Duracell Hearing Aid Battery

What Is Involved In A Hearing Test

If you suspect that you are experiencing hearing difficulties or possibly have some hearing loss, your doctor may suggest a hearing test. These are fairly standard and will not provide you discomfort at all. A hearing test is simply an evaluation to determine how sensitive your individual hearing is in both ears. It will most likely be performed by a health care professional known as an audiologist, and the instrument that they use is called an audiometer. Audiologists are the only professionals in the health industry that have the extensive educational background and training on the anatomy of the ear and the physiology of hearing. Thus they are the only health care service providers and professionals that are certified to perfom hearing tests in order to diagnose hearing loss. These tests will be used to calculate your individual sensitivity to hearing at various frequencies.

You will first be asked to sit in a booth that is soundproof and you will be given headphones to wear over your ears, or small foam earphones to place inside your ears. These will then be connected to the audiometer. The machine will then provide a series of tones at distinct frequencies and pre-set levels to each ear. The audiologist will make notes on a chart to graph the loudness of the sounds on the audiogram. You will then tell the audiologist whether or not you have heard the sound by either pressing a button or raising your hand. As the test continues, the audiologist plots on his graph the frequency on the x-axis and the loudness on the y-axis. After each frequency of normal hearing capacities are tested, the plots are joined with a line, so that the audiologist can see what frequencies you are not able to hear normal, and how extensive your hearing loss is. For a general rule, most normal hearing is held at frequencies of 20 decibels or lower, and as the hearing worsens, the number will increase.

A full and comprehensive hearing test will involve several other evaluations as well. To determine what kind of hearing loss you are experiencing, you may undergo a bone conduction hearing test. Here, a small vibrator is placed both on your forehead and behind your hear. The machine will vibrate at pre-set frequencies and you will hear beeps and tones in much the same way you did with the earphones. This will determine if your hearing loss is "conductive" meaning it is caused by issues either in the middle or outer ear, or if it is "sensorineural" meaning it is caused by cochlea problems which is the sensory organ for hearing. Sensorineural problems could also be neural meaning there are issues in either the auditory pathways and cortex of the brain, or in your auditory nerve. It is possible that you will also undergo speech tests and be instructed to repeat words that you hear. Further, a hearing test known as the tympanogram is often conducted. Here, a probe will be placed in your ear and pressure in your ear canal will be manipulated. This will tell your audiologist how your ear drum and other ear structures are functioning.

Hearing tests are very standard and painless. If it is suggested that you have one, there is no cause for panic or anxiety. The sooner you determine hearing loss through a hearing test, the sooner you can learn how to overcome any hearing loss you may have undergone.