By Akers Editorial
Health Pros: Balanced Approach to Hearing Health
Citrus Hearing Clinic
Hearing loss impacts over 60 million Americans aged 12 and older. As we age, it becomes more common, nearly a third of people 65 and older deal with hearing loss.
These aren’t just statistics for the experts at Citrus Hearing Clinic in Clermont. Most of the staff are personally familiar with hearing challenges, which makes them uniquely positioned to help patients of all ages.
A bilateral hearing aid user herself, owner Dr. Laura Pratesi, Au.D., founded the full-service audiology practice in 2018.
Born with progressive hearing loss, she was originally a musical theater and opera major in college, but switched to audiology to help others avoid the struggles she battled. She became the youngest person to complete Auburn’s Doctor of Audiology program, graduating in 2012.
“Five of our staff wear hearing aids for different reasons,” says Dr. Pratesi. “You don’t have to have hearing loss to be a good audiologist, but it’s personal for us because we live with this every day.”
Specializing in aural rehabilitation, balance therapy, pediatric testing, and patient education, Citrus Hearing Clinic offers:
Diagnostic Audiologic Evaluation
Hearing Aid Evaluation, Dispensing and Fitting
Tinnitus Treatment Options
Lenire® Device
Earwax Removal
Pediatric Hearing Care
Vertigo and Balance Assessment
Auditory Processing Assessment
Many patients come to the clinic in need of hearing aids.
“Our job isn’t to sell a product; it’s to educate patients and help them make well-informed decisions so they know the best device for their type of hearing loss,” notes Dr. Pratesi. “The most important part of any hearing aid is how it’s programmed. It doesn’t matter to us if someone hasn’t sourced their hearing aid from us. We’re here to help patients at every stage of their journey.”
The clinic works with new devices, such as the Apple hearing aids, and the Lenire® device, which has been very successful in treating tinnitus.
Citrus Hearing Clinic works with Phonak, Widex, Oticon, Starkey, Signa, ReSound, Unitron, as well as Advanced Bionics, Cochlear America, and MED EL.
“We’re like physical therapists of the ear. We want to be a Mayo Clinic-type office for audiology here in Lake County. Our goal is to help our community have affordable, easily accessible audiology services,” says Dr. Pratesi. “If it’s ear and hearing related, we can help.”
