What is Electroacoustic Analysis?
Hearing Instrument Test (HIT) Box pictured on the left with a receiver-in-the-canal (RIC) hearing aid setup to run Electroacoustic Analysis (EAA). Results pictured on the computer monitor on the right.
Electroacoustic Analysis or more commonly referred to as EAA,is a test measure that we can run on your hearing aids to make sure that the circuitry of your devices is working properly.
While most hearing aid manufacturers complete EAA before shipping repaired hearing aids, sometimes the devices are jostled in shipping. You've probably seen the shipping videos online, where packages are thrown, kicked, run over, etc. The reality is, things can be damaged in shipping, even when the shipping company is being careful with your package.
Without completing EAA on your devices, essentially you, the patient, are relied on to tell us if you are hearing well with your hearing aids. You come in for your Hearing Aid Pick-Up appointment, I program your devices, have you listen to them, make sure everything seems to sound good and send you on your way. Except the problem is, how would you know if you aren’t hearing something? Occasionally, and I hate when this happens, you come in and you tell me, your hearing aids still aren’t working right. I then have to send your hearing aids back in for repair and end up sending you home; without them.
How do we avoid the above, “I just had them repaired and they still don’t work” situation? With electroacoustic analysis. I want to make sure that when you come in and pick-up your hearing aids, they are actually working the way we expect them to be working. EAA is just one more service in our arsenal of services to ensure we are taking care of your hearing and hearing aids with best practices.
Frequently Asked Questions about EAA:
Question: I thought Real Ear Measurements (REM) tested my hearing aids. How is REM and EAA different?
Answer: Electroacoustic analysis tests the internal circuitry function of the whole device. Including the ability to amplify loud and moderate sound inputs while maintaining sound quality; measuring distortion levels at a low, mid and high frequencies; measuring the internal noise the circuitry itself makes; and more. Hearing aid manufacturers are required to build hearing aids that meet the ANSI S3.22-2003 21 CFR 801.420 standards; within designated tolerances. These standards are what EAA measurements are compared to when we test your devices in the office.
Real Ear Measurement (REM) is how we measure what you hear with your hearing aids in order to customize the sound to your specific hearing loss and how the earpiece fits in your ear canal. We are measuring the output of the device right next to your eardrum to ensure you have enough, but not too much, sound across the frequency range to make speech audible for your hearing loss.
Question: Is EAA more important than REM?
Answer: Both tests are equally important to ensure device function. I have had hearing aids meet REM targets but fail EAA and vice versa. EAA and REM are truly two independent test measures. REM ensures we are programming your hearing aids correctly for you and EAA ensures your hearing aids are working the way they were designed to.
Question: Do I really need EAA? I can tell when my hearing aids aren’t working, so I would know, right?
Answer: Actually, no, not always. I have had patients report hearing very well with their devices and I go to listen to them and one is completely dead! It happens more often than you would think. Often hearing aid sound quality will degrade slowly over time. So slowly, the brain automatically and unconsciously compensates for the loss of sound and we are none the wiser that we aren’t hearing well. EAA testing will catch even slight declines in device function, enabling us to address issues before you find yourself at an important event and not hearing well.
