Everything You Need to Know About Hearing Tests

The five senses are nature’s unique gift, enabling us to perceive the world around us and interact with one another. Unfortunately, due to age, hereditary conditions or extended exposure to loud noise, some people experience a loss in their hearing. It may occur instantaneously as a result of an accident, or it can be part of a long-term process. Either way, living with hearing loss is not only frustrating, but also can lead to a fall in productivity and general quality of life.

Experts believe that the first step in combating hearing loss is diagnosing the problem. As soon as you experience hearing problems, you should try to seek professional assistance right away. Here is a complete guide for your hearing test.

Licensed Hearing Care Professional

The first step after you detect hearing issues is to get in touch with a reliable hearing care professional. There are several ways to find a good professional. There are many online websites that help you locate a licensed practitioner in your locality. You can join a community of people with similar interests or read online reviews of different doctors. For people that prefer the traditional methods, the yellow pages of your phone directory can also prove to be a great resource, or you may ask your primary care provider for a recommendation.

Medical History

Once you’ve chosen a registered hearing care professional, you will be invited for a hearing exam. This normally starts off with the physician asking about your family history to investigate whether the hearing loss can be part of a genetically inherited condition. The physician may then proceed to go through your medical history and look for previous diagnosis, risks or other cues that will help him or her treat you better.  

The Hearing Test

Despite many people being reluctant to go through it, the actual hearing test is an innocuous procedure that can turn out to be really fun, too. Most hearing exams will require you to be in a quiet, sound treated room with special headphones or earplugs to wear. This test will likely consist of pure-tone audiometry and speech audiometry.

Pure-tone audiometry tries to figure out what tones an individual is struggling to hear by asking them to listen to a variety of tones and respond to the softest sounds they hear.  Speech audiometry makes use of words, as opposed to pure tones, to test an individual’s hearing threshold.

Test Results

The test results of a hearing exam are often presented on an audiogram. The audiogram is a visual representation of the hearing test. It is a graph displaying the softest sounds an individual can hear at different pitches. The test results will be read, studied and analyzed by your hearing care professional to better understand your condition and to treat it effectively.

DIY Tests

If you’re not too sure about visiting a hearing loss professional just yet, there are some DIY hearing tests that you can do at home. While they may not be as accurate as a licensed hearing care practitioner’s diagnosis, they can prove to be a good starting point. You can search the web for online hearing tests and give them a shot – but remember: they should not be used in place of a hearing healthcare professional’s expertise!