title: [The hard-of-hearing patient--what should the general practitioner do?].
abstract: When assessing hardness of hearing, the physician must in the first instance differentiate between an acute event--for example sudden loss of hearing--and chronic deafness. Otoscopy, tuning fork testing and measurement of hearing distance provide importance information for the differentiation of hardness of hearing. In the case of noise deafness, the general physician has a preventive task. With regard to the provision of a hearing aid he can play a supportive role as a mediator between the hearing aid wearer, the ENT specialist and the acoustician.
authors.affiliation: Klinik und Poliklinik für Hals-, Nasen- und Ohrenheilkunde der Ludwig-MaximiliansUniversität München. John-Martin.Hempel@med.uni-muenchen.de
authors.forename: J M
authors.initials: JM
authors.lastname: Hempel
authors.forename: M
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Kramer
authors.forename: E
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Krause
mesh_terms: D000368:Aged; D003299:Cooperative Behavior; D005194:Family Practice; D006310:Hearing Aids; D034381:Hearing Loss / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000209:etiology / Q000628:therapy; D006801:Humans; D010348:Patient Care Team; D010353:Patient Education as Topic; D012017:Referral and Consultation; D016312:Treatment Refusal