Persian-speaking ENT specialists

Ears, nose and throat is one specialty in Germany, and the door says HNO, short for Hals-Nasen-Ohren-Heilkunde. The range behind that short word surprises people: hearing and the ear, balance and dizziness, the nose and sinuses, allergy, the throat and larynx and voice, snoring and breathing during sleep, and the salivary glands, all with the same doctor. This listing has no sub-categories, so ask which part of that range a practice really does. Much of it comes down to equipment.

In an emergency, or if there is a risk to life, call 112. Outside surgery hours the medical on-call service answers on 116 117, and it can also help you find an appointment. This page is only a directory and is not an emergency service.

What the Verified badge does and does not say

Verified says one thing only: a real person stands behind this profile and manages it themselves. YabInfy does not check anyone's certificates, licences, experience or competence, and the badge is not for sale.

A hearing test is partly a language test

A hearing assessment is several tests: tones through headphones (Tonaudiometrie), middle ear pressure (Tympanometrie), and a speech test where words are played for you to repeat (Sprachaudiometrie). The speech part runs in German, and research on people tested in a second language is consistent: the score comes out lower than the same ears give in a first language, so it describes your German as much as your hearing. Say beforehand that German is not your first language, then ask what the tone test showed on its own.

How a hearing aid is actually paid for

Four parties, in order: the doctor establishes the need and writes the prescription, an acoustician (Hörakustiker) fits the aid, your insurer pays a fixed amount, and anything above that is yours to pay. The fixed amount buys more than people assume: a complete working device plus the acoustician's whole service, including wearing several devices against each other over some weeks. Every acoustician must be able to offer at least one device at that covered level, beyond the statutory charge per device. So ask for both in one appointment, the covered device and the upgrade, with the price difference in writing before you decide. Then ask your insurer, not the shop, for its current amount and when it pays towards the next one.

Children: hearing comes before speech

Every newborn in Germany has had a right to a free hearing screening since 2009, normally in the first days of life at the U1 or U2 check, and hearing is looked at again in the later ones. After that, children reach an ENT practice mostly for fluid behind the eardrum dulling hearing for weeks, ears that keep getting infected, and enlarged tonsils or adenoids.

One vocabulary trap: when a German practice says Polypen about a child, it almost always means the adenoids, the pad of tissue behind the nose, not polyps inside the nose.

On order: the paediatrician writes the referral, so start there, and the ENT practice does the ear, the airway and a hearing test a small child can manage. A child late to speak is a reason to have the hearing checked, because speech work begun without knowing what the child hears is working half blind. See Pediatricians and Speech therapists.

Hay fever: a winter appointment

Testing means a skin prick test on the forearm and a blood test for specific antibodies. Practices fill up the week pollen arrives, so book months before your season, not on the first bad morning. Desensitisation (Hyposensibilisierung, or specific immunotherapy) is a course rather than a treatment: roughly three years, as injections at the practice or drops or a tablet at home. Whether it can start mid season depends on the preparation, so ask. Before agreeing, ask what it commits you to: appointments per year, years in total, and what your insurer pays. Allergy also lands with Dermatologists and, for the chest, Pulmonologists.

Dizziness: write it down before you go

Nothing you take to a dizziness appointment beats a note written at home, because the description does most of the work and is hard to reconstruct on the spot. Write down when it started, how long one episode lasts (seconds, minutes or hours, and the difference matters), what you were doing when it began, and what medication you take. Other specialties assess dizziness too, so ask whether the practice considers this theirs.

Voice and throat, if your voice is your work

Teachers, carers, call centre staff, interpreters and singers have a particular stake here, and Germany treats it as its own field: voice and children's hearing carry a separate qualification, Phoniatrie und Pädaudiologie, which covers professional speakers' voices. Not every ENT practice holds it, so ask for it by name. The examination is usually a look at the vocal folds through an endoscope. A hoarseness that does not settle is a reason to be seen rather than to keep waiting, and how long is too long is a question for the practice.

Snoring and sleep run over separate appointments

Expect a path rather than a visit. The ENT part examines the upper airway, where breathing narrows once you are asleep. Next is usually a recorder you take home for one night, measuring airflow, oxygen, pulse and snoring in your own bed. If that raises a question it cannot settle, a referral follows to a sleep laboratory for a night recorded on site, a separate appointment elsewhere with its own long waiting list. Ask at the first appointment whether the practice does the take-home recording itself, and how long its laboratory's wait is.

Insured, or paid for yourself: ask before you agree

Alongside what statutory insurance covers, practices offer services the patient pays for, called individuelle Gesundheitsleistungen, or IGeL. The rule runs in your favour: an IGeL needs a written agreement concluded before the treatment, with the expected cost in writing, and without it you are generally not obliged to pay at all. So keep a sentence ready: is this covered by my insurance or is it an IGeL, and if it is, put the price in writing first. Cover differs between insurers and changes, so confirm yours.

What to ask when you call

• Which of those areas the practice actually focuses on.
• Whether hearing tests are done on site, and whether there is a soundproof booth.
• Whether they see children, and from what age.
• Whether they do allergy testing, and run desensitisation themselves.
• YabInfy checks none of this, so ask for it yourself, and ask to see the document where it matters.

Where the practice is, and how to read this list

Almost all of this is hands-on, so your city matters here in a way it does not for work that can happen by phone. Travelling one city over for a first appointment often makes sense. The city links under the results lead to Berlin, Hamburg, Köln, Stuttgart, Obertshausen, Darmstadt, Marburg and Neuss.

Reviews are worth reading for what a patient can judge: whether the audiogram was explained or merely filed, whether a private cost was named before it happened, how a frightened child was handled. None of that is a judgement on clinical skill. Privacy runs both ways: YabInfy never shows who looked at a page, revealed a number or made contact; a review you write is public, under a name you pick.

Each profile keeps its number behind "Show contact details", and it goes to the practice, not through us. Start from Doctors and General practitioners for the way in, and Allied health for supporting therapies. The FAQ explains how this site works, and if you run a practice, add your business.