Hearing care

Maybe your child hears you but finds it hard to follow instructions, or maybe you hear clearly but group conversations, busy rooms or multi-step directions feel exhausting. When hearing tests are normal, these challenges can still reflect a real difference in how the brain processes sound.

Our Listening Assessment and Support Clinic helps adults and children understand and manage listening and auditory processing concerns. This includes support for auditory processing disorder, autism or other neurodevelopmental differences. While a formal diagnosis isn’t needed it can help us guide you to the right starting point.

If you’re feeling unexpectedly dizzy or off-balance, or if lying down makes the room spin, it can be unsettling and hard to explain. It can also affect your confidence, movement and day-to-day life. These symptoms may be linked to how your inner ear is working

Our Vestibular Clinic provides specialised assessment for adults and children with dizziness or balance concerns. We’ll help identify what may be causing your symptoms and what the next steps could be. A referral is needed for this service.

Being lost in music shouldn’t mean losing the ability to hear it well. If you play, perform, teach, mix or simply spend a lot of time around music, you may worry it’s affecting your hearing. Perhaps you’ve noticed ringing, sensitivity to sound or changes in how clearly you hear.

Our Musician’s Hearing Care Clinic supports musicians and music lovers with assessments, advice, sound exposure profiling, annual monitoring and fitted hearing protection. If hearing loss, tinnitus or sound sensitivity is affecting the way you listen to, perform or enjoy music, we’ll help you understand what’s happening and find practical solutions that protect your hearing while keeping you connected to your music.

Are you trying to hear more clearly at work, follow conversation in noisy places or enjoy television without turning it up? Our rehabilitation clinicians take time to understand your hearing, communication needs and daily routines, then match that with the most appropriate devices or strategies. Support can include hearing aids, assistive listening devices, hearing protection, follow-up adjustments and repairs through our student-led hearing aid repair clinic.

We are an independent clinic, not owned by a hearing aid company. We work with devices from all major manufacturers, so our advice is impartial and based on what’s best for your needs.

Have you seen us before and managed well for a while, but recently found things have changed? Maybe your hearing feels different or your usual strategies aren’t working anymore. It’s common for hearing needs to shift over time. It may mean your support, technology or management plan needs reviewing. Staying connected with us means you don’t have to work through those changes on your own.

Our specialised services cater to specific hearing conditions and populations. In addition to the Listening Assessment and Support Clinic, Musicians Hearing Care Clinic and Vestibular Clinic, other specialised services include:

• a tinnitus clinic to help with persistent ringing, buzzing or other sounds that others around you don’t hear
• wax removal services for people experiencing discomfort, reduced hearing or a sense of blockage caused by earwax build-up
• the Centre for Auditory Neuroscience, which diagnoses and manages auditory nerve and central auditory pathway disorders.

There’s no waiting period for most of our clinics. Some specialised areas, including the listening and vestibular clinics, might have a slightly longer wait time. We’ll always let you know the expected timeframe when you enquire.

It depends on the type of assessment. Adult hearing tests usually run for an hour, while children’s assessments take 45 minutes. Infant hearing tests take  an hour and a half.

Balance assessments and some of our other specialised clinics involve more comprehensive testing and therefore require a longer appointment. In some cases, this may be split across two shorter appointments.

You’re encouraged to bring a family member, partner, friend or support person to your appointment. Hearing difficulties don’t just affect you; they can also affect how you communicate with the people close to you. Talking through the challenges together can help everyone understand what support and strategies may make everyday communication easier.

In most cases, we’ll discuss your results during your appointment. We talk through what we’ve found and what the next steps might look like. We might also provide a written report.

While some hearing services are eligible for Medicare rebates, out-of-pocket fees may also apply. We’ll always discuss fees and costs with you during your consultation.

Pensioner Concession Card or DVA Gold/White Card holders may be eligible for subsidised services and devices. For more information, please check our Payment and fees information.

Yes. MTHC supports the next generation of audiologists by giving University of Melbourne postgraduate students wide-ranging clinical experience. While students may participate in your appointment, all sessions are fully supervised by a qualified audiologist.

Yes. We have a low-cost hearing aid repair clinic where Masters of Clinical Audiology students provide services overseen by qualified audiologists.

No. Our Listening Assessment and Support Clinic assists children, teenagers and adults understand and manage listening and auditory processing concerns. This includes support for auditory processing disorder, autism or other neurodevelopmental differences.