Dr. Joan D'Alessandro, AuD, FAAA owns and operates Advanced Hearing and Balance Care in Paoli and Pottstown, PA. She dispenses hearing technology from GN ReSound, Sonic Innovations, Phonak and Unitron, offering hearing diagnosis, fitting and rehabilitation. Her practices also offer vestibular testing, assessment and rehabilitation. Dr. D'Alessandro is a charter member of the Pennsylvania Academy of Audiology (PAA), serving as secretary for six years and became president in 2007. To reinforce the importance of communication and to circumvent patient denial, Dr. D'Alessandro says she finds it helpful to get the patient's significant other to come to appointments. They're usually much more aware of the problem, she describes. Dr. D'Alessandro also finds that humor is a great way to lighten the atmosphere and inject some fun into the process of hearing rehabilitation. She says, If I can get them laughing, that's one notch down on the denial scale. She keeps cartoons with funny sayings in her offices and says that patients like them so much that they often bring in more to share with her and with other patients.