Do you have doubts about the actual hearing test?
● Its the easiest test you will ever take.
● A hearing test is quick, simple and painless
● In most case the results are instant – you will know immediately if you have a hearing problem.
● After this hearing test you will know what steps to take to improve your hearing.
● There are a number of different testing methods – most start with a brief questionnaire about the health of your ear, general health and lifestyle
● These questions determine the cause and nature of your possible hearing loss.
A Quick Look at the Ear
- The first thing a hearing professional will do, is to examine your outer ear with a special instrument called an otoscope.
- This is to examine the ear canal and eardrum – the passage that leads from the outer ear to the middle ear.Why do we look? Before starting any hearing assessment, it’s important to know what’s happening in the outer and middle portions of the ear. If there is anything blocking the ear, like a foreign body or wax, this needs to be removed before the hearing test can take place. We are also looking for clues about the health of the eardrum and middle ear. Anything that looks abnormal may have an effect on the results of the hearing assessment and should be noted before the test begins.
The Actual Hearing Test
A hearing test evaluates your hearing sensitivity and is generally performed by a audiometer, which determines sensitivity at different frequencies.
- You are placed in a sound booth with a set of headphones over your ears.
- Your headphones are connected to the audiometer.The audiometer is calibrated to measure you hearing with precision.
- The audiometer sends tones at various frequencies to one ear at a time, while the hearing professional plots the loudness (in decibles) on an audiogram.
- The test will produce results in the form of a graph. The result is referred to as your threshold.
- Your evaluation may include other subtests such as speech audiometry
- Your hearing care professional will play pre-recorded lists of words at various levels that you will need to repeat