The hearing care professional assesses and treats people with a hearing impairment who need to be corrected. For this, he designs and adapts hearing aids for the hearing impaired.

The hearing-aid acoustician is a health professional who works with people with a hearing impairment requiring correction.

Its role is to assess the hearing abilities of patients and to correct them. To do this, he designs and adapts the devices to be placed in the patient’s ear to correct his hearing impairments.

Recall to better understand that the ear consists of three main parts: the outer ear, the middle ear and the inner ear. Together, these structures send the sound signal to the brain, transforming it in the process into nerve impulses that the brain can decode. The disturbance of one of these elements may be the cause of hearing loss, more or less severe.

Deafness can indeed be partial or total, congenital or acquired, functional or organic. When there is no surgical or medical intervention, hearing aids are an effective solution. There are several types of hearing aids:

• the contours of the ears;
• intra-auriculars;
• micro-contours.

In addition to designing and adapting hearing aids, the hearing care professional has varied skills covering a wide area1 :

• it takes care of the functions relating to the marketing of hearing aids (such as finding a supplier, purchasing products, selling associated products and services);
• he participates in the selection of individual protection against noise pollution;
• it is involved in the dissemination of information relating to prevention against noise pollution, deafness and its impact, etc.

Note that the hearing aid acoustician can practice in a hearing aid cabinet, but also in a hospital environment.

The hearing care professional works with patients who have received a prescription fromoto-rhino-laryngologiste (ENT). They have a hearing impairment, without requiring surgical intervention, and need a device to help them correct their hearing loss.

Note that people suffering from tinnitus can also use a hearing aid professional to relieve them.

The responsibility of the hearing aid professional includes the choice, adaptation, delivery, control of the immediate and permanent effectiveness of the hearing aid, and the prosthetic education of the hearing impaired.2.

Thus, to design the equipment necessary to correct the patient’s hearing impairment:

• the hearing-aid acoustician begins by finding out about his patient’s habits, living conditions and psychological state, but also about the degree of his discomfort;
• he performs an examination of the ear canal, called an otoscopy;
• he performs the audiological assessment of the patient;
• depending on the hearing defect highlighted, the specialist offers different types of equipment, taking care to explain their characteristics and costs;
• he takes the impression of his patient’s ear canal (each device is unique and made for the wearer).

When the device is manufactured, the hearing care professional tests for maximum comfort. Then he follows his patient regularly, to ensure the proper functioning of the equipment and to check the evolution of hearing.

In France

To become a hearing care professional, the student must obtain a state diploma in hearing aid. This training is prepared in 3 years, after obtaining the baccalaureate (preferably from a scientific field).

In Quebec

The student must obtain a college diploma (DEC) in hearing aids3. This is a 3-year training course specializing in hearing aids.

Two schools in Quebec offer this specific training:

• the Collège de Rosemont;
• and the Cégep de la Pocatière.