An audiologist is a healthcare professional who specializes in diagnosing and treating hearing and balance disorders. They hold a Doctor of Audiology (Au.D.) degree, which is a doctoral-level clinical degree, but they are not medical doctors. Think of an audiologist as your primary partner for hearing health: they test your hearing, fit hearing aids, manage tinnitus (ringing in the ears), and treat inner-ear balance problems for patients of all ages, from newborns to older adults.
What an Audiologist Does
Audiologists work across a surprisingly wide range of hearing and balance issues. Their core responsibilities include running hearing evaluations, interpreting the results, building treatment plans, and selecting and fitting devices like hearing aids and cochlear implants. They also counsel patients on hearing loss prevention, design educational plans for children with hearing difficulties, and manage programs to protect hearing in noisy workplaces.
Beyond hearing loss, audiologists evaluate and treat problems with the vestibular system, the part of your inner ear that controls balance. If you’re dealing with vertigo or unexplained dizziness, an audiologist can run a series of tests that track your eye movements, measure how your body maintains stability, and assess how well the balance organs in your inner ear are functioning.
Specialty areas within audiology include pediatrics, geriatrics, cochlear implants, tinnitus, balance disorders, hearing aids, and auditory processing (how the brain interprets sound). Audiologists regularly collaborate with physicians, speech-language pathologists, physical therapists, teachers, and psychologists.
Are Audiologists “Real” Doctors?
Audiologists earn a Doctor of Audiology degree, so they hold a doctorate, but they are not physicians. They cannot prescribe medication or perform surgery. The distinction matters because in many places, the rules around using the title “Dr.” in a healthcare setting are strict. In Ontario, Canada, an audiologist named Brenda Berge was found guilty of professional misconduct, suspended for three months, and ordered to pay nearly $100,000 in costs after using the title “Dr.” in her practice, even though she held a doctoral-level degree. Dentists, chiropractors, and naturopaths were permitted to use it in that jurisdiction, but audiologists were not.
The concern behind these rules is patient confusion. Regulatory bodies worry that when non-physician professionals use “Dr.” in a clinical setting, patients may assume they can offer medical treatment. In the United States, state laws vary on whether audiologists can use the title. Regardless of the title, what stays consistent is the scope of practice: audiologists diagnose and manage hearing and balance problems but refer you to a medical doctor when surgery, medication, or treatment of an underlying disease is needed.
How Audiologists Differ From ENTs
An ENT (otolaryngologist) is a medical doctor and surgeon who treats conditions affecting the ear, nose, and throat. While audiologists focus on hearing function, rehabilitation, and device fitting, ENTs diagnose and treat ear diseases through medical and surgical approaches. If you have chronic ear infections, a growth in the ear canal, or sudden hearing loss in one ear, an ENT is typically the right starting point. If you need a hearing evaluation, hearing aids, tinnitus management, or balance testing, an audiologist handles that directly.
In practice, the two often work together. An ENT might identify a condition that requires hearing rehabilitation and refer you to an audiologist, or an audiologist might spot signs of a medical problem during testing and send you to an ENT for further evaluation.
Education and Training
Becoming an audiologist requires a four-year doctoral program after completing an undergraduate degree. A typical Au.D. program involves roughly 97 credits and at least 1,820 hours of supervised clinical experience. Those clinical hours are spread across on-site practicum, off-site externships, and a full-time 12-month audiology residency. After graduating, audiologists must pass a national exam and obtain a state license. Many also pursue a Certificate of Clinical Competence in Audiology (CCC-A) through the American Speech-Language-Hearing Association or board certification through the American Board of Audiology.
What Happens During a Hearing Evaluation
If you visit an audiologist for a hearing concern, expect a series of tests performed in a soundproof room. The most common is a pure-tone test, where you wear headphones and indicate each time you hear a tone. Tones are played at different pitches and volumes to map out the quietest sounds you can detect across the frequency range. A speech discrimination test follows a similar structure but uses spoken words, sometimes over background noise, to measure how clearly you understand speech. This test also helps predict how much a hearing aid could help.
A tympanometry test checks the health of your eardrum and the small bones in your middle ear. A device placed in your ear canal changes the air pressure slightly while measuring how your eardrum responds. An otoacoustic emissions (OAE) test evaluates the tiny hair cells inside the cochlea, the spiral-shaped organ in your inner ear that converts sound waves into nerve signals. When these hair cells are healthy, they produce faint vibrations of their own in response to sound. The device measures those vibrations. Little or no response indicates a specific type of hearing loss originating in the inner ear. Tuning fork tests can help distinguish between that type of hearing loss and the kind caused by something physically blocking sound, like fluid or earwax buildup.
Hearing Aid Fitting
Getting hearing aids is not as simple as picking a device off a shelf. The process typically moves through six stages: assessment, treatment planning, selection, verification, orientation, and validation. Your audiologist reviews your hearing test results and discusses options based on your lifestyle, budget, and preferences. Once a device is selected, a fitting appointment ensures the earpiece sits comfortably and the hearing aid is positioned properly.
A critical step during fitting is real ear measurement. The audiologist places a thin probe tube in your ear canal alongside the hearing aid and plays sounds at various frequencies. This measures exactly how the device amplifies sound inside your specific ear canal, not just in a lab. Based on those readings, the audiologist makes real-time adjustments to match your hearing prescription at each frequency and volume level. Follow-up visits fine-tune the settings as you adjust to wearing the devices in everyday situations.
Tinnitus Management
Tinnitus, the perception of ringing, buzzing, or hissing in your ears without an external source, is one of the most common reasons people see an audiologist. During a tinnitus evaluation, the audiologist measures four characteristics of the sound you hear: its pitch, its loudness, how easily it can be covered up by other sounds (maskability), and whether it temporarily fades after exposure to a masking sound (residual inhibition). These measurements guide treatment.
For persistent tinnitus, audiologists draw on several strategies. Hearing aids alone help many people by amplifying ambient sound and making the tinnitus less noticeable. When basic amplification isn’t enough, specialized tinnitus maskers built into hearing aids can generate nature sounds or broadband noise. White-noise generators have been shown to reduce tinnitus severity and improve sleep. Tinnitus retraining therapy combines counseling with ear-level noise generators over an extended period, helping you gradually stop noticing and reacting to the sound. Cognitive behavioral therapy, which focuses on changing negative emotional responses to tinnitus through counseling and relaxation techniques, has been shown to improve quality of life and reduce depression in people with bothersome tinnitus.
Signs You May Need an Audiologist
Common signs that point toward a hearing evaluation include speech and other sounds seeming muffled, difficulty understanding words in noisy environments, trouble hearing consonant sounds, and frequently asking people to speak more slowly or loudly. Unexplained dizziness or balance problems are also within an audiologist’s scope. You don’t typically need a referral from another doctor to book an appointment, though your insurance plan may require one.