness of the system. These include blue tooth streamers, TV adaptors, home land line adaptors and even computer and IPod connectivity.

Surgery & Implants
Devices surgically inserted into the ear to improve hearing, facilitate lip-reading, and make it easier to distinguish certain sounds. Typically, these are most helpful to deaf or profoundly hearing-impaired people unable to use hearing aids. When these are appropriate we recommend them and refer you to the physicians in our area who do these specialized medical treatments.

A few examples of surgical implants:


  • Cochlear Implants
  • Middle Ear Implants
  • Bone-Anchored Hearing Aids
  • Auditory Brainstem Implants

Assistive Listening Devices
Many patients do not need hearing aids. They just need solutions for specific listening problems. For those patients we offer amplified telephones, wireless TV listening aids and a variety of personal communicators. Sometimes, even with hearing aids, patients may be helped by using assistive devices in addition to their hearing aid system.

Contact us today to test your hearing!