Audiology

Since 2000, South Carolina has required universal hearing screening for newborns. Often completed before your baby even goes home from the hospital for the first time, this screening can be the first indicator that your newborn may have a hearing impairment. Once identified, treatment should begin as soon as possible.

Current guidelines recommend that hearing aids should be in place by six months of age. Speech development begins in the first year of life and is strongly influenced by hearing status. Some hearing loss may be due to a problem such as middle ear fluid, which can be managed medically, but for children who have permanent hearing loss, early identification and treatment of a hearing loss is essential to their overall development.  

For children who would not benefit from hearing aids or other treatments, cochlear implantation, which includes intensive communication therapy and training, is available at MUSC Children’s Health. Our goal is to help children develop appropriate communication and social skills, and to aid parents in understanding how to help their children reach their full potential.

Services We Offer

• Auditory brainstem response (with sedation, if necessary)
• Cochlear implant evaluation and programming
• Conditioned play audiometry
• Conventional audiometry
• Hearing aid evaluation and fitting
• Infant hearing screenings and evaluations
• Osseointegrated device evaluation and programming
• Otoacoustic emissions (OAE)
• Tympanometry/acoustic reflexes
• Visual reinforcement audiometry (VRA)

Audiological Conditions We Treat

• Auditory Neuropathy Spectrum Disorder (ANSD)
• Hearing loss
• Dizziness (vertigo) and balance disorders
• Sudden hearing loss
• Tinnitus
• Acoustic neuroma
• Aural atresia and microtia
• Chronic suppurative otitis media
• Eustachian tube dysfunction
• Infections of the external, middle and inner ear
• Otitis externa (swimmer’s ear)
• Otitis media with effusion
• Perforated eardrum
• Tubes and tympanoplasty for chronic otitis media

Our audiologists are certified by the American Speech-Language-Hearing Association and/or the American Academy of Audiology, and licensed by the state of South Carolina.