New Patients
What to Expect as a New Patient in Mesa
Most new patients arrive at our Mesa clinic on a physician's referral, often after weeks of dizziness or a hearing concern that needs answers. Plan on a visit built around testing rather than a quick screening. A licensed Doctor of Audiology reviews your history, runs the studies your referring provider ordered, and explains what the results mean before you leave. A detailed report goes back to your physician within days.
Intake Paperwork Before Your First Appointment
Your intake paperwork is completed online through our patient portal, so there is nothing to print or fill out in the waiting room. Here is what it covers. Plan to arrive 15 minutes early in case anything still needs a signature.
Scheduled for balance testing? Do not eat for six hours beforehand, skip eye makeup and mascara, and ask your prescribing physician about stopping sedatives or vertigo medication 48 hours ahead.
What Happens During Your First Visit in Mesa
Every visit follows the same shape, whether you are here for a balance battery, a hearing evaluation, or both. Here is how the appointment runs at our Pierpont Commons office.
Check In
Arrive 15 minutes early with your photo ID and insurance card. Check-in is quick since paperwork is done.
History & Symptom Review
Your audiologist reviews your symptoms, medical history, and medications with your referring physician's notes in hand.
Diagnostic Testing
Testing runs in our sound-treated booth and vestibular suite, using the equipment your referral calls for.
Results & Next Steps
Findings are explained the same day in plain language, and a full report reaches your physician within days.
Answers for Dizziness and Hearing Loss in Mesa
Advanced balance testing and audiology care on Baseline Road, with most referrals seen within days.
Serving Mesa & the East Valley
Audiologist in Mesa, AZ
Our Mesa office on Baseline Road houses the full vestibular battery — rotational chair, posturography, VNG, vHIT, and VEMP — alongside complete diagnostic hearing care.
- Rotational chair and posturography, rare in Arizona
- Doctor of Audiology care at every step
- VA Community Care, Medicare, and AHCCCS accepted
- Referral appointments within days, sometimes same-day
- All major hearing aid brands, verified with Real Ear
- Serving Mesa and the East Valley since 2013
“Very helpful and willing to educate on what they’re doing as they go and make sure you understand, very patient highly recommend 😊 Went in very nervous, left feeling educated knowledgeable…”— Jon Howard, Google Review
AFA Balance & Hearing Institute
4838 E. Baseline Road, Suite #126, Mesa, AZ 85206
| Monday | 8:00 AM - 4:30 PM |
| Tuesday | 8:00 AM - 4:30 PM |
| Wednesday | 8:00 AM - 4:30 PM |
| Thursday | 8:00 AM - 4:30 PM |
| Friday | 8:00 AM - 4:30 PM |
| Saturday | Closed |
| Sunday | Closed |
Closed daily from 12:00 PM to 1:00 PM.
Get directionsNew Patient Questions
Answers to what new patients ask before a first appointment in Mesa: what to bring, how to prepare for vestibular testing, which medications to keep taking, and walk-in hours.
Bring a photo ID, your insurance card or cards, a written list of every medication and dose you take, and any prior hearing tests, audiograms, or imaging reports you have. If a physician referred you, bring the referral paperwork as well. Those older records tell your audiologist whether your hearing or balance function has been stable or shifting, which changes how the day's results are read.
Bring someone with you if you can. A spouse or adult child often remembers symptoms you forget to mention, and a second set of ears helps during the results discussion. Call (480) 265-8067 if you are unsure whether a record is worth digging out.
Sedatives, antihistamines, anti-nausea drugs, sleep aids, alcohol, and most vertigo medications suppress the very responses vestibular testing measures, so they usually need to stop 48 hours before your appointment. Only your prescribing physician can approve that, so ask before you skip a dose.
Keep taking your heart, blood pressure, diabetes, thyroid, and seizure medications. Those are never stopped for a balance test. Also skip food for about six hours beforehand, since caloric testing can bring on brief nausea, and come without eye makeup or mascara so the infrared goggles can track your pupils cleanly. Call (480) 265-8067 with your medication list if anything is unclear.
Most referrals are scheduled within days rather than weeks, and same-day openings come up more often than people expect. Balance and vestibular work makes up roughly 90 percent of what this clinic does, so the equipment and the appointment slots are dedicated to it instead of squeezed between retail hearing aid visits.
Once your physician's office sends the order, call (480) 265-8067 and we will find the earliest slot that fits the testing you need. A full balance battery takes longer than a hearing evaluation, so those are booked as a single extended block. You will get a confirmation by email or text before the visit.
AFA Balance & Hearing Institute keeps a fragrance-reduced clinic. Perfume, cologne, scented lotion, and hair products can set off nausea, headache, and dizziness in patients who are already here because their vestibular system is misfiring. Several of our tests deliberately provoke symptoms, and a strong scent in the room makes those results harder to read.
We ask everyone, including the family members who come along, to skip scented products on the day of the appointment. Unscented deodorant and normal hygiene are completely fine. It is a small courtesy that makes the visit easier for the person in the next chair.
Yes, for hearing aid checks, cleanings, and minor repairs. Our Mesa office runs an on-site technology lab, so a device that has gone quiet can often be sorted while you wait. Calling ahead at (480) 265-8067 is still worth doing, since scheduled appointments take priority and a quick call tells you whether the wait is five minutes or forty. You can also drop the hearing aids off and we will call when they are ready.
Diagnostic appointments work differently. Hearing evaluations, VNG, rotary chair, VEMP, posturography, and electrophysiology each need a booked slot, because every one of them requires a specific room and block of time.