Sandra Hepker - Professional Hearing Services

Ready to Help!

By Elyse Apel

Sandra Hepker has dedicated the last 36 years to improving the lives of those residing in the Hillsdale area by ensuring they have the best hearing possible.Sandra, owner and audiologist at Professional Hearing Services, said that hearing problems can affect people of any age. Thankfully, her office is able to assist patients with diagnosis and treatment for a wide range of issues.

“I have patients that I have helped their loved ones hear, so now their children and their grandchildren come in to see me,” she says. “I have patients who are over 100 years old, and then I have patients that may be three or six months old. So, there is a really wide range of ages that we test.”

Hearing loss can quickly lead to a deterioration in the quality of life, which Sandra explains is why it is so important to make sure you have the most up-to-date hearing solutions.

“Just in the last few years, our technology has gotten so much better. There’s the ability to have much clearer sounds and patients are able to more easily adjust to the hearing aids over time,” Sanda says. “They are more

comfortable, have Bluetooth technology and are battery rechargeable. There are just so many more features that make everyone’s lifestyle so much easier.”

Inspired by her father’s hearing issues, Sandra has been working as an audiologist for almost 42 years. After graduating from North Adams High School, Sandra received her B.A. and M.S. degrees from the University of Michigan. She first opened Professional Hearing Services after moving from Pennsylvania in 1988, where she lived for a brief time with her husband.

Sandra said one of the important values for her in her practice is ensuring that each patient is treated with dignity and that they feel confident in her care.

“I believe in the philosophy that people may not remember what you tell them, but they will remember how you made them feel. So, I’m really big on making a connection with my patients,” she says.

The pandemic led to a lot of challenges for her patients, Sandra explains.

“COVID was hard because people could not read lips because of masks, so I had a whole lot of people come

in thinking that they had communication problems because they couldn’t see people’s lips moving,” she says. “So many people don’t know how much visual cues help with communication.”

She adds that the role of hearing in overall health can not be underestimated.

“We are learning more about how hearing has a direct effect on the overall health and well-being of patients. Our statistics say that adults with hearing loss experience a 30 to 40% faster decline in cognitive abilities than peers with normal hearing,” Sandra says. “So, I try not to scare patients, but I tell them that it would not only really improve your life, but treatment would make them feel more connected to their loved ones. Hearing loss tends to isolate a person and they start to withdraw because they can’t communicate or they can’t be part of the conversation, which leads to depression and overall cognitive decline.”

According to Sandra, modern technology is helping to solve these problems and is getting more advanced every day.

“Hearing aids have become so much better than they used to be, even just a few years ago. Our new hearing aid technology processes 80 million personalized hearing adjustments every hour,” she says. “I’ve been doing this a long time, and I used to

apologize to my patients a lot, saying that this is the best I can do. Now, I can do more.”

Sandra adds that she loves having new patients come in and being able to assist them with their hearing issues, especially at her new building which her husband helped renovate and the practice moved into in 2014.

“I’ve been here for a while, but people probably don’t even realize I’ve been here this long,” she says. Sandra is grateful for all her patients sharing about their positive experiences with other community members.

“I get a lot of doctor referrals, and that has taken time to establish, but word of mouth is the best advertisement.”

Sandra says she goes to work every day because she loves being able to assist her patients.

“I don’t feel like this is a job. I like meeting people. I like helping people hear better and improve their lifestyle and enjoy life with their family and loved ones,” she explains. “It is all very rewarding. So, why stop?”

When visiting Professional Hearing Services for the first time, a patient will complete a simple process which includes history forms and a physical exam and a complete evaluation of the ears to look for certain medical conditions.

Professional Hearing Services is located east of the fairgrounds at 1231 Hudson Rd, Hillsdale. For more information or to set up an appointment, call (517) 439-1610.