Vision and hearing are your two most important senses and they both tend to fail at the same stage in life. Dr. Jonathan Frantz, medical director of Florida Eye Health, is pleased to announce that he has added a hearing services program at Florida Eye Health and can now provide evaluation and treatment for both vision and hearing.
The eyes and ears function inseparably together and the combination of sensory data enables each of us to fully interact with our environment. “Screening for and identifying hearing problems when our patients have their vision tested is now a routine and fundamental procedure in our practice,” said Dr. Frantz. “If a patient shows loss of hearing at their initial screening, which is performed at all five Florida Eye Health locations, they will be referred to our Hearing Instrument Specialist Tom Christiansen, for a comprehensive hearing evaluation at our main office in Fort Myers. This is done at no additional cost to our patients as part of their total package of care,” he said. Christiansen joined the clinical team at Florida Eye Health with more than 20 years of experience in helping people with hearing impairments improve their ability to communicate with family members and conduct daily business.
With the aging of Baby Boomers, estimates are growing from 30 million to as high as 55 million people in the US with significant measurable hearing loss. Despite these overwhelming numbers, only about 20% of people whose hearing loss is bad enough to need hearing aids are actually wearing and benefiting from them. Both vision and hearing begin to decline as we age and evaluating both simultaneously can help identify problems and treatment options early. Millions of older Americans have hearing loss and need hearing testing to identify the type and extent of the loss.
“In keeping with our commitment to providing extraordinary customer service, we hope our patients will find it convenient to now be able to fulfill their eyeglasses, contacts, and hearing instrument needs in one convenient location and with the clinical team they already know and trust,” said Dr. Frantz.
Digital hearing aids have become progressively smaller and more sophisticated in this digital era. “For many patients today, a tiny device located in or behind the ear provides exceptional sound quality and is so small that others never notice it while the wearer hardly knows it’s on,” said Christiansen.
Price ranges for hearing aid devices vary according to the type of hearing instrument that best meets the patient’s needs. The only cost to the patients at Florida Eye Health is the cost of the hearing devices. Medicare does not pay for hearing instruments just as they typically do not pay for eyeglasses or contact lenses for most vision problems; however, patients may finance the cost of the hearing device through our patient financing company.
