Hearing Tests & Audiology Services in White Hall, AR

Before any hearing assessment in the office, we will take a peek inside your ears. Otoscopy is done with a specialized tool that lights up and magnifies the inside of the ear. This provides a visual inspection so your audiologist can determine if there are any foreign objects in your ears or signs of infection or irritation. After an otoscopic exam, the next test that your audiologist will use is called immittance testing. Another more common term for immittance testing is tympanometry. This test is a valuable tool to test the movement and function of the eardrum and middle ear. This test can be beneficial in determining if there could be fluid or infection in the middle ear.

Ringing, buzzing, hissing, or clicking that no one else can hear is called tinnitus, and it affects a significant share of adults in Jefferson County — particularly those with a history of noise exposure from hunting, farming, or industrial work.

Tinnitus is a symptom rather than a disease, and identifying what is driving it matters. At Southern Arkansas Audiology we evaluate tinnitus as part of a comprehensive audiologic assessment, which includes pitch and loudness matching to characterize your tinnitus, testing for the underlying hearing loss that accompanies most cases, and screening for causes that warrant a medical referral.

Management options we discuss include hearing aids with built-in tinnitus sound therapy, sound enrichment strategies for sleep and quiet environments, and counseling on the habituation process. Most patients find that treating the underlying hearing loss meaningfully reduces how intrusive their tinnitus feels.

If ringing in your ears is affecting your sleep, focus, or peace of mind, contact us to schedule an evaluation.

• Swimmer’s ear plugs: Has your child or family member ever been a victim of a swimmer’s ear or an outer ear infection? Often this may occur due to water from the lake or ocean getting trapped inside the ear, creating an environment for bacteria to thrive. We can make custom swim plugs to wear while in the water to keep this bacteria-filled water from getting in the ears.
• Hearing protection: In the natural state, we love to spend our time outdoors. For many of us, this often involves recreational shooting or hunting. Firearms are very loud and can be damaging to our hearing, especially without the use of hearing protection. We offer simple custom earplugs that can be worn to block all sounds or filtered earplugs that let speech information be heard. Some are even electronic with amplification to ensure you still hear those ducks or the crunch of leaves in the distance.
• Custom ear molds: for AirPods/other earbuds or even in-ear monitors.

Our audiologist also provides hearing assessment for industrial and manufacturing settings. Dr. Wethington has a certification for hearing conservation supervision provided by Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA).

We also provide batteries for sale in our office. We often hear complaints that batteries purchased at big box stores tend to last less than expected or cause intermittent issues in hearing aids. Our batteries are always fresh and arrive directly from the manufacturer.

We offer all hearing aid battery sizes: 10, 13, 312, and 675.