The Audiology Place

15/10/2026

A healthy coral reef is noisy. Snapping shrimp, grunting fish and breaking waves combine into a crackle that sounds a bit like rain on a tin roof.

Young fish follow that sound to find a home. When scientists played recordings of healthy reefs over damaged ones, coral settlement rose about 1.7 times.

Fish have no external ears. They hear through otoliths, tiny calcium carbonate "ear stones" in the inner ear.

A change from our usual topics, and worth a read:

The extraordinary underwater world of sound, fish ears, baby coral and reefs that call new life home When we think of a healthy coral reef, we tend to picture brilliant corals, enormous schools of brightly coloured fish, turtles gliding overhead, and tiny creatures disappearing into impossibly compl...

13/10/2026

Some people find ordinary sounds painfully loud. Others feel instant anger at chewing, breathing or a clicking pen, at any volume.

The first is hyperacusis, the second misophonia, and both can be treated. Avoiding the sounds tends to make things worse over time. Our approach combines education about how hearing works, sound therapy and graded exposure, with sound generators or hearing aids where they help.

No referral needed.

Sydney specialist clinic for misophonia and hyperacusis, offering evidence-based assessment, treatment, and sound therapy to retrain the brain's response to sound.

12/10/2026

If chewing, sniffing or keyboard clicking sends someone you love into a rage, the reaction is real and they are not choosing it.

Brain imaging shows trigger sounds activate the anterior insula, the region that decides what needs urgent attention, along with areas that control the mouth and face.

Families understandably try to help by removing triggers. Research from Baylor College of Medicine found more than 70% of parents change routines to help a child avoid them. Over time, avoidance can shrink a person's world. Tools the person controls, such as headphones or white noise, tend to work better than household rules.

11/10/2026

If you hold a pension card or a DVA card, your hearing test is covered under the Government Hearing Services Program.

No GP referral is needed. Bring your card and we handle the paperwork. If hearing aids are recommended, you may be eligible for fully or partially subsidised devices.

Both our Epping and Forestville clinics are wheelchair accessible.

02 9315 8327

At The Audiology Place, in Epping and Forestville, we offer comprehensive hearing assessments and hearing aids for pensioners and DVA (Department of Veterans' Affairs) cardholders.

08/10/2026

Your child passed their hearing test, yet still struggles to follow instructions or keep up in a noisy classroom.

That pattern can point to Auditory Processing Disorder, where the ears hear normally but the brain has trouble making sense of what arrives. It affects roughly 3 to 5% of school-aged children. Other signs include trouble with reading and spelling, being easily distracted, and frustration that comes out as behaviour.

Assessment takes two appointments: a full hearing test first, then the APD test battery.

06/10/2026

We test children's hearing from 6 months of age.

Between 6 and 30 months we use Visual Reinforcement Audiometry: your child turns toward a sound and gets a visual reward. From about two and a half, play audiometry turns listening into a game.

Our rooms are sound-treated, so parents stay with their child for the whole test. Dr Signe Steers has more than 20 years' experience in paediatric audiology.

Children's Hearing Audiologist based in Sydney. We do wax removal, hearing diagnostics, APD, Mysophonia and a range of screening checks for school.

05/10/2026

We asked 425 Australians what comes to mind when they picture a hearing aid. The answers included "old", "ugly", "bulky" and "burden".

The people most put off were the youngest. Half of those under 30 said not wanting to feel old would stop them wearing hearing aids, compared with 12.5% of over-75s who already wear them.

Today's aids stream calls and music over Bluetooth, send TV audio straight to your ears and use AI to pick one voice out of a noisy cafe. Some sit so deep in the ear canal that nobody can see them.

04/10/2026

We offer Lenire, a tinnitus treatment that pairs sound through headphones with gentle pulses to the tongue. The aim is to change how the brain responds to the tinnitus signal.

You use it at home, two 30-minute sessions a day for at least 12 weeks, with check-ins at the clinic along the way. In the TENT-A2 clinical trial, around 95% of participants reported improvement.

Lenire is for adults with chronic tinnitus. One-sided, pulsing or recent tinnitus needs investigating first, so every patient starts with an assessment.

https://www.theaudiologyplace.com.au/lenire-tinnitus-treatment/

01/10/2026

Can tinnitus be cured? An international expert panel reviewed the evidence in 2024 and the honest answer is no. No treatment reliably removes it or makes it quieter.

What treatment can do is reduce how much it disrupts sleep, concentration and mood. Around half of people who receive structured care report a meaningful improvement.

Some causes are fixable. Earwax, fluid behind the eardrum and certain medications can all set it off.

Our full article covers what the evidence supports:

No treatment available anywhere in the world reliably switches tinnitus off. That is the position of the international expert panel that reviewed the state of the field in 2024, which put it plainly: no treatment can reliably eliminate tinnitus or reduce its loudness, which is what most patients wan...

29/09/2026

We aren't owned by a hearing aid manufacturer, and nobody here works to a sales quota.

That means we can fit Oticon, Phonak, Signia, Widex, ReSound, Starkey, Unitron or Bernafon, and recommend whichever suits your hearing, your lifestyle and your budget.

Every fitting is checked with Real-Ear Measurement, so we measure what the aid delivers inside your ear canal rather than trusting the software's estimate. Your first full hearing test and consultation runs for 90 minutes.

As an independent, Dr. Signe fits all brands of hearing aids. We provide truly independent advice and world-class hearing care so you can be confident you’re getting the best solution.