[Hearing aid rehabilitation of hearing disorders in adults]

Hearing-aid provision is still partly a medical task, in spite of technological progress and a confusing variety of types and models of devices. The diagnosis of the underlying disease, the appreciation of the consequences of hearing loss and the counseling of the hearing impaired person are prerequisites of the treatment. The physician should try to determine the etiology of the hearing loss. Also, a state-of-the-art otologic examination should be performed and the physician should be sensitive to the psychological and social consequences of the patient's hearing loss. For the assessment of fitted hearing aids, basic knowledge of the technical background is required. To measure hearing-aid benefit in the ENT office, suprathreshold and speech audiometry are indispensable tools.