Treating hearing loss starts with a hearing test. At your upcoming hearing test appointment, we’ll use a few different techniques to determine the extent of your hearing loss, the cause and the best treatment plan for your needs. Here’s a guide on what to expect.
Evaluation
To begin with, we’ll have a conversation about your hearing loss symptoms, medical history, family medical and hearing health history, lifestyle and profession so we can get a holistic understanding of your hearing needs. Knowing things such as what levels of noise you’re exposed to regularly and recent ear infections can provide a lot of insight.
Testing Your Hearing
Next, we will conduct tests to determine the extent of your hearing loss and your hearing abilities. Here are some tests we can perform. Note that we may not perform all these tests at your appointment; some of them are used in more specialized circumstances.
Pure-Tone Test
This is the most common hearing test conducted, and you’ve probably sat for one before. In this test, you’ll wear a pair of noise-canceling headphones and sit in a soundproof room. Through the headphones, a series of beeps or tones will play at various pitches and volumes, and you’ll indicate to the audiologist when you hear a sound. This test will measure the quietest volume at which you can hear each frequency.
Speech-in-Noise Test
A speech-in-noise test looks similar to the pure-tone test, as it also involves the headphones and the soundproof room. In this test, you’ll listen to the sound of recorded speech and repeat back what you hear. In the background of this audio, there will be varying levels of background noise. This will test your listening and speech processing abilities by mimicking real-life listening scenarios.
Bone Conduction Test
The bone conduction test also has some similarities with the pure-tone test, but without the headphones. Instead, you’ll wear a headband—known as a bone oscillator—which conducts sound to your inner ear via the bones in your skull, rather than the ear canal. Then, like in the pure-tone test, you will hear a series of beeps at various pitches and volumes and indicate when you hear them. This test determines whether your hearing loss is conductive or sensorineural.
Tympanometry
This test looks for earwax blockages or other anatomical problems in the outer and middle ear. It uses a small probe to push air into your ear to measure how your eardrum moves when hit by a sound wave.
What Comes Next
Once your audiologist has decided which tests will be informative about your hearing health and performed them, we’ll have the customized results needed to inform what actions should be taken to treat your hearing loss. Using this information, your audiologist will create a personalized treatment plan.
If you have any questions about your upcoming appointment or if you’re ready to schedule a hearing test, contact Audiology Associates of Redding. We’re so excited to begin your hearing loss journey with you.