Hearing Test 101

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Hearing Test 101

Monday, July 14th, 2008    Subscribe To Our Feed

A hearing test is a method of evaluating the sensitivity and accuracy of one’s hearing. This is usually done by an audiologist using an audiometer. Audiometers are standard equipment for ENT clinics. They consist of embedded hardware with ear phones or ear plugs and are sometimes controlled by a computer to measure one’s hearing. Audiologists are the only professionals allowed to conduct such a test.Before the actual test proceeds, the audiologist will ask the person that will be undergoing the test about his or her history with hearing impairment. The questions would center on what type of typical noises the person is exposed to regularly, including how loud and how often they occur. The audiologist would aim to find possible causes of the damaged hearing. Questions about past illness should also be expected, as there are a lot of physical disorders that affect hearing loss. Some diseases or illnesses indirectly cause hearing impairment. The audiologist needs to know about these things to come up with a solution that is as accurate as possible.

Next, the audiologist would proceed to actually look inside the person’s ear. The ocular inspection involves the use of a device called the otoscope. This is a cone shaped little scope with a light at the end. It helps see into a person’s ear and check if there are anything that’s damaged.

A hearing test is conducted by having the test taker sit in a soundproof booth wearing ear phones or ear plugs that are connected to the audiometer. The audiometer then produces tones and sounds of different levels and frequencies. These sounds are transmitted to each individual ear.

The audiologist then charts the loudness of each noise on the audiogram, the graphical representation of how well the ears respond to the noises. The patient has to raise his or her hand or press a button to confirm that a sound was indeed heard. The audiologist records all of this information, which helps him or her to diagnose the level of hearing loss in the patient.

This test is vital in the creation of hearing aids. This is true because it determines what adjustments must be done in order to create the perfect hearing aid for the patient in question.