What To Expect During A Hearing Test
Hearing Test
The hearing test is a one hour, in-depth assessment of your hearing by an audiologist. The purpose of this test is to determine the nature and degree of your hearing loss and the best treatment options. We use a number of different tests in this evaluation.
Pure Tone Audiogram
Earphones will be placed on your ears and you will be asked to listen for a series of beeping tones. You will be asked to respond when you hear these sounds by raising your hand or pushing a button. We will determine the softest volume that you can hear for a variety of tones from very low to very high pitched, and the results will be recorded on a graph called an audiogram. The entire test is performed in a quiet environment so that your test results may be compared to what is normal for human beings.
Tympanometry
A soft probe tip is placed at the edge of your ear canal. You will feel a slight pressure change and may hear a low-pitched hum. This test measures the movement of the eardrum and the ability of the middle ear to conduct sound to the inner ear. The entire evaluation takes about an hour. There is no pain or discomfort involved. It simply requires some concentration on your part. The test results are used to determine your diagnosis and which, if any, hearing instruments will be most effective in correcting your hearing loss. The degree of your hearing loss will determine your hearing needs. This is why your audiologist is best suited to assess your hearing loss, provide product options and make appropriate adjustments through the fitting process and in years to follow.
Hearing Aid Fitting Appointment
During this one hour appointment, the audiologist will teach you how to use and care for your new instruments. You will receive a 45-day trial period to test the instruments in your own environments. During your trial period, some fine tuning adjustments may be needed and follow-up appointments will be scheduled.
Speech Reception and Word Recognition Test
To test how well the hearing aids are working, you will be asked to repeat a series of one and two syllable words to determine how well you understand what you hear. Sometimes this test is repeated in the presence of background noise.
Aural Rehabilitation
Aural rehabilitation is the process of identifying and diagnosing a hearing loss, providing different types of therapies to clients who are Hard of Hearing, and implementing different amplification devices to aid the client’s hearing abilities.
Tinnitus Evaluation
Tinnitus is a very common problem affecting 44 million Americans. Problem tinnitus (also known as ‘ringing in the ears’) is the frequent experience of bothersome sound that other people cannot hear. An audiological evaluation is an important part of tinnitus assessment. A hearing test is almost always needed to identify any condition that involves the auditory system. Over 90% of all Tinnitus cases occur with some form of hearing loss.