A large number of Americans have a hearing loss that has not been diagnosed. And once they’ve been told they have hearing loss, the majority waits an average of seven years before seeking treatment. Scheduling a hearing test with a hearing healthcare professional is the first step in determining whether you are having any hearing issues that require hearing aids.
Testing for hearing loss can be overwhelming if you’ve never had a hearing test before, but the right hearing specialist will be able to put you at ease about the hearing tests before you. The first thing to know about hearing tests is that they are entirely painless and the next is that they are entirely safe for your hearing professional to perform.
For the duration of the test, you’ll sit in a booth that is entirely soundproof; allowing you to get the most out of your hearing tests. All of your results will be charted on an audiogram, which can show your hearing specialist your hearing loss on a graph.
Types of hearing tests
There are seven main types of hearing test, and your hearing professional could give you all of them, or you could have one or two to figure out the extent of your hearing loss. Let’s take a look at your options.
Pure-tone testing
Air conduction is often used with pure-tone audiometry, and it measures your ability to hear at various pitches. Your hearing care provider will hand you headphones and sit you in the booth, and then they will play a few sounds through the earphones, and if you hear something, you have to press a button to indicate you listened to the noise.
Bone conduction testing
Similar to the pure-tone testing you would have had done, this measures the response that you have to sound in your inner ear. Your hearing professional places a conductor at the back of the ear, and it’s designed to send vibrations through the bone to the inner ear. Your hearing specialist will determine whether the results compare to the pure-tone test and if they are different, it can be easier to figure out how bad your hearing loss is.
Speech tests
How is your hearing in a noisy environment? Your hearing healthcare provider can help you to figure out whether your hearing is terrible in a noisy environment and it can tell you whether you find it too hard to separate conversation from the noise around you.
Tympanometry
Measuring the response that your eardrum has to pressure is essential, and tympanometry can tell you whether there is fluid in your ear or a wax build up that contributes to hearing loss.
Acoustic reflex testing
Some patients find that muscle contractions in the middle ear contribute to hearing loss, and acoustic reflex testing can figure out where the damage is and how extensive it is.
Auditory brainstem response (ABR)
Sensorineural hearing loss is a problem for some, and your hearing specialist will attach electrodes to your head to measure brainwave activity during a noise test. Varying intensities of sound are used to see how bad the hearing loss is.
Otoacoustic emissions (OAEs)
All over your cochlea, you have tiny hairs. These are the hairs that help your hearing. If these are damaged, you lose your hearing. Your hearing care provider will put a small probe with a microphone into your ear to stimulate the cochlea to measure the response.
The hearing screening
If you are concerned about your hearing seeing your hearing healthcare professional is essential. When you book your appointment with your hearing care specialist, you will have a hearing screening that you can either pass or fail. It’s a great, cost-effective way to see whether you will need extra help with your hearing, and if you fail any of the hearing tests, your provider will determine how severe the loss is before talking through your next steps with you.
Contact us now
If you think that you are suffering from hearing loss in any sense, you need to speak to the professionals. Hear Again America can help you right now, and one of our friendly team is on standby to talk you through what your options are. There are a lot of tests out there that can help, and if you are concerned, you shouldn’t wait to ask for help. Hearing tests are a painless way to change your life for the better.
So, if you have noticed that you are turning the television up over and over again, contact Hear Again America at one of our 32 convenient locations. It is the best thing that you can do for your hearing.