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The primary criteria for the referral of a patient
for a medical or other specialist opinion and /
or treatment are as follows:
• Visible congenital or traumatic deformity
of the ear;
• History of active drainage from the ear in
the previous 90 days;
• History of sudden or rapidly progressive
hearing loss in one or both ears within
the previous 90 days;
• Acute or chronic dizziness;
• Audiometric air-bone gap equal to or
greater than 15 dB at 500 Hz, 1000 Hz
and 2000 Hz;
• Visible evidence of signicant cerumen
accumulation or a foreign body in the ear
canal;
• Pain or discomfort in the ear;
• Abnormal appearance of the eardrum
and ear canal such as:
- Inflammation of the external auditory
canal,
• Presence of hearing loss
• Uni- or bilateral
• Conductive, sensorineural or mixed
• Mild to profound
• Presence of a chronic tinnitus (only
applicable for devices which provide the
Tinnitus feature).
Contraindications
General clinical contraindications for the use of
hearing aids and Tinnitus soware are:
• Hearing loss is not in the tting range
of the hearing aid (i.e. gain, frequency
response)
• Acute tinnitus
• Deformity of the ear (i.e. closed ear canal;
absence of the auricle)
• Neural hearing loss (retro-cochlear
pathologies such as absent/non-viable
auditory nerve)